UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Of the three cars, my preference would be the one at the Audi dealership;

• It has painted / powder coated alloys whereas the other two have diamond cut alloys. Painted / powder coated alloys are much more durable than diamond cut alloys and they won’t succumb to white worm corrosion that many (most?) diamond cut alloys do, especially when subjected to UK winter road conditions.

• From the pictures, IMHO the car at the Audi dealership just looks generally better prepared for sale than the other two.

The one negative I can see with the car at the Audi dealership is the front tyres. They’ve been replaced at some point (not really surprising on a car that’s covered 31k miles) with budget / economy branded tyres and they’re also mis-matched; tyre on the front right is a Dynamo Street-H and the one on the front left a Saferich FRC (not brands I’ve ever heard of). The two rear tyres are Goodyear so may still be the factory fitted originals. Unknown brand budget / economy tyres often suffer from poor grip and poor handling / braking performance (they’re not known as ‘ditch finders’ without good reason) with the risk of behaving unpredictability in certain situations - e.g. an emergency avoidance manoeuvre - so I’d personally be looking to replace the front tyres with a matching pair of a better quality well known brand; maybe that’s something you could a negotiate with the selling dealer?

The car at the VW dealership has been subjected to some harsh cleaning products at some point (maybe regularly?); the tell tale sign is the one discoloured plastic wheel bolt cover on each wheel - it’ll be the one on the locking wheel bolt - which turns light grey when cleaned with acid-based products.

Buying a VW from an Audi dealership shouldn’t be an issue, nor should getting it serviced at an Audi dealership as mechanically, the Polo is very similar - if not identical - to the Audi A1. However, servicing at an Audi dealership is likely to be more expensive than at a VW dealership so if you’re planning on using main dealers for servicing, then I’d personally use a VW dealer rather than an Audi dealer. You could also consider using a good reputable independent VW specialist for servicing; many good independents also have access to VW’s online service records so can update a car’s service history on VW’s system. They should also use genuine VW parts and approved fluids (something to check though if you do decide to use a VW specialist rather than a VW dealer). Servicing at an independent VW specialist may also be cheaper than at a VW dealer.

I would expect Audi dealers should have access to VW’s digital service records - I’d be asking the Audi dealer for a print out of the service history if you do decide to buy the car after you’ve viewed and test driven it.

The VW All-In product is good value when compared to ‘normal’ prices charged by VW dealers. Be aware that over the last few years, VW have had a November Black Friday sale on their All-In product and also their stand alone service plans. Last year the standard prices were discounted by 20% for the duration of the Black Friday sale. If you buy the All-In product, then you’ll need to use a VW dealership for servicing.

Please update this discussion topic once you’ve been to see the car at the Audi dealership. Good luck ; hopefully it’ll be a good car.

I will be seeing the Polo (in Audi soon).
I also had a look at some older cars which may tick the boxes as well. I note that some of the "SE" models may have added the Parking Sensors.

I have read that you can see the Autotrader listing date in the URL, which can help with understanding if the car has been on sale for a long time. Is there any way of seeing if the price has increased on decreased since on sale?

A car from an independent garage:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 24&fromsra

I appreciate your persistence with my questions, as my search has progressed I have learnt a lot about these cars, and also my budget has decreased a bit. I feel that I can get a decent car for less money, even if it is lower spec and a bit older. I have seen Polos in general are quite durable compared to other compact cars.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 24&fromsra

IS there a way of getting the spare wheel for cheaper? Most dealers are quoting 250-300 pounds even for a standard steel wheel 15 inch. I recall they were only around 100 pounds a few years ago with the Golfs.

How is the mobile charging, android auto or music playback with the USB A to USB c cable: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176370301850 ... c63a84fdbc

A 6 year old car from a main dealer: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 24&fromsra

Is 2 owners necessarily a deal-breaker. At the end of the day why does it really matter if the car has been well-maintained?

mk6Polo wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 4:19 pm I will be seeing the Polo (in Audi soon).
I also had a look at some older cars which may tick the boxes as well. I note that some of the "SE" models may have added the Parking Sensors.

