The Dutch Volkswagen importer gives a very special one-off of the Polo color to Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Volkswagen is simply serving the Dutch consumer a new Polo Harlekin!
A year after the launch of the third generation Polo, Volkswagen came up with a very colorful Polo in 1995: the Polo Harlekin. The Polo Harlekin, which was never delivered in the Netherlands through official channels, eventually went over the counter thousands of times, but was never actually intended for production.
More than 25 years after the market introduction of the Polo Harlekin, the Dutch importer is lifting the current generation of Polo in a colorful Harlekin jacket. There are – as yet – no production plans, the car serves purely as a playful action to capitalize on Blue Monday, the third Monday in January known as ‘the most depressing day’ of the year. According to Volkswagen, the colorful Polo should provide a touch of cheerfulness, and we believe it succeeds brilliantly.
Harlekin
The colorful carriage of the original Polo Harlekin, the color mix of which varied from unit to unit, was intended to illustrate the Polo’s ‘Baukasten system’. Volkswagen used colors to indicate things like the engine and the chassis (blue), the equipment (yellow), the options (red) and the paint colors (green). Consumers responded positively to the colorful Polo and Volkswagen took the Polo Harlekin into production, initially in a small series of 1,000 units, although 3,806 units were eventually built.
Volkswagen Polo
The Polo Harlekin was always a mix of four Polos in the colors blue, red, yellow and mint green. The hood, tailgate, doors, bumpers and side mirror covers of these colorful Polos were exchanged via a fixed pattern. The bumpers, mirrors and doors of every Harlekin have the same color, the same goes for the rear doors and the rear bumper. Whoever ordered a Polo Harlekin had no influence on the basic color that you could find on the roof and the sills.
In addition to the exterior, the interior of the Polo Harlekin was also a colorful whole. The four Harlekin colors were also reflected in the interior. The steering wheel was in all cases covered with blue leather, the same applied to the gear knob.