Faults:
In the time we have owned the car, two items have failed.
The first was a fault with the front suspension. The track road end failed and had to be replaced. At the same time, the dealer replaced the front bushes.
The second was a fault with one of the electric windows. The clutch that controlled the passenger window from the driver side failed, and had to be replaced.
General Comments:
We bought this car to replace a Golf GTI when Mum retired and needed her car less.
Whilst the performance is not earth shattering, it's quick enough, and quite punchy in the mid range.
The main benefit to this car has been the running costs. It seems to run on thin air. We recently drove the car to York and back to the Midlands (total mileage 282), and the fuel needle did not budge! Road tax costs £30 a year, and the servicing for the first three years was covered by a £250 service pack. Beyond that, the Volkswagen dealer offered another service pack for about £340, and this includes the MOT.
There was an issue regarding the service schedule; the supplying dealer set the car to Longlife when the plan was set to Time and distance. Watch this, as they made the same mistake on my car too. Be sure you tell the dealer which schedule you want your car set to, as VW customer services will not allow changes. In fact, the downside of the car has been the Customer Service. We have had problems with the original dealer, the suspension fault was reported to them, their technician told us the tyre pressures were low. Thankfully we took the car to another dealer, who identified the problem and rectified it.
The cabin is spacious, and we frequently use the car as a family runaround.
I think the seats could do with a bit more support, but Mum finds it very comfortable.
The Polo has served its purpose well, it requires little input from us between services, and has given us very little trouble.
22nd Jan 2008, 09:32
I recently purchased a Polo 1.2SE registered in March 2007 and had similar problems to yourself. The temperature coolant warning light came on, then went off and came back on again, sometimes even when starting up on a morning. The dealer changed the Coolant Levels and said it was now fine. Well it wasn't. Back in it went, they couldn't find anything wrong, I told them that quite clearly there was and I was not taking it back until the problem was rectified. After further tests it was discovered there was a fault in the dash panel, which was replaced. Two weeks later and it fingers crossed all seems OK. You could try mentioning this to them, it's worth a go.