1998 Volkswagen Polo from Australia and New Zealand - Comments

For those of you contemplating buying a Polo, let me give you the benefit of my experience I bought this car with 40,000 km on the clock in 2000. It ran okay for the first few months, but around the six month mark things started going wrong.

First the clutch cable snapped. I managed to soyrce a second hand cable from a Volks wrecker and fitted it myself.

Then the hall sender went out (the car would cut off suddenly while approaching intersections, in the middle of the highway etc.). This was a particularly annoying and frustrating fault to diagnose apart from being bloody dangerous. It finally took a VW specialist to suggest that the hall sender in the distributor does go off in these cars. I took his advice and changed it myself and it ran well since.

Soon after, the thermostat housing cracked (a known fault in Polos) and the car overheated. Three months later the thermostat itself went kaput and had to be replaced.

The ignition components are a nightmare on these cars. The leads cost an arm and a leg and have to be replaced every year.

Other problems included needing new locks for the driver's door and a new throttle body as well.

When I finally sold the car, the gears were starting to play up.

I thought buying German cars meant the all renown Gereman reliability, especially after my bitter experience with a Daewoo Tico. I really couldn't have been more wrong.

I need to add that I am a careful driver and am fastidious with the maintenance. I will never buy a Volkswagen ever again in my life. I spent half my graduate scholarship money miantaining this European junk. I finally sold it in 2003 and bought a Mitsubishi Lancer. It might not have the same great looks as the Polo, but its reliability is unsurpassed.

Stay away from this car folks unless you have recently won the lotto or you feel particularly inclined towards putting your mechanic's children through school.

VW's dealers have perfected the art of daylight robbery in Australia.

Hi mate.

Just bought the same 1998 Polo that you've complained so much about. I am originally from Germany and owned a great VW Golf Mk 2 for 20 years (wonderful reliable car btw), now driving this beautiful little Polo. I am sorry to hear that your car has been so much trouble, but you see, these are good cars, but their condition always depends on the previous owner and how they treated it.

Generally they are great cars though.

I totally agree with you. From my experience people should avoid Polo's unless they enjoy making regular donations to their mechanic... totally heartbreaking. Will always stick to reliable Japanese brands from now on.

Hello all.

My Polo 1.0L was bought for me, so I didn't really get much choice in all honesty!

I have to agree with some of your comments, it hasn't been 100% reliable for me so far.

I passed my test last Tuesday, less than 12 hours later, the pedal box had gone, apparently caused by 'wear and tear'. £280 later, all was fixed.

This is the only problem I've had so far, but reading your comments... I'm a tad worried LOL!

The car was bought from an auction, checked, double checked and checked again. It had 2 previous owners, so really, I just need to hope they drove 'her' well, because otherwise, like you all point out, I'll be paying for a VW Specialists Christmas bash, many times over in fact!

We mustn't forget though, that VW's are good Cars. If we look after them, they'll look after us. The majority are reliable, every Car has the odd problem every now and then.

I work for a prestigious car company, and some of our cars (which people spend many tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands on), go wrong a lot of the time.

So really ladies and gentlemen, we're lucky... Or lucky-ish, at least =)!

I wish all of you trouble free driving in the future.

Best of luck.

Often, Japanese cars get portrayed as being more reliable than European cars. However, I feel that it has to be pointed out that Japanese reliability is based on the fact that they use old technology in their cars that has proven to be reliable. Hence, when the Japanese bring out a new car, i.e. Subaru Outback or Forrester, the technology in this regards is actually rather old and merely the headlights and the grille have changed/ been revamped. The body however, still dates 15 years back and still you are being charged big dollars for a "brand new" vehicle that in fact isn't new. When European car makers launch a new product, it is being designed from scratch and literally all components to the car are new. As a result, you do get occasional faults at the start. However, some Japanese cars have just as many faults. I am possessing a pre 1998 Polo and the car is excellent and there is absolutely nothing to complain about. I think you may just have been unlucky with your experience.