[11] The Polo R WRC was officially unveiled in May 2011, and spent the next eighteen months in testing, with two-time World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz, Sébastien Ogier—who was recruited to the team from the Citroën World Rally Team at the end of the 2011 season—and Volkswagen's testing and development driver Dieter Depping carrying out development in Norway, Finland, Germany, Spain and Mexico to simulate the conditions the car would encounter in competition.

[14] Further testing also took place in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur to prepare the cars for the unique snow and tarmac roads used in the Monte Carlo Rally,[15] the first event of the 2013 season.

Parallel to this, Volkswagen Motorsport entered two Škoda Fabias built to Super 2000 specifications in twelve rounds of the 2012 season—and a third car in the 2012 Rallye Deutschland—to develop experience in running a World Rally Championship team.

[25] Following concerns that the cost of moving to a new specification for the 2014 season would drive Ford and Citroën out of the category, Volkswagen successfully lobbied to keep the current car spec for another year.

However, a mistake on the first leg forced him into retirement, and while he re-entered the following day under the Rally-2 regulations, doing so came with an automatic five-minute time penalty and Ogier finished seventeenth overall.

[33] At the end of the season, the Polo R WRC had won ten of the thirteen rallies it entered, finished on the podium eight more times, and secured both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' championships at the first attempt.

With Mikkelsen finishing third overall—behind the Hyundai i20 WRCs of Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo—the Polo R WRC's record-breaking run came to an end after twelve rounds.

[9][40] Ogier had the opportunity to secure his second consecutive drivers' title in France, but lost nine minutes on the first day of the event with a faulty gear selector and a time penalty.

[53] Ogier was unable to recover and ultimately finished eleventh, allowing Latvala to take a full twenty-five points out of his championship lead with another win—the first of his career on tarmac—while Mikkelsen matched his career-best result of second place.

Running first on the road, he was unhindered by thick dust that threatened to obscure the vision of his rivals, and he took a comfortable victory and his second consecutive World Championship.

Ogier won after an early battle with nine-time World Champion Sébastien Loeb—whose one-off guest appearance in a Citroën DS3 WRC came to an abrupt end when he crashed out on the second leg of the event—and recorded another win in Sweden despite losing several minutes in a spin and having to reclaim the rally lead from Mikkelsen.

Ogier continued his form, winning the next two events in Italy and Poland, but faced stiff competition from Hyundai's Hayden Paddon and M-Sport driver Ott Tänak.

After writing his 2015 title bid off following the Rally Poland, Latvala took his second win of the season in Finland—his third on the event, matching compatriot Juha Kankkunen's record—ahead of Ogier while Mikkelsen retired.

[66] Latvala crashed out on the opening leg of the rally and after restarting the next day, went on to finish fiftieth overall and was classified as the final driver (9th) eligible to score manufacturer points.

[72] Andreas Mikkelsen remained in the third Polo R, but changed his co-driver for the season, enlisting Anders Jæger as Ola Fløene joined Mads Østberg at M-Sport.

[75] The Volkswagens struggled to match the pace of Hyundai's Thierry Neuville in Sardegna, where the loose surface meant that the drivers lost time road-sweeping, clearing away the top layer of the roads and allowing faster cars a cleaner line to follow.

[78] Ogier claimed his first win since the Rally of Sweden at the next round in Germany, finishing ahead of the Hyundais of Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville, with Mikkelsen fourth.

[83] The final round of the season took place in Australia and saw Mikkelsen claim his third rally win ahead of Ogier and Thierry Neuville, while Latvala finished ninth overall after clipping a guardrail on the opening stage and breaking his suspension.

[10] Volkswagen later announced plans to maintain a presence in the sport, adopting a customer-oriented approach by developing a Polo rally car built to Group R5 specifications.

[88] Although the Polo R WRC was retired from the World Rally Championship at the end of the 2016 season, Volkswagen made the car available to privateer entries on a limited basis starting in 2017.

[88] Some of the chassis built in 2013 and 2014 were rebuilt and used by the factory-supported PSRX Volkswagen Sweden team in the FIA World Rallycross Championship; Petter Solberg's 2018 car was first used by Sébastien Ogier at the 2013 Rally Catalunya.