Parking sensors weren’t standard on the SE model, so the first owner will have spec’d these as an extra cost option when ordering the car.

mk6Polo wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 4:19 pm I have read that you can see the Autotrader listing date in the URL, which can help with understanding if the car has been on sale for a long time. Is there any way of seeing if the price has increased on decreased since on sale?

Sorry, I’ve no idea if it’s possible to check the price movement history of a car on Autotrader since it was first advertised for sale.

mk6Polo wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 4:19 pm IS there a way of getting the spare wheel for cheaper? Most dealers are quoting 250-300 pounds even for a standard steel wheel 15 inch. I recall they were only around 100 pounds a few years ago with the Golfs.

You may find a cheaper used spare wheel kit on sites such as eBay. Usually, extra cost options such as a spare wheel are cheaper when they’re spec’d by the first owner at time of ordering the car new and fitted on the production line in the factory when the car is built. Buying a spare wheel at a later date from the dealer tends to be more expensive; you’d also need to check if the dealer quoted price is just for the spare wheel or if it also includes the jack, wheel brace, screwdriver etc. and the boot insert to hold the tools.

I can also remember when VW first started charging extra for spare wheels that the cost was around £100. I think that would have been around 3 years ago (my car’s nearly 4 years old had it had a space saver spare as part of the car’s standard spec). Current price for the optional spare wheel on a Polo is £250, so that’s a big price increase over a 3-ish year period.

mk6Polo wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 4:19 pm How is the mobile charging, android auto or music playback with the USB A to USB c cable: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176370301850 ... c63a84fdbc

I don’t often listen to music via my phone; I usually listen to local DAB radio stations. If I do listen to my own music, I have it on a USB flash drive that I keep plugged into one of the two USB ports below the HVAC controls.

I do charge my phone in the car and use Waze for sat nav and both charging performance and use of Waze work fine. I have a genuine VW cable like the one at the link you’ve posted (got it as a freebie from the dealer when I bought my car).

mk6Polo wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 4:19 pm A car from an independent garage:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 24&fromsra

I appreciate your persistence with my questions, as my search has progressed I have learnt a lot about these cars, and also my budget has decreased a bit. I feel that I can get a decent car for less money, even if it is lower spec and a bit older. I have seen Polos in general are quite durable compared to other compact cars.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 24&fromsra

A 6 year old car from a main dealer: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 24&fromsra

Is 2 owners necessarily a deal-breaker. At the end of the day why does it really matter if the car has been well-maintained?

As a generalisation, a car at an independent dealer will probably be cheaper than an equivalent car at a VW dealership as the independent dealer’s overheads are likely to be lower than the VW dealers (independent garages often have smaller premises in a less costly location). Any warranty package offered by an independent dealer is also likely to be less comprehensive than the benefits offered under VW’s Approved Used scheme. The cost of the VW dealer’s higher overheads and more comprehensive warranty package will be factored into the price of the cars offered for sale by the VW dealer.

If I were to consider buying a car from an independent dealer, I’d be checking out the customer reviews. I’d also be checking (or asking) what pre-sales inspections are carried out on the cars offered for sale (e.g. is an AA / RAC or equivalent inspection carried out, are cars HPI checked / checked for outstanding finance etc.), checking out the standard of pre-sales vehicle prep and quality of vehicle stock being offered for sale, along with the facilities offered (e.g. finance / PCP, workshop servicing / repair facilities) and the general overall impression of the dealership (e.g. clean / tidy premises and professional, knowledgeable, courteous staff, no high pressure sales tactics).

