A brief dive into recent memory serves up the Lego-themed Golf Harlequin on the April 2018 cover, but the forebear of frivolity that is the Polo Harlekin has never had its moment of fame. Until now. A quick housekeeping note - Harlekin and Harlequin are the same thing. One is just the German version. We’ll let you figure out which is which.
But what exactly is a Harlekin? There is an unsubstantiated connection suggesting that VW tapped into a clever Doyle Dane Bernbach ad from the 60s showing a Beetle sedan in a variety of colours to celebrate the introduction of the third-generation Polo. Another referenced how Volkswagen used different color blocks for ordering a new 6N model and how they communicated this new idea to the public by way of the 4-hued hatchback.
Regardless of how it came to be, the Polo Harlekin turned out to be far more popular than VW initially anticipated. Ten were built in 1994 and a further ten in 1995, used by dealers to promote the “building block” concept for ordering the new Polo. The first twenty cars were all identical in having a blue C-pillar and yellow roof, amber corner lights and standard bumpers. But interest went far beyond those rolling brochures. Public captivation surged at the
