Buying advice please

[carl s]

Hello I'm new to the forum, I am looking for a Polo GTI and test drove a 2006 5 door today. It was a nice car on the whole and confirmed my decision that I want a Polo GTI just perhaps not this one. There were a couple of negatives about this particular car which I was after a second opinion on;

- The boot didn't open without using the key, it made a lot of electrical noise when you tried the handle but nothing happened, is this common?
- The car had the red coolant light on which surprised me, it was at the minimum which I meant it could do with some more, is there a yellow and a red coolant light? is this one just the level or something different. It went out for a while during the test drive but re-appeared at idle
- The car pulled to the left when driving, which I would expect might be tracking, but more worryingly when you turned round a left corner there was a notchy resistance that you sort of clicked through when you turned left.

The steering I was most unhappy with so I walked away from the car, is this a common fault with the Mkvii Polo?

Thanks,

Carl.

[adzpz]

All fairly common faults - nothing to worry about, you could chip them down on price though.

1) Boot: Possible water leak from rear wash/wipe causing mechanism to cease or burn out. Easy-ish repair and cheapish part from breakers. £100 to fix this.
2)Probably the coolant level was fine, it's common for the sensor in the expansion bottle to break fooling the car into thinking the coolant is low. £100 to fix this.
3)Sounds like a combination of tracking or low tyre pressure causing the pull to the left and the top mounts or ARB bushes need changing which is causing the clicking whilst turning noise £250ish to fix this.

If otherwise the car is in good condition and nice spec I would go for it with a £400-£500 discount to cover the problems.

[carl s]

Thanks for the reply, the trader wasn't prepared to look at it unless I bought it, I have since test driven two more GTI's, the second was a very low mileage car with a really stiff gearchange I couldn't even get it into 1st a couple of times during the test! The third car was a more mileage but drove a lot better than the other two so have put a deposit down on it It also had the same problem with the boot lock but it seems quite common from what I gather on the forums so I'll sort that out when I get the car home.

Any ideas on where I can get a spare wheel from as it only has the can of gunk / compressor.

[Lucaio]

the second was a very low mileage car with a really stiff gearchange I couldn't even get it into 1st a couple of times during the test!

I have exactly the same problem in my 9n3, have start off in 2nd sometimes because I just can't get it into first. Haven't really looked into it though so I guess this reply is pretty useless, sorry.

[adzpz]

Try resetting the linkages - it may help. If not try a gearbox oil change.

[VWindahouse]

Most Polo's didn't have enough gearbox oil from factory and it was crap oil also so 99% of gearbox issues can be fixed with an oil change. There are lots of great oils but I have had excellent results from Redline MTL. 90,000kms with heaps of track time and done some drags also and no probs with Stage 2 for most of those Km's and now 10,000 with Stage 3.

[carl s]

Thanks for the feedback, I'll be trawling the forum for useful information when I pick the car up hopefully next week

[carl s]

Just got the car home after a very wet 140 mile first drive. Stopped for petrol on the way, reached down under the seat to see if there was a petrol release flap on the floor anywhere (yes I now know there isn't) and found a factory fitted cd-changer under the passenger seat which was a nice surprise !

The seller hadn't mentioned that on the advert !