2013 Polo Bluemotion 1.2 TDI

This Polo is the only one of its kind in the US, to the best of my knowledge. It is the pinnacle of diesel technology for VW.

I went to Spain to find it. Once bought, I had it shipped over here. The shipping cost more that the car did, by quite a bit. I have driven it around a bit, and it is quite the sweetheart! It weighs 1000kg. All the parking scratches on the rear facia disappeared after I had the facia repainted.
I had the UK's leading chip tuner give my ECU the "Performance" reflash. "Performance" is sort of a funny description for a 1200cc car. This car isn't fast - it pumps out around 80 hp here at 6000', supposed to make 95 peak at something closer to sea level.

I also sourced a mph instrument panel and made that work. The outside temperature gauge reads in Farenheit, and the odometer now reads miles.
For me, it is "On to the next car!", (maybe 1.4 Polo) so someone else has a chance to own the only Polo TDI in the country.

I have $30K into this project, and would like to make my money back or please make me an offer that is close. I can't keep doing this if I lose money on each of them!
The car is titled in Montana and is insured, so all the tough work is already done for you, and that tough work isn't counted in the $30K. Please contact me for questions, thanks!

Can someone tell me please how to post pictures here?? These thumbnails are really dumb!

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/thumbs/DSC_0929_1_.JPG
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http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/thumbs/DSC_0934_1_.JPG

Do you have it listed on Craigslist, Autotrader, or some other site? Just copy and paste the link to that ad in here. We can see the pics that way.

Mike -

Brilliant idea! Here's the Samba Post: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2204288

Does this clickable pic work?


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Rex -

Brilliant, how did you do that??

- Rob

Cool Car! Do you have the import docs (HS7, EPA-3520 & CBP 7501)?

wow, what a car.... That should be the kind most americans drive.....

Borntofli -

Exactly! A diesel that doesn't smoke or stink. I run it in my garage all the time, and, nothing.

1TDI -

It won't pass EPA, but it passes TUV handsomely.

Very cool car. Grey market for sure. Those interested best be sure you can register it in your state.

I saw a new-ish Lupo the other day here in Ontario Canada. I flagged the owner down and found out they had recently moved from Mexico. Wasn`t a TDI but cool nonetheless.

Mogly -

It's easy enough to transfer my Montana title to most any state of the Union. I register all my cars in MT - no sales tax or emissions!

robert5995 said:

Rex -

Brilliant, how did you do that??

- Rob

Click to expand...

Too many years on car forums.

It’s a matter of determining the url for the medium & full size images, then using the image tag inside the url tag blah blah blah

There should be a good “how-to” somewhere.

Taking offers on the only Polo Bluemotion 1.2 TDI in the Country. This car is virtually new, and could easily be yours!

I would love that car. Problem is, for your asking price, I could buy a PAIR of larger CR Golfs with the same technology and a fourth cylinder AND I could skip the worry and hassle of licensing, insuring, registering, and sourcing service parts.

If I were crazy wealthy, along with the AWD TDI Transporter that the guy wants as much for as a new AWD Sprinter, I would gladly buy your Polo. But I am a strange duck. And I certainly cannot afford it.

But seriously, I totally would... Good luck with your sale, really nifty little car!

Oilhammer -

I have PM'd you.

All - How about $15K, or best offer?

- Rob

How did you even get the car in the country and register it? In Canada the car has to be 15 years or older if it's not imported from the US...for you guys in the US I understand the car must be something like 25 years old... So how?

2.2 -


How I got it here comes under the heading of a trade secret - if you buy the car, I will tell you everything. Registering it was the easy part, there are firms in Montana that specialize in titling imported cars of all types. It is definitely gray market, but visually passes for a Golf, more so after I bought Golf lettering for the hatch. If you take it to Canada, it will be 15 years old in 2028, right around the corner!


- Rob

Aha, I wish. It is a nice car but I can't get it into Canada anyways!

2.2 -
TUV approval isn't enough to get into Canada? Exactly what is required to get a car into Canada?
You could also mainain the current Montana registration if you live in Canada - just drive it over the border and all is good. I live in Colorado and maintain the Montana registration. If there is a hole in this logic let me know, I'm no expert on importation to Canada!
-Rob

Robert,thank you for being honest when you said that the car is not fast but I think it would contribute to your selling efforts by naming the car strong points since this is a car most Americans have never driven. ej. maybe the Polo averages higher MPG's than some of our American tdi versions and/or better reliabilty than the CR cars? ....good luck on the sale !!

MZ -

Thank you for calling me out as not being a good salesman.

Driving around town is great with the Polo. It is shorter and narrower than almost every car on the road, and weighs 1000 kg., so "nimble" is the word. It is easy to park also, for the above reasons. It is also great on the highway, where you can hardly hear the engine at 70. It gets over 40 mpg, but not 60-70mpg. There is a price to pay for a car that doesn't pollute, doesn't smell bad or smoke, and that price is sub-optimal mileage.

It features start/stop for just a bit better mileage. It has manual seats and no seat heaters. The Polo is the "stripper car" of the VW lineup, just what I wanted. No human hands have touched the spare tire. It was a one-owner car, and he would put his kid in the car seat in the back and drive to work in Barcelona. He had four cars and one needed to go, the Polo. Something about looking under the hood and seeing three "intake runners" molded into the engine cover warms my heart.

