(another I HAT new cars) 1-month old Polo, 800 miles...

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

...and the (petrol!) engine sounds like a tractor, and the cabin ventilation is already buggered. Thank you Sixt!

 

I pity the poor bugger who will spend all of his savings on that turd in 2-3 years' time thinking "it's a VW with a FSH, what can go wrong?".

[Lord Sterling]

I had an 08 plate Polo as a courtesy car for a while after a bus decided to side swipe my Rover Sterling a few years ago. Despite its engine sounding like a tiny tractor and its laid back attitude to speed, I quite like the nippy little sod:

 

[Negative Creep]

I had one of those as a hire car, it was just a "car" nothing more. Didn't feel like any of this "premium" bollocks

[Shep Shepherd]

My father has had a 59-plate Polo 1.6 TD SE from new, and while it isn't the sort of car that I'd consider as a new purchase, it suits him down to the ground and has never given him any trouble:

 

 

[Tayne]

.

[TimothyClaypole]

 

This was the last Polo VW made, anything after is just a lie and should be badged as a Golf, lard arse and nose heavy design all of them.

 

My sister's sounded shite from new, 3 cylinder bobbins.

[droofer]

we have a 2004 sdi , we've had it from new, its predominatley my wifes car, absolutley love the thing, we both do, restoration thread will be active in around 15 years time.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

 

Poor men's Audi 50s, the lot of them.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

yes, it turns out it is DESIGNED to sound like that. I've driven a 1996 Daihatsu Cuore, which also only had 3 cyliders, and it was approximately 934729347% smoother than the 2011 Polo. Plus the 4th gear of that scaled-down Golf is far too long, and you keep having to drop down to third for the merest hint of acceleration (GR2 4 overtaking quickly and safely). I really do wonder why anyone would ever want to pay actual (non-shite-level) money to buy this awful thing, when (even if you had to buy new) you can buy an acceptable Yaris for the same money or an excellent car like the Ceed for only about 10-15% extra.

[Pillock]

That's odd, mine was quite nippy:

 

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

yes, it turns out it is DESIGNED to sound like that. I've driven a 1996 Daihatsu Cuore, which also only had 3 cyliders, and it was approximately 934729347% smoother than the 2011 Polo

 

I think it's because most Japanese 3 pots are designed as 3 pots, while European ones (GM Europe and VAG) are chopped down 4 cylinder engines.

[Polystratus]

yes, it turns out it is DESIGNED to sound like that. I've driven a 1996 Daihatsu Cuore, which also only had 3 cyliders, and it was approximately 934729347% smoother than the 2011 Polo

 

I think it's because most Japanese 3 pots are designed as 3 pots, while European ones (GM Europe and VAG) are chopped down 4 cylinder engines.

 

The three pot in my Skoda was an actual 3 pot design from Skoda, had mine for six years and it's lovely and smooth, very economical, a little bit more noisy than a four cylinder, no way does it sound like a tractor, but gives the car a bit of character A lot of forum 'motoring experts' will tell you when they've had them as hire cars,etc., these engines are shit, gutless, 'cant do over 20mpg', unreliable blah, I cant say about the new TSI engine which I think may in this Polo, since not yet experienced one but they redesigned it with gears rather than a cam chain in order to reduce the 'OMG CO2 Emissions'.

 

If it's a hire car guess it's been thrashed from day one, don't like how VW made the design same these days (cf Golf).

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

The three pot in my Skoda was an actual 3 pot design from Skoda

 

It's made by Skoda but it's essentially a VW 'EA' engine with a cylinder chopped off.

[chaseracer]

That's odd, mine was quite nippy:

 

 

That'll be because this one doesn't weigh as much as your house...

[oldford]

I had one of those as a hire car, it was just a "car" nothing more. Didn't feel like any of this "premium" bollocks

 

I had that outlook when I worked in the car hire busines, whether it was a Ford or a Mercedes it was just another unit that needed to be processed and driven somewhere.

