2001 Volkswagen Polo SE from UK and Ireland - Comments

Could anyone advise me? I bought my Polo new in March 2004 and have done only 30,000 miles driving it mainly in London. It's now out of warranty and Volkswagen dealership told me that both the clutch and the gearbox need replacing and this will cost close to £2,000. Sadly, the garage where I bought it are showing no goodwill to make a contribution to these costs. So at present, I am in a bit of a dilemma, and will now consider appealing to the manufacturers directly as I feel that the car is just over 3.5 months to have so much go wrong with it.I would appreciate any advice and assistance this forum can give me.

Why do they need replacing? If it is not driver error (flood damage, abuse, poor maintenance) and the car has a full VW service history, then contact VW directly and state that a car of this mileage and age should not require this work, and that you require a repair or goodwill gesture.

If you have run and maintained the car properly, it is likely that VW will offer to help.

If not, then contact a consumer magazine and ask them to intervene -- try Whatcar; Honest John at Daily Telegraph to start with.

VW are a quality brand, and if approached correctly, should help you.

Let us know how you get on! Good luck...

Thanks for your advice. I have telephoned and written to the Volkswagen Head office as you suggested. The Volkswagen dealers where I bought the car from have serviced it and it had its first MOT this year and passed with no problems. The car has only been driven to and from my workplace in south london and is used for social and domestic use. I am now awaiting the response from VW headquarters and remain cautiously optimistic. I will let you know how I get on.

I am sorry not to have updated you with my progress on this matter, but I am happy to report that after many telephone calls between the manufacturers, the dealership and myself, VW have agreed to pay 90% of the cost of the gear box replacement and the dealership are paying the other 10% which means that I wil only have to pay for the replacement of the clutch. It has been an uphill struggle, but well worth it. One needs a lot of patience and determination in these matters. It took three weeks for this matter to be resolved, though at times I was having my doubts about their customer service and the way the matter was being dealt with. many thanks again for your advice in this matter.

A good result, but a quality manufacturer wouldn't make you jump through such hoops.

A friend's 2yr old Honda Accord broke down in France last year with a major wiring fault leaving him and his family stranded. By making one phone call:

Replacement French registered vehicle delivered within two hours and their vehicle collected.

Their vehicle returned to the UK

Holiday completed in the loan vehicle with no problems.

On returning to the UK the loan vehicle was collected and replaced with a UK registered car of identical spec.

Two days later, their car was returned to them in full working order, filled with fuel and valeted. They were compensated £200 for the inconvenience, and had the next two services free of charge.

All this from ONE phone call.

This is the mark of a quality manufacturer who takes pride in their cars. Volkswagen lost their real quality in the early nineties.

Yes, I am inclined to agree with you on this. I did consider writing to What Car Magazine about Volkswagen and the appalling way they dealt with the matter. I certainly would not recommend them just for the way they dug their heels in and gave me the "run around" for several weeks, for example it took a week for them to get back to me from having dismantled the gearbox to diagnose that the differential had gone. Your friend's positive experience and feedback will certainly make me consider buying from a quality manufacturer such as Honda in the future.

Hi everyone, I need your help!

I'm not very wise when it comes to cars. I bought a VW Polo 1.0L (W Reg) about 2 months ago from a private seller. I took it for a long test drive before I bought it and everything seemed fine. Just recently though, I started experiencing the problem with the crunching noise when selecting reverse gear and over the last week or so, I have found it very difficult to select 1st & 2nd gear - I really have to force it in to the point where I feel I'm going to break the gear stick.

I've read a few of the earlier comments and I understand this is a problem with the pedal box..? As I am not very mechanically minded, I am not too confident about looking at this myself and doing a diagnosis on it. If I were to take it to local garage with this problem, what sort of price do you think they would charge to diagnose the problem and repair it (with worst case scenario damage)

I was please with the car, it was a lot smoother then my old 106 and feels much more robust, but I am now having a minor panic if parts of it are on its way as I have just spent a large sum of money on it and can't really afford any expensive repair bills!

Many thanks!

Bought polo 1.4 year ago from dealer, having no problems with gears, but car cutting out when approaching lights mornings mainly, then runs great all day, this becoming more frequent, I been reading comments about temperature sensors, are these costly to replace any info, thanks.

Like everyone else we have had to have the pedal box replaced last week on our 2001 1.4 polo. No help from VW it cost us £450, now only a week later the central locking has packed up and we are going to have to take it back to the garage for a lock barrel replacement. When it goes, it goes well, but in the 18 months we have owned it it has cost us over £900 in garage bills!

My 1.4 s reg polo has done only 58000 miles; both electric windows have failed, and the central locking has failed on the passenger side (no doubt it will fail soon on the driver side).

My last service cost me nearly £700 for various things.

The independent garage quoted £400 per door to fix the windows and locks (that's £800).

I've decided just to live with it as I can't £800.

Anyone got any ideas for a cheaper fix? - I've thought about going to a brokers and seeing if I can find some doors for a polo with manual windows?

