My lad has telephoned my from uni today and sort of hinted that he is after a car for the summer , as some will know on here i have been after a vw beetle for him and will still go down that route if it is the right one at the right price . However he sort of hinted he would lke something a bit more modern and asked what i thought of vw polo's from about 97 to 203 ish and i had to confess - not a lot . Can anyone tell me about their experiences with them please , just to give me a rough idea of the reliability etc. we did have a polo estate years ago but Lou trashed it into a bridge after two month's
I have a 2003 Polo 1.4 Tdi, admittedly it is low mileage as it will be 10 years old in October and has around 80k miles on it. No problems with it what so ever ... hence why I still have it nearly 10 years on! Had a panic last year when the ABS light came on (eek) but it was the fuse and cost me about £5 for the local independent garage to change it. But other than that it hasn't had anywork that I would not call out of the ordinary ... i.e. brakes work, tyres, bushings on suspension (blasted pot holes don't help). Only criticism is it doesn't appear to clean itself and so it is more grey at the moment that blue but ho hum!
Indeed ... I have an 8 year old who would happily wash it for me, but the road is too busy to let her do it and she would be wetter than the car!
We've got a 2000 Mk 4 1.4 and it's fine. Steering a bit over served, and the valve gear makes a terrible racket when the engine's cold, but otherwise fine.
We have a Fabia Estate from 2000, probably similar to the Polo, 1.4 litre 3 pot petrol. The diesel is more economical, but a higher insurance group. The main weak spot is the front springs - we have changed them twice now (60k and 120k miles, now at 130k), so check carefully. We had a water pump go at around 100k miles as well and a wheel bearing around 125k). Otherwise just the usual servicing, tyres, brakes etc. Do check the engine size and specification carefully as the insurance groups change a lot with different engines and trim levels - important for a young lad.
As sporty as they are, do not be tempted by a mk4 Polo 16v. In my experience they are more trouble than they are worth.
I got a phone call from my collegue at work telling me she had broken down a couple of miles down the road, in her 5 year old Polo. I went to her aid, the engine had just quietly shut down, and she had rolled to a standstill. I checked everything I could think of. No amount of cranking would make it start, eventually it was transported to the local VW agent, who found the cam belt broken....................the rest of the story...........a new engine!! This was in Germany, and they would not even entertain repairing the old unit as its "not economical" Moral of the story, its a cheap? car with a cam belt, if you go down this road, have it changed imediately you purchase the car. Personally I would not buy a car with a cam belt. Tony
My day to day car is a BMW E36 estate, 1999 model, had it since new. This model came out in the early 1990's fitted with a cam belt. However, BMW changed back to good old chain drive with a nice tensioner a couple of years later. As an ex BMW employee I know that there must have been a sound reason to change the design! All BMW's are chain drive to my knowledge. Like you said, " a large proportion of cars have cam belts," like I said "cheap!" I am certain that my car will go to the knackers yard eventually with the original chain, as quiet as ever!! Tony
I am very biased on this as we both have polo's and I love them! Stacy's is a 2000 1.4 and is a good car but with the mk5's they do sometimes suffer from pedal box's splitting basically the pedal goes to the floor but it is easily sorted with a bit of welding
I recently chopped my 96 1.4 16v in for a Mazda 6 Estate.... and miss the Polo desperately! I had it for ten years, took it from 82k to 155k. In that time I had a broken Lambda sensor, a broken thermostat as the major problems. Exhaust was £45 for front and back sections (each) and tyres were about the same per corner. Ultimately, without much maintenance I decided it was time to get rid. by that time the rear wash wipe had failed, there was a coolant leak, oil leak and it was time for another cam belt change... but it ran very well regardless!! did about 38mpg on a run too. There are common rust spots in the arches and the cills, which mine had. the small bumper models (not 16v or SE's) of the age also suffered with rust on the valence. It was almost mm match for the Mk 1 Golf... with a little tinkering i reckon it would handle like one too! We part ex'd it on the basis it would be scrapped, yet when we took the Mazda back to get the coolant leak in that fixed, the garage told is the apprentice had taken it on as a project!
I wish i coould raise the cash to have a tdi polo as a daily Cheaper insurance than a lot of small cars,dirt cheap tax and they are very very frugal on juice if you dont nail them
