2006 Volkswagen Polo E from UK and Ireland - Comments

I am 20 years old and this is my second VW Polo. I bought my first Polo, a 52 plate in March 2005, a wonderful little car (and it may sound stupid, but I miss it dreadfully to this day) which I part exchanged for my current Polo in July 2006. The reason for me part exhanging so soon? I did have a few problems with my last car, and was lucky enough to agree a good finance deal for a brand new Polo. It was a good opportunity, which had to be taken.

I did consider other choices, mainly the Renault Clio, but still returned to the Polo. It has just had its first servicing at 9700 miles, the only fault noted was that the rear windscreen washer had become disconnected. Otherwise, I have not had any problems whatsoever with this car - and may that continue!

This car is spacious enough in the front for a car in this category. The only problem I would note is that it would be a squash in the 3 door such as mine I believe, to squeeze three people in the back if they are tall like myself comfortably. Otherwise, the seats are comfortable.

The quality of the cabin plastics etc is high, with no squeaks and rattles. There is also plenty of handy areas to store bits and pieces in the car.

The basic radio is also of good quality, which comes with CD player and is MP3 compatible.

Fuel consumption is excellent, and it sticks to the road and is fairly nippy when overtaking.

Road noise is nothing more than you would expect for this category of car, and it is very easy to park with good visibility. The car also has good boot space.

I had mud flaps fitted to my car (which I would advise), and also had front fog lamps fitted, which is an extra for the basic model.

My one niggle on this car which remains in the back of my mind is this, and it is one that, when I do trade in this car in the future, would still make me consider another brand - that is safety. I have the basic model in the range and it comes only with two front airbags, and not even side airbags. I believe this is very poor, when other cars in the class, such as the Renault Clio are very well equipped for roughly the same price. It would not protect me in an accident as well as another car would. VW should improve their safety equipment in all cars, whether it be the basic Polo or the top of the range Polo - and that would be my only doubt about getting another one. I also believe the front headlights could be brighter when driving at night. Compared to my last Polo, they are much duller.

That aside, I have also been extremely pleased with my dealer. I have the car serviced at a different dealer from where I bought the car (it is too far away) and I can only give them 10/10. They are very helpful. I was also impressed with the dealer from where I bought the car - it was delivered with half a tank of petrol which I thought was rather good. Customer care is excellent at VW.

I would have not hesitation in recommending the Polo to friends and family.

The advert says 'the tough new Polo'. And it is true. I love my Polo, have been very impressed with it, and will keep it for years to come.

You will find that any Polo model other than the 'E' spec will have four airbags as standard. Also, ALL Polo models have ABS brakes - rare on the whole range in most other superminis. I also believe that the Polo is actually a stronger car in the first place - that means a lot in small car safety! I wouldn't drive any other small car.

"I also believe that the Polo is actually a stronger car in the first place - that means a lot in small car safety! I wouldn't drive any other small car."

I tend to believe Euro NCAP who actually test these things. According to their research, the Clio, Corsa, Yaris and Punto are all safer, and the Fiesta, C2 and Jazz just as safe.

Clunky doors and touchy feely plastics don't make a safe car.

Have been 'given' polo (Dec 2006) 1100 by Mother-in-law. Weird car, brakes seem to fade during braking (I wonder if there is enough vacuum to run the servo properly?), very lumpy (intermittently so) tickover, clicking c.v. joint on drivers side and increadably annoying parking radar on back end (which you can see) and not on front end (where no part of bonnet is visible!) oh and I sometimes forget and pull the handbrake all the way to the stop (no I'm not big and green) oh yes and wipers leave a smear right in sight line of driver (they seem to touch so perhaps need minor adjustment, but that would invalidate warranty?).I would not buy a £500 rover with these faults (especially the brakes) mother-in -law paid 10k.

The previous message is mis-leading. You cannot get a Polo 1100 for a start - yours is probably the 1200. If it is, it will be the 3 cylinder which will have a slightly rougher idle than the four cylinder. YOUR WIPERS ARE WORN - CHANGE THEM!!! OR CLEAN THEM!!!. You cannot blame the car for having parking sensors as your mum ordered them as an extra!!! They are supposed to bleep!!! The brakes do need to be checked though - normally on my new shape POLO they are fantastically strong. Judging by the review, you probably are not that kind in your driving - slow down a bit. I think the Polo is a fantastic car. To the other poster - a solid door clunk is an indication to the strength of a car - have you seen how thin the door metal is on the fiesta, yaris, etc??? It is reassuring that the Polo hasn't cut money saving costs everywhere (like cheap plastics, thin metal, etc). Go Polo.

Er, no the wipers don't need cleaning and there are no flaws in the blades (splits or cuts), I drive very sedately and I'm sorry I assumed this car was 1100 but it seems to perform about as well as the morris minor I had several years ago. Is the polo a very heavy car?

