1998 Volkswagen Polo CL review from UK and Ireland

Fuel pump, really bad at starting, jerky acceleration, noisy, overheats, engine warning light is on all the time.

Oil light comes on although it is full of oil, and there is no evidence of a leak - smoky and generally crap. I want my old Polo back!

Well, where to start with this white elephant of a car? I had previously owned a N reg Polo 1.4 CL, which was a great little car and never gave me a single problem in 2 years of hard use. Unfortunately I had to sell this when I ran out of money at university, but when the time came and I decided I wanted another car, I immediately knew I wanted another Polo after my good experiences with the first one.

I spotted this one for sale, a 1998 model, 55k from new, full service history and one owner. £1000 seemed like a great deal. The first 1000 miles were perfect, ran like a dream with great fuel economy and reliability, and nice performance from the 1.9 engine.

However in the past 2 weeks / 1000 miles everything has started to go wrong. The car has become very bad at starting, taking up to 6 attempts and covering all passers by in a large cloud of black smoke when it finally decides to. Also my oil and engine warning lights are constantly on, despite the fact that the car is full of oil. Eventually the car began to run really badly, with poor acceleration and jerkiness, and the engine started to sound more like an old Transit van.

I went straight to the garage and was told that my fuel pump has failed and my injectors have seized. So I'm now angry, skint and left with a worthless white elephant that I can't afford to fix. Other reviews indicate other people have had bad experiences with the 1.9 diesel engine, and I would personally recommend anyone thinking of a Polo to avoid this model like the plague, and buy the 1.4CL instead, it's streets ahead.