If not polluting isn't your thing and performance is, then there are many things to do. The diesel particulate filter can be swapped out for a straight downpipe, then the ECU needs to be reprogrammed to NOT run rich periodically, which burns out all the particulates in the DPF. You can also do EGR block-off and again reprogram the ECU for this mod. At this point, I don't see why this lovely thing won't get 60-70 mpg. Ebay.uk is your friend, as are the UK-based tuning houses.

The above mods are pretty much what I did to my '02 ALH-engined Golf along with lots of other airflow resistance reduction changes. The end result is that my '02 is fast as stink (for me, at least) and gets 40+ grinding around town and up and down my canyon road, substantially better on the open road. Of course, it smokes just a bit and doesn't smell that great in my garage!

It is your choice. People in the UK have all this stuff figured out to make the Polo 1.2 sing. Please post questions here or contact me off-line for more information, thanks!

robert - here's what's required. https://www.riv.ca/HelpFAQs.aspx#otherUS

Dandy -
Well, I did my best to read that document, but I fell asleep halfway through, like what occurs with most government document reading. Title, registration, 17-digit VIN, I have all that. The rest of the stuff you will have to cover if you want this car.

- Rob

"I have $30K into this project"

I have to give you an A+++ for your efforts!!! During the time I have been a member of TDIClub (around 17 years) I have never seen somebody put this much effort and monetary resources to bring one of the smallest TDIs (yes there is the Lupo too) to the country that loves the biggest cars in the world, the USA.

I can only imagine if you attempted to bring a 2013 Passat Wagon TDI to the US in the same way, what would that cost? $40K at a minimum? And suppose you can successfully register it in one of the 50 states, who would be willing to pay this much ($40K or perhaps more) when you can buy a 2005 Passat Wagon TDI (rust free) and do EVERYTHING needed to make it mechanically sound (BSM, camshaft, coolant system, convert to manual transmission, etc.) and your TOTAL bill will be below $15K (my estimation).

Hi, Tikal -

. . . when you can buy a 2005 Passat Wagon TDI (rust free) . . . and your TOTAL bill will be below $15K (my estimation).

Answer: someone that wants a one-of-a-kind car that no one else has that one can only touch during European vacations. The Polo is now for sale for less than your rebuilt '05 Passat at $12K.

- Rob

For fellow canucks, if it's newer than 15y/o, and it's not on the RIV list, it's not getting (legally) registered up here in the great white north.

I would hazard a guess that if noticed by someone at the EPA or a savvy cop with an axe to grind, it would get confiscated and crushed in the USA as well.

Surely no insurance company would touch this? How do you insure it in the US?

Bro -

I didn't have a problem, Progressive insures it now. If I sell you the car, your first call would be to them for insurance. "You did it for him . . ."

Windex -

I am guessing that a rebellious nature isn't a big part of your personality. "The EPA" will never see the car, they are too busy opening coal mines and that kind of thing. "A savvy cop", well, I have taken it to VW dealers and no one bats an eye. Driving around town, no one driving a TDI, for example, has ever looked at me like, "Whazzat thing, dude?" The savvy cop would have to have a real sharp eye to know that anything is different about this car. The word, "Polo" isn't on the car, not on the registration, not on the insurance card. A cop would have to be really savvy to know something isn't quite right. I don't believe this cop exists. I will happily take that risk.

- Rob

There is no way it would pass inspection here. The OBD test's first thing is to check the VIN against the database. It will immediately flag that as soon as it tries to decipher the VIN, and the VIN is also resident inside the ECU so it isn't like you could fool it.

Now the EPA and the DOT certainly have bigger fish to fry, but again it is technically not "legal" and whatever back door methods you went through to get it here, which clearly must be on the shady side as you are not very forthcoming with that information PLUS if it was so easy EVERYONE would be doing it. Because the current North American Volkswagen lineup SUCKS. It was barely good before Dieselgate in comparison to what Europe gets.

I know there are some other gray market cars, including Volkswagens, running around here. There is a Polo or Derby or something (little sedan) running around my neck of the woods. I have seen it a handful of times, and it has a Missouri plate... but for all I know it is from something else. A customer of mine recently tried to get a Euro spec car that was a model also sold here just under a different model name imported and found it to be essentially impossible to do legally, at any cost. EOBD vs. OBD2, DOT and crash standards slightly different (windshield, bumpers) and its engine was not a code sold here at all.

If it were that easy, I'd have about 10 non-US spec Volkswagens in my driveway already.

I agree with Windex and oil hammer. It's a really cool car and I'd love to have something like that... But for the money required to own it and the risk someone would be taking (because let's face it, it's not legally registered and can get flagged in some way, shape, or form) is not worth the reward

I do wish you luck with finding an owner but it will be very tough given the circumstances

Hammer -
Thanks for your post. There is an easy solution - register the car in Montana. I have three cars registered there - no sales tax when you buy a car and send them your title to get a MT one, and no emissions inspections. I see lots of cars of various types on the road with MT plates.
I never have gone to MT, it can all be done by email and snail mail. I live in Colorado.
2.2 -
Someone will see the risk/reward differently, let's hope!
- Rob