1988 Volkswagen Polo review from UK and Ireland

Front wheel bearing needed fixing, although I knew this when I bought the car (cost £100).

Cam belt stretched and snapped, needed replacing along with the water pump (cost £150).

Failed MOT on constant velocity joint seal breaking and rear brake cylinder leaking, cost £150 to repair.

Now the clutch is squeaky and juddery, especially in wet weather and a strange crackling noise is coming from the engine, I think from the battery, especially at high speeds.

Great first car. It doesn't eat much petrol and is cheap to buy, insure and repair.

The 1.0 doesn't really move at all. It's fast for a 1.0, but that's not really saying much. No acceleration to speak of, and if you want to get out of junctions quickly then you'll have to cane the car. Having said that, it did 90mph on the motorway every day during the summer, and kept doing this for about 3 hours one day without the temperature gauge going above half way!

During colder weather and now I've put 15,000 miles on it, I can only get 80 and feel comfortable, although it would do more if pushed.

The handling isn't great, keep the tire pressures high and it'll drive better. It is quite fun to skid around corners when you know how it's going to handle.

The brakes are awful, nothing happens until you've put your foot half way down, and then it's a struggle (no brake servos).

All in all, this is a great reliable car if you don't expect too much from it.