Engine would not idle soon after starting and could only be kept running by keeping the revs up. If it cut out it could only be kept going by running with higher revs. Fault would clear itself if left for a while (hour or two) and would seem to have gone away. This happened two or three times before I decided it had to go to my local VW dealer, and they carried out a throttle body clean under warranty, saying this was a common problem on the Polo. Seems OK now.
Exhaust Emission warning lamp came on and stayed on. Engine performance seems impaired and handbook says to take to nearest VW dealer. The previous owner (my father) eventually had a new Nox Sensor fitted under warranty in Apr 2005 after reporting the same (intermittent) fault. Car is now out of warranty, so this could get expensive.
Generally the car drives well and is has a good level of equipment and is well appointed for a small car. Having owned this May 2003 car for only about 4 months, and already having experienced the two reliability issues, I am beginning to become concerned that I may have a rogue 2003 car.
8th October 2005
Update on last entry regarding the loss of power. The car went into my local VW dealer after a week or so of driving around with about half power output and about 20mpg. Dealer called me later on the same morning that I had taken it in to say they had replaced No.1 Coil Pack free of charge under warranty, even though the warranty had expired nearly two months previously. Must say I was very surprised / pleased it had been done under warranty, so faith slightly restored in the brand. Watch this space.
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