My Polo has many holes.... (VW Polo (1990-94))

Member Name: babajane32

Product:	VW Polo (1990-94)
Date:	01/12/03 (562 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: air conditioning(holes), erm......, price

Disadvantages: fuel , speed, safety etc, etc,

As you may know from my previous ops, I like to cover a variety of topics. What ever I write about has to have made some sort of impact on me to inspire my writing, but usually I prefer to take a positive note, generally writing about the things I enjoy or make me happy. However the little car I want to tell you about today had no such good impact on me, but did leave a very firm impression with me, thus I felt it was worthy of an op.

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Introduction -

Today was the day I traded in my lovely, if not somewhat tired Audi 100 for a slightly less tired, and seemingly more practical Volkswagen Polo C. I have owned it now for about 12 hours, driven it for about 4 hours and in the wise words of Jeremy Clarkson, it is hateful, hateful (yes thrice) hateful, car.
Why you may ask have I come to this conclusion in such a short space of time? Well, read on a little further and I?ll enlighten you.

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Specs-

Dual circuit brakes
1043 cc engine
4 speed ,manual gear box
3 door hatchback
Standard 3 piece dry clutch
Electronic ignition
Auto choke
Unleaded fuel
Low road vehicle taxation bracket
McPherson independent standard suspension

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Exterior-

In my attempt to be totally fair to this little pap-pap I am dealing with its most positive points first, and to be truly fair the body is one of its best points.
For its age the bodywork has faired quite well and the paintwork does reflect the higher quality that you might expect from manufacturers such as Volkswagen.
I do say quite well, as it may have retained its nice glossy burgundy paintwork well, and shows little sign of outward body rot, but look deeper and it is somewhat of a different story.
Hidden under the bonnet I have found disturbing signs that all is not well, with the battery seat almost disintegrated and inner wings looking li

ke patchwork quilts.
Underneath is a similar story with sieve like floor pans and inner wheel arches.
Whilst only the battery seat causing me major concern (how the heck did that slide through an MOT?), the rest of the additional ventilation holes do have notable problems when it comes to driving though puddles, this afternoon I discovered not only do polos of all varieties have holes in, but also that in 15 minutes flat my feet were in enough water to warrant the fitting of several heavy duty bilge pumps!!!

Taking a small step back from the little sewer rat and attempting to do a little more justice to the car, I comment now on its aesthetics. Ok, what aesthetics? There are non, it is small, but hardly compact and bijou. With a stumpy back end, flat protruding nose and squared off edges it seems almost comical balancing its narrow torso on bicycle type wheels and tires. Get the picture? Good then enough said on that matter.

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Interior-

Volkswagen score two whole points here!!!
Firstly the dash whilst very basic and hardly luxurious is practical and buttons/stalks are well positioned and resist wear and tear well.
Secondly the seats whilst again hardly stylish in their design do tend to have wear ability. Mine despite being a good few years old now still look in tip top condition rather like the dash., and again like the dash I put this down to very tough nylon/vinyl materials being used. Very basic, very cheap looking, but still looking clean and unworn after plenty of hammer.

Looking down at the carpets, which are yet again made of inexpensive but durable materials I find it saddening to they haven?t had the same laminated life span, probably due to the substantial fish ponds that form on them at even the slightest sign of rain.

The interior door trims have faired slightly better than the carpets with no sign of tearing scratches or ripping , although it is now appa
rent
(by the blistering and bubbling) that they are in fact a blue peter special, covered in sticky backed plastic!!

From the space aspect this car is useless if you are more than 6? tall or have long legs. The driving position is cramped even for me at 5? 5? and there is scarcely enough leg room in the rear for a pair of match sticks.