If I was considering buying a 6 year old car, I wouldn’t be concerned if it’d had two previous owners; if each owner had owned the car for three years IMHO that’s pretty much the norm for many people these days, considering that many cars are purchased on a three year PCP. Overall condition of the car, along with a complete service history and an MOT history with no advisories or only minor advisories and good quality consumables such as tyres would be important factors to me.

You ask why does it matter if a car has been well maintained - regular maintenance helps keep a car mechanically healthy, safe and roadworthy and reduces the likelihood of potential issues developing undetected over a period of time and becoming expensive issues to fix or compromise vehicle safety. A well maintained car is also likely to be worth more than an equivalent poorly maintained one come resale time. My car is on VW’s time and distance (annual) service regime so it gets checked over once a year, which hopefully lessens the risk of unexpected expensive repairs, although I accept that things can go wrong unexpectedly.

I had a look at the 2021 Polo Match at the Audi dealership. . The price was nearly £14k.

My initial impressions of the car:

• headliner has quite a few marks

• The boot floor liner was damp in places and the salesperson said this was due to washing the car recently

• The engine bay seems to have been washed - do they do this to hide things?

• When I first turned the ignition, the car had a number of errors including low battery and something to do with the servo

I was taken for a test drive and the car went into limp mode. Somehow the dealership managed to reset the car. This was quite worrying in a sense.
I get the impression that the car has been sitting around for quite a while. The auto trader listing is from May. Not sure if sometimes the non-franchised ones don't get promoted as much and therefore not taken on many test drives etc?

Service history - oil service in 2022, then the oil and inspection in early 2024. Considering the 31K on the clock, it should have been serviced ideally in 2023. The history is all VW main dealer servicing. It seems to have an active service plan until early 2025, but do these get cancelled once someone sells the car?

Overall feeling is that it is not as good as the other matches/SELs which were priced around £15-£16k from main dealers. I suppose you get what you pay for. There seems to be a sweet spot and then the depreciation curve flattens out if you see what I mean - so £500 less can often mean a much older, higher mileage or poorer condition car.

I saw this online, which comes with a spare wheel as well: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 21&fromsra

I wanted to ask, with low-mileage older cars how can you spot "clocking"?

mk6Polo wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:34 am I had a look at the 2021 Polo Match at the Audi dealership. . The price was nearly £14k.

My initial impressions of the car:

• headliner has quite a few marks

• The boot floor liner was damp in places and the salesperson said this was due to washing the car recently

• The engine bay seems to have been washed - do they do this to hide things?

• When I first turned the ignition, the car had a number of errors including low battery and something to do with the servo

I was taken for a test drive and the car went into limp mode. Somehow the dealership managed to reset the car. This was quite worrying in a sense.

Just goes to show that there’s no real substitute for viewing a prospective car purchase ‘in the metal’ as photographs don’t tell the complete storey and the seller can be selective in what they photograph. Additionally, photos won’t necessarily show any interior dampness issues and won’t reveal any unpleasant cabin odours (e.g. stale cigarette smoke in a previous owner was a smoker).

Cleaning the engine bay might just be part of an Audi dealership’s normal pre-sales vehicle prep process. Multiple error messages in a VW is often a sign of a low battery.

mk6Polo wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:34 am I get the impression that the car has been sitting around for quite a while. The auto trader listing is from May. Not sure if sometimes the non-franchised ones don't get promoted as much and therefore not taken on many test drives etc?

That’s quite possible. Always worth asking how long the dealer has had the car, although there’s a chance they might not always be honest with their answer!

mk6Polo wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:34 am Service history - oil service in 2022, then the oil and inspection in early 2024. Considering the 31K on the clock, it should have been serviced ideally in 2023. The history is all VW main dealer servicing. It seems to have an active service plan until early 2025, but do these get cancelled once someone sells the car?

