Faults:

The car started to get very noisy with quite bad vibrations, and was a very bad started. We replaced the glow plugs, fuel filter and oil filter amongst other things, but nothing solved the problem.

It is still like this unfortunately... possibly worn engine mounts?

General Comments:

The polo is probably the best car I have owned.

It is a good looking car, which hasn't dated at all in my opinion.

The interior is comfortable, cosy and modern, with rear head-rests.

It is incredibly economical, doing over 50mpg.

It's quite slow, but nippy enough around town and at higher speeds ie on the motorway. The acceleration is poor which is the downside to these cars.

Faults:

The car rattles a lot and there is a loud vibration at certain revs. It is fairly annoying, manifesting itself through the gearbox into the car. After taking the exhaust off the car the vibration disappears, but can't drive without an exhaust! This is the only niggle I've had.

General Comments:

My previous car was a Honda Prelude 2.2VTEC, which was amazing. But when running the car became too expensive, I decided to opt for a cheaper, smaller economy car. My first car was a VW Golf, so, after looking at around 20 or so Honda Civics and finding them all to have been badly neglected, the Polo seemed a good second choice.

The car gets around 33-35mpg day to day which really isn't all that impressive for a little car. The upside to this however is the car is very cheap to maintain, so long as you avoid main dealers.

Apart from having rattles and the engine being quite noisy, the car is actually pretty good, for what it is. It handles the job of being a reliable and sturdy run-a-round very well. It starts first time even on very cold mornings, and warms up quickly.

The gearbox has a very short ratio, but once up to higher gears, bags of torque from the 8 valve engine mean you don't really need to change gears at all! A lot of people mention the bodyroll, but this only occurs at back-off speeds. If you actually drive it slightly harder than you think you can, the handling sorts itself out. Very strange sensation, but quite safe.

The GLX is very comfortable and well kitted out. The seats are Recaro style, with height as well as back adjustments. You also get electric windows and mirrors which is a nice bonus. The only thing wrong about the driving position is the pedals. They are a little too close together, with obtrusive panels either side. This means the accelerator is sometimes hard to get, and there is nowhere to put your left foot after you lifted off the clutch. Very annoying!

Faults:

Immobilizer reader coil failed at about 61,000 miles - cost £160 to replace at a Volkswagen dealer.

Front top suspension mounts replaced at 80,000 miles.

Clutch and Flywheel replaced at 90,000 miles. Special "dual-mass flywheel" is supposed to be replaced along with the clutch. Total cost of clutch and flywheel was an insanely expensive £500 + VAT.

Wear on gearbox first motion shaft caused another clutch failure at 110,000 miles.

Rear wheel bearings seem to need replacing at every MOT test! Front wheel bearings not fairing much better.

General Comments:

This car is dog slow in anything above 2nd gear.

Eats front brake disks and pads for breakfast.

Excellent, reliable engine - 122,000 miles and still going strong without smoking at all. This is only let down by suspect build quality of the rest of the car.

Stupid insurance costs (group 6) for a car that does 0-60 in however long it takes you to find a steep hill to go down... with the wind behind you... (just kidding, it's probably something like 16 seconds).

They still look fairly cool even after 7 years and 2 newer shapes.

High residual values. Make no mistake about it, these cars are overvalued.