Polo's - still a good buy?

[arbedub]

Hi all,

just registered to canvass opinions on whether or not you'd recommend buying a 2010+ Polo. I'm changing both cars, and was thinking of a NA 1.2/1.4 beater for the city, but everything I read about these cars seems bad news. i.e. 1.2 seems to eat chains and valve guides, and the 1.4 is guaranteed to get worn bores early on in life and sound like a diesel. I have been to see a few 1.4 examples, ranging from 30-60k, but they all seemed to be noisy. £1-2k to replace the engine is palatable, but not on a car that only costs 6-7k second hand and is still destined to fail once more.

I'm desperately trying to justify the extra on a Polo as we've owned VAG motors for 20+ years and SWMBO is keen, but I can't help feel that a 2013 fiesta makes more sense (did I really just say that?). I get that forums are where people come to complain, but this seems to all be backed up with examples that I've seen first-hand! Volkswagen just doesn't feel like the brand I used to drive 12 years ago.

any advice?

Cheers.

[iichel]

it depends a bit on what engine you're looking at. the 1.6tdi is rock solid and the 1.2tdi is also fairly robust. the 1.2tdi had an EGR problem, but usually replaced on VWs costs.
in the petrol range, the 1.2tsi is known for a rattle of the timing chain. sometimes, VW replaces it free of charge, sometimes they don't. I think it depends per dealer on how well you're helped.
the 1.4 N/A and the 1.2 N/A engines were abandoned in 2010 I think, when the turbocharged petrol engines were common good.
the 1.4TSI engine in the BlueGT is rock solid as well, but keep away from the 1.4TSI engine in the Polo GTI. it's subject to some design flaws even though it had a major revision.

in terms of value for money and return of interest etc, I cannot advise you that well. one of the reasons I'm sticking with VW and in special, with the Polo is the virtually endless options for customization.
both aftermarket and OEM equipment is widely available and affordable.
and I think the Polo offers a lot of car for your money. But I'm not in the position to compare something from other manufacturers, since I don't really know how they are in the market.

I think it's probably good to keep the rattling chain in mind, if you're going for a 1.2tsi. not all of them suffer from this.
make a test drive, start it with a cold engine, listen well. if you're lucky (well, not lucky but more like... not unlucky) you'll find a trouble-free one.
since you're buying a used one, chances are that you'll easily be able to find the troublesome engines.

[wolfie]

Hi all,

Volkswagen just doesn't feel like the brand I used to drive 12 years ago.

any advice?

Cheers.

I think that's about the size of it. I've been driving VW's for almost 25 years, the Polo certainly isn't the car I'd like it too be. It's been cheapened in quite a few areas and it shows, if not initially as the mileage creeps up. The paint isn't as good as on the 9N Polo's, engines you've sussed out for yourself. I run a 1.2Tsi that I bought new (2011) and I will probably be parting company with it at some point this year.

Are they a good car? Well it's always going to be down to personal opinion. Good points, personally I like the interiors and the look of the car. It rides well for a smallish car, a little soft for some people taste but it does make longer journeys more relaxed.

Bad points. Engines, but that can be said of a lot of VAG lumps at the moment, as you say they ain't what they used to be. A few paint faults appear to be popping up here and there.

Are they worth extra the premium? I'm not sure, they're certainly not as good as you'd like them to be, there's a whiff of fragile about them now. I don't want to sound like I'm slagging them off, I run one and I kind of like it. But it should be better. I'd certainly look at other brands now rather than just jumping straight into another VW.

[arbedub]

yes, it'll definitely be used for me, although looking at private sale cars and the shower of proverbial available it would have to be a 'das welt' supplied car. I can't justify buying a new car for a city beater, but it does need to be reliable and safe, so the 60 or 70hp 1.2 3Cyl would have been a great fit had it not been allegedly plagued with these chains and valve guides. I wouldn't consider a 6 year old car 'old' though, more of a 'good-enough' car for doing what it needs to do in a harsh city environment. It's a shame but it looks like VAG haven't given any thought to the longevity of a cars life cycle and just pumped out loads of new units. I wonder if anyone at VAG remembers their advert "Look how many "V's" and "W's" are around you" that they used to go on about (or something like that..)

ah well. I was rather hoping that there would be some good things to say, but it may not be too bad-a-time to ditch VAG until they've sorted their house out and are back on the up again. I can't see the next decade going too well for them. No doubt the faithful customer will be the real losers in this though. There will always be a good market for good looking cars, but not if they're unreliable and they forget why they were popular in the first place.

I still never thought I'd be taking VW's off the list for reliability concerns though, maybe for the corrado VR6, but not the wife and kids mobile.

[RUM4MO]

Just a point, the 1.4 N/A engine stayed in the Polo range until maybe 2014 or 2015, these engines do not suffer from bore wear, that was only found on engines prior to 2002 model change to 9N. Yes the 1.4 is boring, but boringly reliable, so it depends what you value in a car - I'd think that it is one of the better choices are knocking around town with the odd trip longer distance. Remember the 1.4 N/A is not direct injection, which is good for short journeys - also not having a turbo charger means less expensive bits to go wrong, they do have a belt driven cam though - which is what the latest 1.2TSI engine have!

