Here it is, the Volkswagen Polo Facelift in Malaysia. But don't head to the showrooms yet, because it will only be launched later this year. These pics are from VW's factory in Pekan, Pahang, which hosted a werkstour plant visit for the media yesterday. No more than a preview then.
Like before, Pekan will assemble the Polo with knocked down packs from India, where the mid-life facelifted Polo GP made its debut in July 2014. It's a pretty mild makeover, as there's nothing broke about the Mk5.
The front lower bumper sees the most obvious change; now thicker at the edges and with fog lamps sitting on the upper ends. A Passat-style chrome strip underlines the said lamps and number plate. The supermini looks more matured now, we think.
The grille now has one chrome slat on the underside, compared to two in the middle previously. The headlamps flanking it are still of the reflector type, but the black housing on the facelift looks better.
Interestingly, we don't get the new "two-eye" headlamps seen on the Indian-market Polo facelift, which are similar to those on our Euro-spec pre-facelift 1.2 TSI.
We also don't get the new "TOSA" alloys, and continue with the familiar "Riverside" wheels, but the tyres are now locally sourced from Goodyear, not India's Apollo. A reprofiled rear bumper (now with reflectors on the bottom edges) and new tail lamp graphics round up the changes.
Click to enlarge
Inside, from what we can see, the dashboard is similar to the Indian-market Polo FL, but without the two-tone colour scheme. The new Golf Mk7-style steering wheel - which has a slightly flattened bottom, leather wrap, gloss black/chrome trim and buttons on both sides - is a big upgrade.
Another obvious new element is silver trim for the centre stack. The fabric seats sport a dotted pattern here that replaces the current pinstripe motif. A more premium look, overall.
As you can probably tell from our DIY observations above, no details were shared by VGM, but we know that the Polo facelift will debut later this year, probably around mid-year. As is the norm, the outgoing pre-FL Polo has been given a promo boost to pave the way - VGM's "Polo Goes Zero" campaign is offering buyers zero interest and zero downpayment, with monthly instalments from RM999 for seven years.
Read our review of the locally-assembled Volkswagen Polo 1.6 MPI.
Indian-market VW Polo Facelift
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