Firm favourite amongst a buyer group as diverse as students and once-a-week-to-the-shops silver-haired grannies, Polo emerges with engines that offer anything from 55PS to 100PS, in four trim options in the basic to the Sport (this provides uprated suspension) as well as in three and five-door body shells.

So there’s something for everybody. Coming for 2005 may be the Dune, a curious little 4×4 variant that is aimed at the leisure market Of the existing models the very best fun may be the 1.9 diesel Sport, a clear , crisp handler which seems to retain the excellent quality of ride common to all Polos.

Volkswagen has were able to keep the Polo looking and feeling contemporary, and also the creation of the Dune shows that there might be further derivatives still in the future – rumours exist of the coupe-convertible version being developed, to compete from the Peugeot 206CC and the new Tigra.