1990 Volkswagen Polo Coupe S review from UK and Ireland

Starter motor packed in, and took a battery with it, fuel pump, rotor arm, rear brake cylinder, and master cylinder (scary), hand brake cable worn by rear alloy wheel, windscreen washer switch (peculiar).

If you can cope with the spongy brakes, and god awful understeer then you've got yourself a blinder of a car. Lots of nice interior touches, such as sports seats and steering wheel, and ickle alloys.

My first car and it certainly shifts for what it is, it'll do 95mph on a flat, speedo only goes to 100, so downhill you soon run out of scale to measure. The acceleration's not bad either, will overtake on the roads nicely with a surprisingly large amount of poke around 3500 RPM, nice motorway cruiser as well.

Fuel economy when being thrashed within an inch of its life will return around 32 - 35 MPG, and being incredibly frugal through fuel crisis's it'll do 45 MPG, it's better with 4 star instead of unleaded.

Trouble is I'm 6ft 2, and with the seat fully set back and lowered fully, my head is still in the roof, and then it's a reach for the gear lever.

Insurance when I was seventeen was £1300 third party, with pass plus!!! Which is quite reasonable considering some of the quotes I recieved.