[wolfie]

Just a point, the 1.4 N/A engine stayed in the Polo range until maybe 2014 or 2015, these engines do not suffer from bore wear, that was only found on engines prior to 2002 model change to 9N. Yes the 1.4 is boring, but boringly reliable, so it depends what you value in a car - I'd think that it is one of the better choices are knocking around town with the odd trip longer distance. Remember the 1.4 N/A is not direct injection, which is good for short journeys - also not having a turbo charger means less expensive bits to go wrong, they do have a belt driven cam though - which is what the latest 1.2TSI engine have!

See that's interesting. While I like the Polo, because mine is an early 1.2Tsi CBZB engine I sense problems in long term ownership unless a bite the bullet and address the cam chain issue at some point. Up to yet other than a slight rattle on start-up the cars basically OK, bar the odd niggle.

That said, from what I think you've said here the direct injection engines are not really suited to short journeys, which in my case is 90%+ of all my use. I do tiny miles, around 4k last year. I have been thinking of parting company with Polo and maybe downsizing to an Up!/CitiGo or Mii. But if the 1.4 looks a reliable long term keeper then I may have a look around for another Polo.

Do you recon the 1.4 polo would be a better choice??

Cheers

[RUM4MO]

Fuelling and emission wise, the direct injection engines should be better than a manifold (indirect) injection engine for short journeys/light duty - but, as an owner, one aspect of these direct injection engines is, the inlet tract near the inlet ports gets gummed up which leads to poor running! This is a problem with all direct injection petrol engines and no amount of Tetraclean etc fluids can solve that - only fix is to remove the inlet manifold and shot blast with walnut husks I think. That is the very reason why newer direct injection petrol engines have "dual" injection, with injectors in the manifold and injectors in the head - this set up is sold on the idea that it suits power and cruise conditions better, when in fact, while it might, it mainly is getting rolled out to get rid of coking up inlet port areas! Again turbo charging, good, but only really best for longer journeys as they get a chance to heat up fully.

The old 1.4 16V just has fewer clever bits to go wrong - remember this is not the first time that a design award winning engine has replaced/displaced a reasonably useful old tech engine, though emissions and economy are the main targets these days, years years ago, Fords old 1.1 and 1.3 8v engines were, over their lifetime very very green engines - but they were dull and noisy and not fashionable - so they had to go.

My guess is, when you take the entire life of an engine, ie initial build materials + fuel + oil + carbon emissions when running + disposal/recovery of engine materials at end of life, then modern engines will never get close to the larger carbon footprint of these old engines - reducing carbon footprint is the stated goal of society, but selling mugs new ideas is what brings the money in!

I did not set out to replace my wife's car with a turbo charged car, but I have to take what is being sold, I did want a petrol engined car and I did want something like 110PS - so that meant 1.2TSI - lovely engine, but it will cost a bit further down the line.

BTW, I think that I once read that Toyota discovered the coking up of the inlet tract when using direct injection on petrol engines, so immediately fitted some upstream injectors to make sure that there was just enough fuel getting past these areas to keep them as clean as for indirect injection petrol engines - but maybe they managed to patent that idea, which seems a strange thing to be able to do, so it is only now that others are managing to correct that issue. Some new VAG engines are being designed with dual injection petrol engines.

[wolfie]

I think you're spot on, big and dirty is always going to be more reliable in the long term. However the cross that we all bare chasing ever more stringent emission standards is only ever going to make engines more complex, that complexity, at least in the first couple of iterations appear to impact on reliability and make them fragile/problematic in the longterm. On paper and to drive the 1.2TSi is a great little engine but its had some pretty serious issues that VW have done well to keep quiet (I suspect it's the VW way) What are we up to? the 3rd generation of the 1.2? With each new version feeling like a fix for the previous generation rather than pushing the technology forwards. Engine life cycles seem to be very short at VW, and as much to do with design cock-ups as innovation.

I'm seriously considering downsizing and going "Cheap & cheerful" Weather permitting I'm off to look at a CitiGo and a Mii tomorrow.

[Guest]

The chain problem with 1,2 tsi motors is solved. VW gives garanti untill 150.000 km or 5 years i think. My VAG mekanic just told me. My tsi is the updated version from 2013 with only 28000 km on the clock. I only drives 10 km 80% of every time i start the car. I am very satisfied with the car and there is no faults in nearly 3 years. It's a 90bhp 6r,6c model with HAZ powerbox witch give me 117 bhp. Goes like crazy, dont spend oil and use around 1 l. pr 16 km i City driving. Im love my car


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[MichelKasapovic]

The chain problem with 1,2 tsi motors is solved. VW gives garanti untill 150.000 km or 5 years i think. My VAG mekanic just told me. My tsi is the updated version from 2013 with only 28000 km on the clock. I only drives 10 km 80% of every time i start the car. I am very satisfied with the car and there is no faults in nearly 3 years. It's a 90bhp 6r,6c model with HAZ powerbox witch give me 117 bhp. Goes like crazy, dont spend oil and use around 1 l. pr 16 km i City driving. Im love my car


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk