2007 Volkswagen Polo Basic from UK and Ireland - Comments

This car has has had lots of problems, and I would suggest you keep away from this manufacturer. Despite their reputation, the build quality is poor.

The tail cover bands continually break, making it difficult to get shopping in/out.

After only 20,000 miles, the clutch went and they wanted £900.00 to replace it. Of course they blamed it on me and my driving. I've only been driving for 30 years and never had a clutch replaced on any other vehicle.

Perhaps VW should have a training program on how to drive their cars?

The paint is now peeling off the back bumper?

Of course I did use an authorised VW supplier.

I leased this vehicle because I thought I would have trouble free driving and that the cost would be controlled.

I am disappointed; German build quality is supposed to be the best. Well as you can see, the clutch and hatch has failed in such a short period of time.

If you are looking for a small car but want reliability, then don't get a VW Polo. Although the car is cheap, so is its reliability.

You are so right. I had a VW and a Seat; both gave problems, so now I drive a Honda and haven't had a thing go wrong in over 5 years of ownership.

Avoid VW at all cost, and their after sales are arrogant and try to blame the customer. I hope they go bust.

I read most comments that come through this site and so many people slate their VWs build quality and reliability.

I had great service from an 83 Passat, but the more modern models I experienced really have been hopeless, with ignition coil, clutch and engine management faults, windows dropping down, constant alarm faults and so on.

Although I miss the Germanic feel of VW, I now drive anything with technology from Japan and have suffered no major reliability issues; I recommend Daihatsu or Mazda and even rate humble Perodua (Toyota/Daihatsu tech) over VW for consistent, no hassle reliability over lots of miles.

It is a shame that VWs look and feel so nice but like Mercedes in the 90s, have lost their reputation for decent build and have gained a reputation for endless (unnecessary) glitches and annoyances.

If only everything in life...

I just can't believe the downfall of European made cars. My father had an Italian Fiat and most of my childhood memories were of being woken up at 7:00 a.m. to push start the car along with my mother. I once owned a 1997 VW Polo and spent all my scholarship money taking the car to the dealers every 4 months. This car had some of the strangest problems like cutting out while cruising on the highway. No one knew how to fix it.

I have since resolved never to buy a European car. They cost a fortune to maintain, are downright unreliable and I think a cheap Hyundai will give you more trouble free motoring than the most expensive Merc. One thing I don't get is why people put down American made cars. I had a Saturn when I lived in the US that I bought of the side of the road in Florida with 180k miles on it. When I sold it, it had done over 250k miles. I loved that car. Apart from the odd brake repairs, an insatiable appetite for oil in the later stages of its life - nothing else went wrong with it.

I have stuck with Japanese and American made cars since my bad experience with European vehicles. I recently read that Korean cars are now considered more reliable than a German made vehicle. Isn't this strange considering the Germans have been making cars for over 100 years? What went wrong?