If it was on VW’s flexible / long life service regime, then it could go up to 18k miles or two years between services. Flexible / long life service regime is the default from the factory with VW’s. I had my car’s service regime changed to time and distance / annual servicing before collecting it when I bought it as I like my car to be serviced once a year. As I said in my previous post, an annual visit back to the dealers also gives an opportunity for it to be given a once-over each year, which hopefully lessens the risk of potential problems / issues going undetected for prolonged periods and becoming expensive repairs.

mk6Polo wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:34 am Overall feeling is that it is not as good as the other matches/SELs which were priced around £15-£16k from main dealers. I suppose you get what you pay for. There seems to be a sweet spot and then the depreciation curve flattens out if you see what I mean - so £500 less can often mean a much older, higher mileage or poorer condition car.

I saw this online, which comes with a spare wheel as well: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 21&fromsra

Agree, you get what you pay for. The depreciation curve will have flattened significantly on a 5-6 year old car compared to a newer (less than three year old) car, so differences in price between a five and six year old car of similar mileage and spec will be much less than when comparing the price differences between three and four year old cars of similar mileage and spec. I think the key to finding the right car that ticks all - or most - of the boxes for you is to view and test drive a sufficiently large enough number of examples which will put you in a better position of knowing when a particular car is the right one.

The car at the link you’ve posted looks OK in the pictures and maybe worth viewing; drivers head restraint has a strange light coloured area on it (picture #35), but might just be an issue with the picture rather than the head restraint itself. You could check the MOT history for fails and advisories if you do decide to view and test drive it.

mk6Polo wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:34 am I wanted to ask, with low-mileage older cars how can you spot "clocking"?

I’m not familiar with how a car is clocked and how easy it is to spot. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading a good while ago that even if a car has been clocked, the true mileage is stored in certain modules and the car’s ECU, in which case a scan of the car should enable the mileage info stored in the ECU / certain modules to be checked against the mileage on the instrumentation display. I’m assuming there could be genuine instances when there are explainable inconsistencies between the recorded mileage in the ECU and instrument display - e.g. if the instrumentation panel developed a fault and has been replaced. Maybe a forum member who is more technically minded can confirm this or otherwise?

A simple way (although not foolproof) would be to check back through a car’s MOT history on the gov.uk website which shows the recorded mileage at each MOT. It’s not foolproof though, as a car’s mileage could have been tampered with before its first MOT was due. Service history is another simple way to do a mileage check if all service records are present.

I had a look at a 68 plate polo with around 20k miles on the clock. It was from a non-franchised dealer. However it had full service history from VW main dealers.
It was priced around 12k and was well kept.

I have noted that the SE models often have the carpet mats and spare wheel which can save quite a bit of money. I am aware of the risks of low-mileage older cars.
What happens with VW servicing after 6 years - The "all in" is only for 3-6 years?

I am also thinking about the Polo mk5. Do you have any experience of this model - any common issues to note? The boot has only 280 litres of space, but from pictures it seems you could still fit a large suitcase? Again, the SE/match is well specced and ironically has more items than an equivalent new/facelift Polo MK6 - e.g. centre armrest with the new trim hierarchy you need to go up to the SEL line.

This one has part-service history
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 17&fromsra

Another one:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 17&fromsra

I am currently using Autotrader - is there any other directory to look for local cars from independent dealers? What should I look at from independent dealers - how do I protect myself as I might not have the protection/reputation of main dealers? I see that some are AA approved? Should I go for independent inspection?

mk6Polo wrote: Sun Jul 28, 2024 10:35 pm I had a look at a 68 plate polo with around 20k miles on the clock. It was from a non-franchised dealer. However it had full service history from VW main dealers.
It was priced around 12k and was well kept.

I have noted that the SE models often have the carpet mats and spare wheel which can save quite a bit of money. I am aware of the risks of low-mileage older cars.
What happens with VW servicing after 6 years - The "all in" is only for 3-6 years?

