As a Vw hater this has caught my attention.......now bought :)

[kinkersaab]

I thought i might have room to add it to the collection as its small . My gut feeling is its £700. Whatdaya reckon ? Its a good honest old thing, very original. With the odd age related mark, but very solid looking. 37k new clutch.

 

[inconsistant]

Tyres seem grippy.

[Wingz123]

Think you’ll be alright at that price

[New POD]

I had one. Leaked like a sieve. Engine only had two problems in the year we had it

The condenser failed and there was fuel starvation on a regular but intermitent basis.

Simple to work on. Would look like with some 14 inch steel wheels

[mk2_craig]

Can only go up in value. What's a GUS registration worth these days?

[D Spares & Tyres]

Good old cars

 

Check head gasket isn't pissing oil out

 

Check hot and cold start. Carbs on these are a pain

 

Save it from the Dubbers!

[sierraman]

Watch for it pissing oil out everywhere and the usual VW trait of this era of CV joints wear. Simple to mend.

 

Watch the brakes though, IIRC these old Polos didn't have servo assistance.

 

Save it before some idiot dressed like a child grinds the paint off so it looks rusty and does that bizarre thing they do to fuck about with the camber of the wheels. That says it all about the mechanical aptitude of the dubber idiots.

[mercrocker]

My only exposure to these was hiring one to get to a job interview when my Zephyr 6 was in one of its less presentable phases.   I picked it out of the yard because it wasn't a sloping hatchback (something I hated with a passion at the time).   Drove pleasantly well as I recall, although the loadspace is next to useless.

[spartacus]

Dead easy to work on. The carb has a rubber spacer that perishes and causes all sorts of grief. Brakes had a linkage that ran across the bulkhead. It's all your standard 80's small car stuff really, I would imagine at that money you can't go wrong.

[kinkersaab]

I have had a few through my hands in the mid late 90s when they were dull 10 a penny things amd remember the awfull brakes and they always had worn bouncy front suspension. I decided i would go amd see about making space should it come my way..... Its amazing where another parking space can be created if needed.

[kinkersaab]

 

Hmmmmm. I wonder.....

 

 

 

 

Job jobbed. A sideways space created behind celica

 

 

 

 

How do i know i am taking a sideways pic? Is there a setting on an i phone ?

[Skizzer]

Do it, that’s a pretty good price for one these days. I had two breadvans back in the day and loved them. Solid wee things, I rolled one over into a ditch (at a bizarrely low speed) and it was absolutely fine once they’d knocked the dent out of the roof.

 

Brakes: well, yes, but you soon learn to drive round that.

[spartacus]

There's your problem right there, it's an i-phone!

I reckon one of the would be great for tooling about in the summer, and because it's a "'dub", it's never going to lose value*.

[Skizzer]

image.jpeg

Hmmmmm. I wonder.....

image.jpeg

Job jobbed. A sideways space created behind celica

image.jpeg

How do i know i am taking a sideways pic? Is there a setting on an i phone ?

Just take the photos with the phone turned sideways, landscape instead of portrait.

[mercrocker]

 

Brakes: well, yes, but you soon learn to drive round everything.

 

EFA

[HMC]

As a small child I paid way too much attention to model and trim designations of neighbours’ cars. Next door had a brown one of these; what was “FORMEL-E” all about?

[kinkersaab]

Me too, some had and 3 plue e box, a neighbour of mine had an f plate twist in maroon with colour coded trims.. It looked great until she had scuffed the trims on a few kerbs.

[Vin]

The two I had experience of in the 90's both had the rotten battery box problem that resulted in wet feet during the winter months...

 

Both were rectified by cutting the battery box and all the affected metal from the bulkhead and then fabricating and welding in new replacements...

[Vin]

As a small child I paid way too much attention to model and trim designations of neighbours’ cars. Next door had a brown one of these; what was “FORMEL-E” all about?

 

I think it was forerunner to the bluemotion stop/start thing, but got dropped after about 18 months or so...

[steveo3002]

good cars if its not rotten...parts are cheap /easy to fix 

[Wingz123]

If I were in your position I would buy, ensure running A1 then protect everything - by that I mean waxoil, underseal and wax the lot!

 

As said above this will just go up and up in value and with 37k!....

[Junkman]

[sierraman]

Formel E was the economy light thing with a 4sp plus o/d

[Skizzer]

As a small child I paid way too much attention to model and trim designations of neighbours’ cars. Next door had a brown one of these; what was “FORMEL-E” all about?

I think it was forerunner to the bluemotion stop/start thing, but got dropped after about 18 months or so...

Formel E was the economy light thing with a 4sp plus o/d

Formel E models had a 3+E (overdrive) gearbox and ran a higher compression version of the 1050cc engine. They also had stop-start, which you could enable or disable via a rocker switch on the dash - it stopped when you put it in neutral and restarted when you moved the gearlever back across against the spring. Worked well, mine never failed to restart in 67k miles.

 

Mk2 Polos and Mk1 Golfs both came in Formel E flavour, from about 1981-84 ish.

 

The Polo Formel E had that plastic spoiler round the rear window, too, which was later standard across most of the range.

[Guest Hooli]

I had a Formel-E, it worked slightly differently in that if you turned the switch on it blew the fuse & stopped the radio & heated rear window working...

 

Good solid little cars these, I never had an issue with the brakes but then I can't stand overservoed silly light brakes like a lot of cars suffer.

[sierraman]

A mate had a GT 1.3 coupe which was nice. The Derby looked a bit odd though.

[Matt]

Watch the brakes though, IIRC these old Polos didn't have servo assistance.

 

That's correct, the pedal needs pushed fairly far but from what I remember of mine it allowed you to module them very nicely.

[Amishtat]

I used to work at a pizza place in Coventry and the boss would only buy these for the delivery drivers as nothing else he'd tried would endure the nightly beatings. When they could take no more they'd get parked at night in Hillfields with the plates removed and left for the council. Someone save this from someone with ear loops..

[kinkersaab]

Mrs ks and i are heading over the hill in celica for a run shortly to try and secure it. Will update

[New POD]

As a small child I paid way too much attention to model and trim designations of neighbours’ cars. Next door had a brown one of these; what was “FORMEL-E” all about?

the original stop start iirc