1990 Volkswagen Polo coupe s review from UK and Ireland

When I first got the car I had a massive service carried out. The head gasket was on its way out because there was a leak from it which dripped oil onto the exhaust down pipe causing it to smoke a lot when burning of this oil. I changed the in-line fuel filter, H. T leads, Dizzy cap, air filter, oil change and oil filter change, spark plugs and whilst I was at it I got the fuel pump changed because it was on its way out as well. However most of these things are just general maintenance and should have been done by the previous owner. Only a couple were actually faults with the car.

I had a carburettor problem which caused the car to idle erratically and also the revs would drop so much that it would stall. I took it to a good garage and got them to strip and clean the carburettor, reset the choke and timing. This cured the problem for the handsome some of £80 and she's never let me down since.

Weird electrical problem with the dials in the car, sometimes they would work, sometimes they wouldn't (the speedometer always worked as it wasn't electrical) I traced this back to a dodgy earth and fiddling with it normally gets it going again. This is due to a ripped P.C.B on the back so its not the cars fault really just a clumsy previous owner.

Other than that the car has never let me down. Even with the carburettor problems she’s always got me to where I was going…eventually.

She has the best part or 118,000 miles on the clock and has had 11 owners from new. This however isn’t apparent by the actually condition of her. The seats aren’t stained ripped or faded and the rest of the interior is as good as new. So the German cloth has stood the test of time. The exterior it almost mint, no rust just the drivers front wing has been dented and repaired badly. Apart from this she’s in good condition.

There aren’t many luxury’s, as it’s a coupe s its has some sporting extras, a tachometer, digital clock, sports seats, 3 spoke sports steering wheel, red piping around the dash, this finish’s the interior off a treat as it was a car designed in 1983 so it was good for its time. The exterior also has some sporting finishes, black wheel arch trim, spoiler, twin headlight grill with red piping, and 14inch Hockenhiem alloy wheels, you also get slightly tinted glass. All these make it more in keeping with a mk1 golf Gti rather than a polo. Even though it hasn’t got much in the way of “modern gizmo’s” it has bags of character and its still comfortable.

The 1272cc engine is good and can propel the car along nicely. Its 5 speed short ratio gearbox is great, keeping up with most other cars to around 50 m.p.h. The handling isn’t bad. It always gets criticised for being to “boat like“. However you get so much feed back through the car that you would have to be an idiot to loose it. Apparently fitting good suspension transforms the cars handling so that might be worth a go if you can't stand the original set-up. The brakes aren’t amazing, and if I drive another car I almost go through the window screen a few times as I'm not used to the good brakes. There OK though., I no a few polo drivers and we all have a motto “ just in time every time” it’s a bit hairy sometimes, but they do stop you.

All in all a polo coupe s is a great first car. it’s the best pre 1990 1.3 around and has so much more character than the others available. Its so robust as well I no a few of my friends have been hit in them buy other cars, where the other car has broken its headlights smashed its grill etc and all the polo has lost is its number plate lights.