History
As of 2009, there have been five separate generations of the Polo, usually identified by a "Series" or "Mark" number.
Some generations were facelifted mid way through production, with the updated versions known unofficially by an addition of the letter F to the mark number, e.g. Mark IIF. Some press and enthusiasts consider the facelifts to be separate models and hence have used the unofficial designations Polo Mark 1 to Mark 7 for previous generations. Each model of Polo is also identified by a two- or three-character Volkswagen Group Typ number. Official VW Polo history describes Mark I to Mark IV using either Roman numerals or Arabic numerals, with facelifted variants known as "Phase II" models.
The body style has been varied through the life of the car, originally as a hatchback which derived from the Audi 50. A saloon version was marketed as the Volkswagen Derby.
Volkswagen vehicles built off different platforms have carried the Polo name plate. For example the Volkswagen Polo Playa hatchback sold in Southern Africa in the late 1990s was a rebadged SEAT Ibiza which has a different body shell from the Mark III Polo sold in Europe at the same time. The current saloon is only available in China, Latin America and South Africa and other Southern Africa countries.
Read more about this topic: Volkswagen Polo
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world. The past is thus as real as the present.”
—Charlie Dunbar Broad (1887–1971)
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)