The Harlequin has returned

[OomStu_ZA]

Seems VW cant resist making these Smarty cars
https://www.cars.co.za/motoring_news/vw ... our/50514/

[SRGTD]

I can remember the original Polo Harlequin from the mid 1990’s being launched. There weren’t many produced, so seeing one on the road was a bit of a rarity.

Maybe a car for those who don’t think VW is adventurous enough with the paint colours they currently offer on the Polo .

[ho8882000]

I think someone in my neighborhood got a MK3 Polo Harlequin, I see that car driving around my neighborhood quite often.

[monkeyhanger]

Just makes me think of a careless owner who's visited the scrapyard to replace most of their body panels with whatever was there at the time.

[stevereeves]

My take on seeing a car with one very obvious non-matching panel is either A) it's all the breaker had and they plan getting it painted up at their convenience or B) they know what a palava it can be acheiving a perfect colour match so just aren't going to bother. Seem to recall reading one manufacturer, not VW, that produced harlequin-cars in addition to a 'fun, funky' colour scheme did it to reduce stocks of coloured panels....

[Andy Beats]

Seem to recall reading one manufacturer, not VW, that produced harlequin-cars in addition to a 'fun, funky' colour scheme did it to reduce stocks of coloured panels....

I don't think manufacturers stock coloured panels, do they?
Wouldn't make any sense, better to keep bare stock and just paint to order.

[Dark_cze]

I don't think manufacturers stock coloured panels, do they?
Wouldn't make any sense, better to keep bare stock and just paint to order.

Last time I visited Skoda plant in Mlada Boleslav (about 10 years ago, while making octavia mk2 facelift) they made all panels then asemble whole car out of them and then painted it. I haven't seen any painted parts laying around.

[Andy Beats]

Last time I visited Skoda plant in Mlada Boleslav (about 10 years ago, while making octavia mk2 facelift) they made all panels then asemble whole car out of them and then painted it. I haven't seen any painted parts laying around.

Well that obviously applies to whole cars, we all know that.
But the implication was someone decided to do a harlequin type car because they had lots of already painted panels lying around, presumably in their parts warehouse.
Like their parts manager walked around and said "we've got a a lot of blue and green doors sitting here.....let's do something"
I don't think that happens at all, I don't think factories pre-paint their spare panels.

[SRGTD]

The production and assembly process for the Harlequin would be interesting to see.

I’m assuming that the cars would go through the production / build process and be painted in a single colour in the normal way, and then once the cars have been fully built, doors, bonnet, tailgate, wings and bumpers are removed and re-attached to different cars that are getting the Harlequin treatment. If this is the process, then presumably a Harlequin model would be more expensive than a standard Polo, because of the extra (manual) process involved in swapping body panels.

Would I pay extra for a Harlequin? Probably not; at my time of life I think I’d find it a little embarrassing driving a multi coloured car around .

[stevereeves]

My take on seeing a car with one very obvious non-matching panel is either A) it's all the breaker had and they plan getting it painted up at their convenience or B) they know what a palava it can be acheiving a perfect colour match so just aren't going to bother. Seem to recall reading one manufacturer, not VW, that produced harlequin-cars in addition to a 'fun, funky' colour scheme did it to reduce stocks of coloured panels....

Just what I read, may have been a Fiat, not the colour scheme for me though....

[vc-10]

Was it a little yellow Fiat with a red passenger door?

[monkeyhanger]

Was it a little yellow Fiat with a red passenger door?

...and a "honk if you want a blowjob" sticker on the rear bumper?

[stevereeves]

Know what you guys are referring to but no, it was defo a harlequin colour option, easy better than being a bus user or traveller ....

[Andy Beats]

There were figures released just the other day about car colours bought, a 5year old could guess the most popular ones.
But the interesting thing is manufacturers do seem to be swinging towards more diverse colour palettes.
Kia or Hyundai do one colour on their sporty version of their saloon I flipping love, hard to describe but it's like a flat (non-metallic) powder blue that almost verges into lilac.
That with the big wheels and red calipers is bloody gorgeous IMO

hyundai_i30n_05.jpg (333.57 KiB) Viewed 1089 times

[SRGTD]

There were figures released just the other day about car colours bought, a 5year old could guess the most popular ones.
But the interesting thing is manufacturers do seem to be swinging towards more diverse colour palettes.
Kia or Hyundai do one colour on their sporty version of their saloon I flipping love, hard to describe but it's like a flat (non-metallic) powder blue that almost verges into lilac.
That with the big wheels and red calipers is bloody gorgeous IMO

I think that colour is called Performance Blue and it’s the signature colour of Hyundai’s ‘hot’ i30N. I really like it too.