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Engine-

A 1 liter single belt driven single overhead 8 valve cam, naturally aspirated engine (1000 cc bog standard engine with carburetor) , drives this car quietly ,but incredibly slowly along.
With a 0 to 60 time too slow to be measured on a standard stop watch, this cabbage crawler is so slow and under powered that any potential fuel efficiency is lost by the fact that you have to thrash the pants off it even to move off from the traffic lights let alone get up a slight incline.
The fact of the matter is that if you are hoping to get up 1 in 4 hill with two passengers then you will need a winch.

Engine reliably is good although regular servicing is needed and topping up the oil is paramount as they are prone to minor oil leeks from almost every gasket.

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Running gear-

Tyres being 145 x 13?s are very cheap although their road holding is akin to ice skating.

The steering is diabolical, right hand down = straight on, left hand down = straight on, and straight on = straight on, this becomes very apparent once exceeding 10 mph.
It is well worth noting too that if you are carrying more than one very light passenger in the back you will gain instant powers steering, due to the weight shift lifting the front wheels nearly clear of the floor.

Breaking (if it can be called that) is very poor. The fact that the car is incapable of traveling at high velocity is a great virtue as in order to stop at 30 mph in dry conditions requires several hundreds of meters of road and a heavy anchor.
>
Than
kfully the standard suspension, whilst nothing to write home about, is quite acceptable.

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Safety-

Another point Volkswagen seem to have totally overlooked in designing this car is safety.
Seatbelts are provided in both front and back, although you need to be Stretch Armstrong to put them on once in a sitting position.
No airbags (big surprise) and no ABS (anti-lock breaking system) on the older models.
Crumple zone? Yes it does have a crumple zone?and it?s you!!! With 2 ? of very thin panels between you and the outside world in a crash it would lead to instant disintegration of the outer shell.
There is also very little space between the rear seats and the back bumper of the car, again not reassuring in the event of a rear end shunt.

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Some discussion-

My polo is 15 years old and is fairly typical of the condition you can expect a polo of that age to be in. ewer Polos have improved to some extent although having driven much newer models many of the same faults are still painfully obvious.
Trying to keep to an objective opinion of this car that has irked me so badly in less time than it takes for me to eat my dinner, I think a list of for and against points may show a fair picture.


*For*

Cheap to purchase
Low TAX bracket
Small
Reliability
Paintwork
Security

*Against*

Steering
Breaking
Safety
Fuel economy
Small
Body Rot
Insurance

I have to list the insurance as a minus point as although it only rates group 4, it invariably generates policy quotes far higher than you would expect. The lowest quote I received was three times higher than the cars book price.

I also list security as a good point,you may find this strange in light of the fact that it would take a blunt pencil and three seconds to steal this motor,but who the hell would
want to?? You a
re less likely to get this stolen that a recycled nappy!!

Fuel economy I have already toutched on,but for facts and figures sake you'll get 25 mpg round town igf you are lucky and less on a long run if it involves motorways speeds (well,attempting them anyway).So fuel economy? Not bad for a Landrover!!

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Conclusion-

I paid £40 for my E reg Polo with 9 moths MoT. For £40 I got what I need for a temporary measure while I look around for a shiny new brum brum., but even at £40 it is going to be a very, very temporary measure. I hate it. I hate it so much that I never want to drive one of these hateful cars again for as long as I live.
If you need a really cheap run around, have no other option and have to have transport at any cost then try not to buy this car unless there is no other option. If you just want a cheap little run around then avoid this scrap heap like the plague!!

Update to conclusion -

I have to add, that my experiances were based on a cheap little purchase,but the equivalent price for the age/state of my purchase should have been around the £250+ mark. This isn't to say that all polos are such sad specimins, although many of the faults are common to all of the older models.Don't let me put you off totally,I'm sure there are some real gems out there!!!

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A last word-

Jeremy Clarkson, if you are reading?.I know you wont be test driving this car as you wont fit in the driving seat. In the absence of experiencing the vile nature of this matchbox on wheels, please take my word for it and lend me your Chieftain tank so I can flatten this irk in my life into the non existence once and for all!!!! Cheers!!

~ ~ ~ Thankyou for reading ~ ~ ~

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