Volkswagon Polo(First Car)

[koi]

Hi

This is my first post and hope you can help,

I have a son who has just passed his driving test and i was looking to buy him a polo

I have around £3000 to spend on his first car can any one tell me the model and year i should go for also i have been quoted around £800 for insurance on a 1.2

I have looked in auto trader and my funds look as if i can obtain an 03 face lift model but i am not sure if i should go for an older age model

Is the 1.0 litre engine ok i am just thinking of the insurance cost for a new driver

Some polos have PAS is it ok to drive without?

Sorry for all the questions

regards Steve

[vc-10]

My first car is a Polo. My parents made me go for a Mk 4 (the one with the 4 headlights) because it did better in the EuroNCAP tests than the previous model. The Mk 4 has 4 airbags and ABS as standard, even on my poverty spec 'E' model, which doesn't even have central locking. The Skoda Fabia and Seat Ibiza are the same car underneath, but a Skoda isn't exactly a young persons car. The 1.2 is a 3 cylinder engine, and I really like it, but I think a diesel might have been a better engine, and if I remember right the insurance was fairly similar. I would go for one with central locking though!

[koi]

Thanks for your help

[smg88]

Hi Steve,

I've just got my first car and it's a 99 Polo 1.0L, have had it a couple of weeks now. I can't really help with insurance cost because I'm probably older than your son (am guessing he's 17 and just passed??) but £800 for a 1.2 sounds pretty good to me even though I'm paying less than than for my little 1 litre.

About the car, I love it ) The 1 litre is of course by no means a fast mover, however it's pretty refined (it's a 4 cylinder which probably helps a bit) and seems to be doing pretty decent mpg. When I got my insurance they LOVED the fact it was a 1 litre, from my insurance company's point of view small engines really are cheaper to ensure. Although by all means get a few quotes, there might not be that much difference between 1.0 and 1.2 quotes and if you see a nice 1.2 available then it's worth going for.

Power steering, I didn't actually realise until after I bought my car that it didn't have it! But I really don't mind, I quite like it. On the move the steering is almost as light as in a PAS car (no noticeable difference to me) but of course the steering is pretty darn heavy when low speed manoeuvring. But I adapted to it and plus I'm hoping for get some bicep improvements from it ;o)

I've got no central locking either! But I don't mind, to me it's one less thing to go wrong on a car thats 10 years old (old central locking can get dodgy) and as my polo is a 3dr it's not much of an inconvenience.

Hope this helps

[JUV]

Personally I'd stay away from the 1.2, 3 cylinder engine - there are a number of problems with these, some well documented here, others still becoming apparent. We had one for a year (a 2002 model, average mileage, full service history) and ended up spending around £1,000 on repairs to things like the throttle body, catalytic converter and EGR valve, before finally getting rid - and that was after the previous owner had already had to have the timing chain and tensioners replaced, after the timing chain jumped (another very common problem on the 1.2 prior to 2005).

Basically it's a very poor design of engine. The rest of the car isn't great either, in all honesty, but with a different engine (like the 1.4 or a diesel) it's probably cheaper to run.

[koi]

Thanks for your help

[Dave Sims]

This is just to advise any Polo owner who keep getting flat batteries even though the battery is good. I had this problem from JULY No test equipment could detect the fault, it would start for 7 days ok then not there was no pattern to it. In the end APS Audi agent who now service my car due to the local agent being not too good. Found the problem was caused by a faulty Gama Radio now replaced and all is well. I posted on the Fourm but no one had the answer to my problem, may be it was a one off. Any way I hope this can help other by the way £213 for the radio

[vwcabriolet1971]

The post 2003 Polos are a cracking little car. Good quality build and if you get a 3 cylinder 1.4 diesel it will do 70mpg if driven careful on long run. The 1.4 diesel will also be a very low insurance rating. As always with this age of car a full service history is important. My Wife has a 2003 1.9 TDI sport (84,000 miles) and daughter has a 2005 1.4 TDI ( nearly 100,000 miles) both regulary serviced by me with no real problems.