Once a car is no longer eligible for the All-In service / warranty plan, then if you’re using VW for servicing you’d be paying the ‘normal’ VW dealership prices. However, with a six year old car, I’d probably be looking at using an independent VW specialist for servicing rather than VW. Many independent VW specialists are staffed by ex VW techs / mechanics who previously worked at VW dealerships, so will have been VW trained and have extensive VW knowledge, and the quality of work is likely to be very high as they want / need your repeat business. A reputable independent VW specialist will use genuine VW parts / VW approved fluids and many have access to VW’s online service records, so can update the digital service record for a car. Reputable independent VW specialists are also more likely to treat customers as individuals as your custom is their lifeblood. With a VW dealership, you’re more likely to be treated as ‘just a number’. The independent specialist may also be cheaper to use than a VW dealership.

IMHO VW carpet mats aren’t particularly good quality so if a car doesn’t have them, I wouldn’t see that as a deal breaker. There are lots of car mat retailer websites offering non OEM mats (but original fit using VW press stud fastenings) fit) of good quality specifically to fit the Polo shouldn’t be difficult. Most such retailers have a range of mats - including fully customisable where you can choose colour, edging type / colour, stitching colour, and add a logo if that’s your thing.

mk6Polo wrote: Sun Jul 28, 2024 10:35 pm
I am also thinking about the Polo mk5. Do you have any experience of this model - any common issues to note? The boot has only 280 litres of space, but from pictures it seems you could still fit a large suitcase? Again, the SE/match is well specced and ironically has more items than an equivalent new/facelift Polo MK6 - e.g. centre armrest with the new trim hierarchy you need to go up to the SEL line.

This one has part-service history
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 17&fromsra

Another one:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 17&fromsra

I owned a mk5 Polo GTI. It was a good car and trouble free but I owned it from new for 4.5 years, so I don’t have experience of owning an ‘older’ mk5 (agree the boot is small). However, with any older car, it’s likely to be more expensive from a maintenance perspective than a newer car as there’s an increased risk of more unscheduled maintenance work needing to be done when older parts / components wear out and need replacing. Gaps in service history might also be an indication that previous owners could have skimped on the cost of maintaining the car and that servicing / some scheduled maintenance jobs might have been missed, which could affect a car’s reliability and safety. Worth having a look through posts on the forum board for the previous generation Polo to get an idea of the types of issues owners have with their cars, along with some internet research of any common issues with the previous generation Polo. Also, if in-car tech is important to you, the mk5 will have older generation tech. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto was an extra cost option and on cars built around (I think) 2015-2017, if the original owner didn’t spec it when ordering the car new, it might not be possible to retro-activate Car Play / Android Auto because of incompatibility issues of certain factory infotainment units fitted in some (but not all) cars

mk6Polo wrote: Sun Jul 28, 2024 10:35 pm
I am currently using Autotrader - is there any other directory to look for local cars from independent dealers? What should I look at from independent dealers - how do I protect myself as I might not have the protection/reputation of main dealers? I see that some are AA approved? Should I go for independent inspection?

As far as I’m aware, Autotrader is the main site. Many of the vehicles offered for sale on other sites will be the same vehicles you see on Autotrader. I’ve looked through this one before; https://www.motors.co.uk/

For me, the biggest issue with an independent dealer (not to be confused with a reputable independent VW specialist workshop - covered above) would be the back-up service that they can - or possibly can’t - provide. A independent dealer may also do less comprehensive checks than those that VW promote on their website under their VW Approved Used scheme. Also, any warranty provided by an independent dealer will be a third party warranty rather than one backed up by VW so is likely to be more restrictive - both in terms of scope of cover and length of warranty period. Additionally, an independent dealer might not have VW-specific workshop equipment or the technical knowledge to diagnose and / or fix certain problems if something goes wrong and / or they might not use VW parts / VW approved fluids.

So to a large extent, you get what you pay for and a VW Approved Used car would IMHO be the safer option.

You could try the website/app for AutoUncle. It gives lots of info on any car it finds for sale. It also tracks the price of the car since first listing.
Maybe worth a look.