Or alternatively, just trying a few more garages or specialist electricians?

I'm in North West (Manchester)

Any ideas most welcome.

I have a W reg 1.4 Polo and have had all the problems on this site, and it has full a service history and only 55000 miles.

The stalling is the carb body that needs cleaning; most DIY people can do this.

The water gets in the doors from the seals on the windows; this jams the windows, so take the inside of the door off and just tap the motor that lifts the window, it will now work.

The door locks are on ebay for about £20 new.

The gear box; that's a lot bigger job.

The VW Polo,s are a load of rubbish; problem on problem.

If every thing in life was as reliable as a VW, we would all be ----. I would never ever have one again.

Hi folks, I owned a TDI SE 1.4 for 5 years and though the car mechanically was excellent, the electric windows went kaput just after the car was 3 years old which cost me over £400 to have fixed with a new window loom. VW weren't at all interested even though the electric windows are a known fault (told by a VW Group salesman) and the VW garage where the repair was done was awful and VERY expensive - even cocking up the new loom.

I always had the car independently serviced at half the price of VW who really don't seem bothered about customer service. Although mechanically sound, the car handled like a puppy on a lead and had no road holding ability at all.

Though I may one day go for a VW again, I feel the old view of VW reliability and build has dropped quite a bit and that's why I've now bought a Toyota - where my dealer service has been excellent so far.

Hi folks, you know what its like when something goes wrong with your car, you think you are in the minority, but after reading these accounts you realise the same problems keep occuring.

Two years ago I bought a 1.9 sdi Polo, nice little car, it seemed perfect. Then it started,my hand has never been out of my pocket ever since:replacing an exhaust system including a cat not cheap, then a full set of tyre's then a new clutch, cam belt, servicing etc. All normal stuff I hear you say with the exception of the cat I would expect that to last more than 65k.However my wife and I thought we had covered everything now and the car is like new.

We decided to use it to drive to the southwest coast of France for a holiday. Holiday was great, then, the day before we are due to come home I started having problems getting the car into gear. I looked at the clutch cable and the lock-nut was slack so I adjusted it and locked it tight. The gear change was as smooth as silk, but this only lasted a day, now the only way I could get it into any gear was to do it with the engine off. To get it back to the holiday house I selected 2nd then started the engine, you surge forward as you start the (roads were very quiet) you are driving effectively without the use of the clutch to stop at a junction, foot off the gas, brake and switch off before you stall. Matching the revs I found it easy to change up, but would never change down without the clutch (I would not reccomend driving without a clutch if you are not sure) We did not have far to go,3 miles. Got in touch with Green Flag who were fantastic.They arranged for the car to be picked up and taken to a garage. They decided to fit a new clutch. I thought this was wrong as I said earlier we had a new clutch fitted and I told them before they started and asked them to look at the mechanism or cable, but they confirmed it was the clutch. They fitted a new clutch then told us this hasn't fixed the problem and they wanted to strip the gearbox. I could not believe the problem was in the gear box and as it took them five days to get the clutch in I said no thanks. Green Flag got us home and arranged the pick up and return of our car. This morning I looked at the car and noticed the clutch pedal was jammed on the floor and on closer inspection with digital camera noticed the BROKEN PEDAL BOX. I went to V.W. to buy a new one today, what a naff bit of kit, the welds are so poor its no wonder they break. I am contemplating installing this thing myself, but not looking forward to the amount of work involved. If I do I would be very tempted to weld the cable bracket all the way round and not rely on those spot welds, I don`t want to have to do this job again. My thoughts on the breakdown now is that the PEDAL BOX was starting to tear effectively making the cable adjustment wrong, I took up the slack on the cable which allowed the clutch to be successfully operated again for 24 hours then it may have torn further leaving no further adjustment left on the cable. When the garage fitted the new clutch and reconnected the cable they must have given the PEDAL BOX its final straw! I will let you know if this is the case.

Viv Anderson.

I also have had many problems with my 2001 polo VW 1.4l.

I bought it brand new and have spent well in excess of $8.000 on repairs.

The car was only 6 months old and the starter motor gave in, but since it was under warranty they replaced it no questions asked.

Since then I have had a myrriad of problems all of which have been listed above.

Clutch has been replaced 4 times, gears, everything electrical doesn't work from windows opening to now the lights on the brakes and engine remain on when car is working and or switched off.

Now the worst problem I have to encounter is that the engine is so corroded that when I drive I breath the fumes and I have only done 79.000 klm.

For 30 years we have had vw's in our family from COMBI VAN to beetles and Passat and we have never encountered these problems.

I am now looking into trade in to buy a toyota.

Melbourne australia.

Hi; Just paid out £480 for a new clutch for my '05 (yes, '05!) Polo 1.4 TDI DUNE with 20K on the clock. This was due to wear and tear apparently and not covered by the warranty.

VW did not service my car; it was carried out to VW spec by my local garage, so I think they are trying it on with me. I have asked them for the parts so that I can get them independently assessed.

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