2002 Volkswagen Polo E from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Disappointing reliability

Faults:

Rear screen wash pipe has had to be refitted twice.

Coil blew twice (once at 15,000 again at 28,000). Coil 'mod kit' fitted at 29,000 after complaining to dealer.

Car now feels like its misfiring, but fault is intermittent. Dealer says nothing wrong as engine management panel not reporting anything.

General Comments:

The service from the dealer up till now has been good, but my confidence in this car has been shattered.

I'm now seriously considering trading it in, which is disappointing, as I bought Volkswagen under the impression that the cars were reliable and built to last.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 14th August, 2005

2002 Volkswagen Polo S 1.4 TDI from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Nice car, shame about the reliability

Faults:

Picked the car up from the dealer and found the car manual was missing. Took multiple phone calls and 2-3 months waiting time to get a replacement.

The windscreen wiper hits the side when it is on its fastest setting - very irritating. I mentioned this to the dealer at the 10k service, but they didn't fix it. Still happens.

Two weeks after the 40k service the front tires needed to be replaced, they had worn unevenly.

Four weeks after the 40k service a warning light came on and the indicators stopped making the "clicking" noise when being used. Dealer replaced a brake switch which solved the warning light problem. Had to order a spare part to fix indicators.

The front passenger seat has developed an annoying squeak.

Spare part arrived, back to the dealer. Still didn't fix the indicator problem. As well as no clicking when I use the indicators, there is also no warning buzzer when e.g. headlights are left on.

This time dealer has to order in a new dash control unit.

Meanwhile, the boot no longer works with the central locking. It has to be opened with the key every time.

Also, the drivers window isn't opening as it is supposed to. Maybe these last 2 problems are also related to the dash control unit, but I haven't been back to dealer to find out yet.

General Comments:

I love driving the car- it is quick and the fuel economy is great.

However, all the problems I've had with it mean that I will not be buying another Volkswagen and I am seriously considering selling it very soon.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 16th August, 2004

8th Oct 2007, 08:31

My comment is, sell it now... before its too late and you get worse problems than what you already had!!

Mine started having loss of power...4 months later, they still couldn't find a solution... so sold it for peanuts now... and it lasted me less than 5 years. The problem it had should have put on a warning light for me, but not even the light came on, I just noticed the loss of power while trying to over take a car in front of me one day, and no matter what my Polo just couldn't give me more power to over take.

Be careful... am off to a Honda dealer now...

2002 Volkswagen Polo S 1.4 TDI from UK and Ireland

Faults:

As the car was second hand it needed a few things doing to it to make it A1. In general, though, the car is nice to drive, has plenty of mid-range pull and is comfortable.

However... my biggest bugbear is the fuel consumption. The figures quoted for this car indicate that it should return approx 49mpg around town and 68mpg on an open road. The combined figure is 61mpg. Most of my driving is on the motorway so I expected it to return late fifties, early sixties. I have to date only managed a best of 51mpg (worked out when refilling the tank and calculating the MPG). I am, to say the least, disappointed with these figures.

I've come to the conclusion that if you trundle around and never allow the turbo to really cut-in then higher MPG figures are probably possible, but under normal everyday driving VW's figures are unrealistic.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 9th February, 2004

14th Feb 2004, 12:00

I agree. I've got a 2000 W reg polo 1.9 Tdi and the combined fuel figure is 55mpg, but the best I've managed so far is 45 and when I filled up the other day I was only averaging 40!