It appears that the report from earlier this year about the refreshed VW Polo GTI getting a manual transmission option was based on valuable information, as a senior company executive has confirmed the news.
The updated VW Polo GTI will again be offered with a six-speed manual transmission when it launches later this year, confirmed Volkswagen product communications executive Moritz Silzer. “What we can say about GTI … it will have 192PS (189hp), so increased power, and it will be available not only with DSG but also with a manual transmission,” Silzer was quoted as saying by Australia’s Car Advice.
As for the Polo GTI’s engine, it is still not clear whether the 1.4-liter unit from the current model was uprated to develop 189hp or was replaced by a larger 1.8-liter engine. Silzer also hinted that torque will increase from the current 250 Nm (184 lb-ft). “We have improved a lot on every level, so torque… maybe yes,” Silzer said.
He added that VW’s decision to reintroduce the manual transmission option was due to the desires of car enthusiasts. “It’s a totally different class but the Porsche 911 GT3, the PDK, alright, it’s fine… Maybe I’m a little bit old fashioned, but with a sports car … I want to work, I want to work with the car,” the executive said.
With the introduction of the six-speed manual transmission, the VW Polo GTI should be approximately AUD$2,500 cheaper (US$2,316) in Australia, the report says, bringing the starting price down to AUD$27,000 (US$25,020) for the manual variant. That would make the VW Polo GTI just AUD$1,000 more expensive than the acclaimed Ford Fiesta ST.
By Dan Mihalascu
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