P.s. Can I disable the parking radar and where is the dash display dimmer? it's certainly not where the manual says it is and the subtle (red and blue!?) dash lights are very bad on the eyes at night.

I would never touch a German car in my life. I just prefer Japanese cars in terms of reliabilty and value for money. This is my opinion and I don't mean to cause offense to anyone!

Stop abusing exclamation marks. (a couple of comments above me). The Polo is crap, it makes me feel sick driving in it, the brakes don't work and we should just sell it and go back to driving our lovely dolomite. I just about hate every new car I've ever been in. In my experience, old cars are more reliable, we never had major problems with any of our old cars which were at least 15 years old when we bought them, but we've had the stupid polo 6 months and had it in the garage 4 times.

Well I guess that makes you biased, in your comment you said you have hated every new car you have ever driven and so that means that your review of the polo is biased. Possibly the only reason you are saying that about the polo is that you happen to have one and would say the same of any other "new" car you had.

I've a 51 plate TDi Polo which I'm looking to change, most likely for a newer Polo, but the problem I've found is that the dealers aren't that great - very expensive with just an oil change costing 'from' £160.

I've had my car serviced privately from new and apart from a problem with the electric windows, it's been totally reliable and solid. The trouble when looking for a new car is that nothing seems as solid and well built.

I have owned a 1994 Polo Sport for over 3 years now, and had some teething problems initially in the first year of ownership, but these were rectified under the terms of the three years warranty.

The car has been extremely reliable since, and the only expense I have had to incur is two new front tyres (not bad in nearly 4 years of motoring).

My polo still drives like a new car and the bodywork still has the showroom shine.

I will definitely exchange it for a GTi version next year, as I am so impressed with the car. I have had Fords, Vauxhalls, Citroens and nothing comes close to the VW Polo (My current car is my third Polo and I will stay loyal to the long term reliability and strength of the small VW car). Long live the Polo :)

I just bought a 56 plate Polo (15,000 miles) as my 2nd car (1st car was a Ford Ka and involved in an accident) and I feel SO much safer in the Polo! It feels much more secure, solid and reliable. I am in love with it at the moment, and all the features it has to offer even on the basic model!

It runs smoothly, has a spacious interior and also has suprisingly large amounts of boot space.

A lot more than I would have expected from any other small car! I don't understand how/why people don't like them, because I love my Polo and hope to have it for a very long time!

After writing the original review (top) back in 2007, unfortunately things have gone from an enjoyable ownership experience at the beginning to a very frustrating time as it approaches its 3 years old milestone in July.

I had only complimentary comments to make about the car up until it was two years old, but from there things have quickly fallen apart. In the last six months it has visited the garage on numerous occasions, suffering from a mysterious 'juddering, jolting' feeling on acceleration - imagine the feeling you get if you don't take your foot off the clutch properly when accelerating and you get the idea. This was bad enough, but after doing it after I overtook someone one day it completely lost power and I had to pull over. The exhaust emissions warning light came on, and after switching off and restarting the engine all was well again, warning light gone.

It has not lost power again, but though intermittent, it regularly judders on acceleration - particularly scary again if trying to overtake slower cars. On each occasion I have taken it to the garage who have changed coil packs, engine cylinders and to no avail. I am constantly told 'just to bring it in if it happens', but they are at a total loss as to what it is and without the 'data', they say it is difficult to find the fault. I also need the car daily, and when the garage is 30 minutes away it isn't easy, let alone to not have it for the day.

Whilst I know the garage is doing all they can, my relationship with the car has totally soured and I am counting down the days to the summer when I hope I may be able to afford a different car if I'm lucky. I have no idea if I am just unlucky, but have heard of no one else having this intermittent fault - seemingly a mystery.

When you no longer feel safe in a car, or wonder what will go wrong next, you know it's time to get rid of it - add to this numerous other 'minor' faults and for me, sadly, it certainly is time. Whilst this car has been fine in every other area, this fault overshadows its many plus points.

My 2006 Polo has a vibration on tick over and has cut out on acceleration losing power a few times. Scary stuff! The engine management light came on so I took to the garage who said it was the coil pack. Made a claim to VW as it was 2 weeks out of warranty; they happily paid up, which I was chuffed with! But when I got my car back, it isn't any better at all! It's going back tomorrow. It has 26000 miles, all driven by myself only and I drive very carefully as I have my kids in most of the time. I fear it's the beginning of the end and will start to cost me money, and would like anybody's view on my problem as to what's up with it! Thanks.

I have loved my VW polo 1.4 TDISsport till about 2 weeks ago. I now seem to have my foot to the floor in all gears to get it to move. There is no acceleration anymore. Any ideas?

To the driver of the 1.4TDI, it sounds to me like your air flow meter has possibly failed. If you take it to a dealer or a back street garage, make sure they do a full 'scope test' on it. Air flow meter faults are particularly hard to diagnose, as they rarely log the fault in the engine management system. A replacement unit should cost about £65-75.