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Hi just love this car but I'm older, female and no real mechanical knowledge bar basics.
I live in Devon and the MOT is up on end march. Was going to wait and find; out problems but now front wheel bearings are loud so that's another £££ to take into consideration.
I guess I'm looking for others who might want to chat VW polo as the only people; I can ask advice are garages.
It's 2003, black 5 door. 145000. Put new cambelt on at 107000 and that was 7 yes ago so it's not exactly been driven .lots.
Last yr advisorys rear bushes subframe no movement and slight corrosion rear brake hoses?
For an enthusiast this little car would be great to work on.
Unfortunately most people would probably give me 50p for it, at least that's what the RAC man said
I had an advisory on bushes (another vehicle) at one MOT. The following year none. Not sure if you mean a brake line or hose. The flexi hose is easy to swap out and inexpensive. Flush and replace brake fluid at the same time. Find a friendly local mechanic who will let you supply parts or order the parts you want to use. None of those jobs requires more than average skills (and a bit of patience). Most of the parts needed can be purchased for modest cost. For example, a cambelt, water pump and roller kit £100 or less. Febi, Gates, or INA brands are fine. IIRC, the tool needed for the cambelt (locking pins) is cheap and the crank pulley tool can be improvised. Care is needed to support the engine with the o/s engine mount off (safety) and a bit of muscle for the tight fasteners. It might be quicker/easier to replace the hub/bearing (and ABS sensor ring) assy (about £20). Use coolant that meets the spec. Although you are overdue on time for the cambelt, given the low use and presumably low-stress driving it might last a while longer but why risk it? Calculate the costs for all that needs to be done and ask yourself what would you replace the Polo with for that amount of money.
I usually find it a bit difficult to know when exactly to "move on" and leave my/our older cars behind, I try to keep cars from new for maybe up to 15 years old and do all my own repair work - or at least as much as I can.
My wife's last car, a 2002 9N Polo 1.4 16V 75PS was a personal import, just a trick I tried to save some money and be able to spec a new car up without being robbed by VW UK, so, I always knew that we would be owning it for a long time to make the most of the initial money savings.
It was our first small VW Group car and coming from Ford Fiesta 1.6S Injection, it was a nasty little wallet grabber from an early stage in its life, plus I had mis judged just how little driveability that engine would offer, poured money into it to keep it running reliably, it was also a horrible little car to work on, pure Skoda quality CZ steel used in its running gear.
It's end came when I worked out that at 105K miles and 13 years, to correct all it's current ills would cost me a lot of money and effort, so in spring 2015 I prepared a "buying spec" and submitted that to our local VW main dealer with the additional info "it is only one price, one deal" - "so you either say yes or we walk", that worked, for that deal, the car was built to our spec but needed to get reg'd initially by that dealer - before being sold on to us as second owners with only delivery miles. Now to some people that might seems a bit annoying as that car, when we sold it on, would be showing 2 previous owners - but almost 10 years and 52.4K miles on, does that matter to us - no.
For most people owning a car that gets used, or needs to get used, even for small annual mileages, it is all about being able to jump into it and go, and not having to worry about if it will actually stay going, so that is why I have already carried out quite a lot of work on this 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS 5 Door 6MT, it is a completely different quality of car to that 2002 9N Polo, quality of steel used on the running gear is much improved, the bulb of the work I've done, apart from front wheel bearings, is more to prolong its "fault free" live, ie addressing some well known issues (road springs and dampers ect) before failure happens.
Maybe this is just the ramblings of an old DIYer, but that is the way that view things like cars, especially one that my wife needs to be to jump into and use as and when she needs to.
I thought that Pamplona, Spain, was where most Polo 9Ns were built for supply to the European market? It seems that many of the parts on my old 2002 were made/supplied from Turkey.
A VIN starting with AFA = South Africa, 9BW = Brazil and VSS = Spain. I was surprised to see that my old 2002's VIN code starts WVW = Germany (Wolfsburg). A keeper!
littlepolo wrote: Wed Mar 05, 2025 7:58 am
I thought that Pamplona, Spain, was where most Polo 9Ns were built for supply to the European market? It seems that many of the parts on my old 2002 were made/supplied from Turkey.
A VIN starting with AFA = South Africa, 9BW = Brazil and VSS = Spain. I was surprised to see that my old 2002's VIN code starts WVW = Germany (Wolfsburg). A keeper!
I'm not sure how valid that assumption was ever, that SA build 2015 6C Polo also has WVW, the actual build factory is another field in the VIN. WVW just means that it is VW.
A VIN checker reports that my Polo was made in Germany. Could it be a variation of 'Engineered in Germany' (but built in a location with cheap labour)?
I'm trying to remember but failing slightly, maybe the 3 door and GT RHD models were built in Germany when your car was built, certainly 5 door 9N Polos were built in Spain in a VW branded factory.
There will be an area in the internet where there is a full break down of what each of the characters in the VIN of a VW Group car.
By the way, my older and younger daughters both have SEATS and the VIN of both starts with VSS which just means that they are SEAT models. My Audi S4's VIN starts with WAU again, just because it is an Audi model.