 

The thing was that this was back in the late 1980s, now I see them as something more, so it give it 25 years or so and your opinion may change.

 

The Polo that's the subject of this thread seems a little under utilised as in my experience hire cars usually clock up around 2000 miles a month, has it had some time in the workshop/bodyshop already?

[fiatdaft]

Shock horror base model polo isn't a gr8 drivers car.Really what did you expect?

[shite_meister]

That's odd, mine was quite nippy:

 

 

That'll be because this one doesn't weigh as much as your house...

 

I've always wanted one of these. I really liked the older VW build quality up to and including the much maligned mk3 golf, I had a go in a VR6 GTi t'other day, not especially amazing in performance but nice generally.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

'80s VW build quality is extremely overhyped.

[Polystratus]

The three pot in my Skoda was an actual 3 pot design from Skoda

 

It's made by Skoda but it's essentially a VW 'EA' engine with a cylinder chopped off.

 

I'll get in touch with someone on another forum see what they say about it Im sure one of the guys on there said it was 'fresh' design so to speak - they could be totally incorrect of course, eitherway the engine in mine isnt rough from the sound of the OP's hire car

[Mr Lobster]

Shock horror base model polo isn't a gr8 drivers car.Really what did you expect?

 

 

+1

 

They're alright though, the three pot is a bit vocal and having spent two weeks and 2000 miles in one last year I'd agree about the ventilation although thats probably because the one I was driving didn't have a/c. But it was comfy enough, decent on fuel and generally fairly unremarkable and unoffensive. Did what you would expect it to.

[CIH]

only thing that bothrs me is the fact the new VW corporate face makes each model ie; polo, golf and passatt look almost identical.

[Owain-328i]

'80s VW build quality is extremely overhyped.

 

Mk2 Golf's were pretty good Len....

 

Like anything else needs looking after to last

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Shock horror base model polo isn't a gr8 drivers car.Really what did you expect?

 

Is a working fan too much to expect in a brand-new car from a "premium" manufacturer?

[fiatdaft]

only thing that bothrs me is the fact the new VW corporate face makes each model ie; polo, golf and passatt look almost identical.

 

just like the 70's and 80's then?

[trigger]

All new Volkswagen's look the same?, What are you talking about?...

 

 

 

 

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Cars have such blobby, amorphous styling now it is hard to tell them apart.

There have been plenty of unoriginal designs in the past but at least there are little details you can pick out.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Did they forget to make the Golf look angry?

[shite_meister]

'80s VW build quality is extremely overhyped.

 

I was just expressing my own personal opinion that I preferred VWs build quality up to/including the Mk3 rather than the later mk4 golf era stuff I wasn't stating it as fact, indeed, I had a Rover 216 Vitesse that was actually pretty well screwed together...or at least my own one was and not particularly above and beyond anything VW could muster but what we often forget is longevity but I think 80s/90s German stuff has a certain teutonic efficient slightly souless charm in a similar way that Japanese stuff has.

 

Although I was disappointed with my Mk2 16v Golf I could forgive it for being a dog especially as it was only £225, the interior looked more dated than most other cars of its time yet it did have a quality feel especially compared to most things French for example, I was always impressed with the quality of my mk3 golf though but again it just felt a tad dull, like I was missing something whenever I drove it.

[Timewaster]

 

Although I was disappointed with my Mk2 16v Golf I could forgive it for being a dog especially as it was only £225

 

I had one that cost 3 Grand and it was utter utter shit. It was fast though. (on the rare days that it all worked at once).

 

I actually mistook the latest Polo for a Golf when I first saw one. But the same could be said for the enormous new Corsa.

[trigger]

The Mk3 Golf was a very depressing car to drive, Just chock a block in thick dark plastic everywhere and rubbish build quality, My sister had a 1.8 CL which was painfully gutless for a 1800, I remember driving a 1400cc once, now that was bad.