UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

yea 16v ecotek engines.....i heard theyre not very reliable though.

75bhp eh tahrey...mmm....i look forward to racing you

its supposedly an 8v 75hp job... or 73 depending on who you beleive

you'll have the weight advantage metz and possibly horsepower. maybe not torque however so the two might balance out

got its first real trip today, up and down to college. opened it up a bit but dont really dare rag it with any force, both because it's done about 46mph for most of it's life and cant take it without a few hundred miles of gradual running-in build up, and because i'd like to find out how good/awful regular fuel economy is before i go guzzling it.

still its quite sprightly, got over the ton with what felt like maybe a little too much work (in 5th, however, so thats like all of 4200rpm) and on the return trip twice managed to accelerate up to about 10mph more than i'd usually expect from the polo on a couple of "sticky" hills. Which is all i was after, after all.

driving it around, quite torquey (as i think the engine's based for, what with the high ratios and 6000rpm limiter - its almost diesel type setup) but i certainly realise now what kind of contribution the lesser weight makes to the perkiness (or otherwise ) of the 1.0 litre pre-95 polos. still slow, but can hold their own... perhaps it wasnt my driving skill after all

glad i didnt take it though*, gave it a little start up and a run (just to listen... you know), was a little rough, on some gentle revs i swear i could smell diesel..... or more precisely.... burning oil

tune up time at the weekend then ............... and me having just found my bloody checkbook as well.
i'll still send you the cheque metz even if the kits not on long, i've got to have it just to say i have and that i've given it a run. either leave it on there and sell to someone who'll appreciate having it, or take it off and sell for the same amount (scouts honour).


* would have been a lot more interesting and garnered a couple more smiles though... the polo just seems more fun to be behind the wheel of. perhaps i'm yet to find the right "sweet spot" with the vaux. or perhaps i'll be back in the vag fold after 9 months - theres lots of decent early 90s 5 door golfs about after all... whether or not it's just the size of the car that does it and so they'd be dull as well, who knows

why am i telling you all this...... .... guess i just need a good psych session right now to deal with all the issues over the car, college, work, relationships etc and this is as good a time/place as any to deal with the *one* aspect of that

So how much did you pay for it then? 4200rpm isnt that low for the ton. But alot lower than any mk3 polo I'll give ye that Id have gone for a mk4 TD saloon/estate myself, (31mph/1000rpm in top which is a proper diesel setup ) or even the seat cordoba because its alot cheaper. But there was a time that I did like the mk3 astra back in my youth...what colour is it?

£2250. For what it is..... thats pretty good. Worth closer to £2750 if not higher... 29k miles on an R, that's pretty close to the previous coup of 53k on an H..

Didnt had much luck with my looking im afraid, I was sniffing hard in the Polo - Ibiza - Skoda etc area... ---- the pattern ive seen idly looking through ebay the past year or more is that there is naff all worth consideration around birmingham. Situation was similar when i was out looking for my first car - i had a list of contenders that ran to about five, including a Renault 5, Citroen AX, Pug 305 and a Skoda Favorit... damn! And doesnt seem to have improved much. Maybe i'm just looking wrong, I dunno. Tried autotrader, local papers, other ad listings, just one sh***er after another. Nearly didn't get this as i skipped the ad thinking.. wow, 1.8, must go nicely but i'll never insure it. Typos, grr.

For the "next" car, a TDi Ibiza i think ... saw one today (T reg i think??) that was pretty close to the astra setup (silver, 5 door, simple alloys, etc) and it looked the mutts.

Polo estate would have been nice for the load space (and ability to go camping without a tent ), but damn, the Astra feels like enough of a barge as it is

Rough ratios ive worked out seem to be 5, 9, 14, 19 and 24 to the kilo. Which oddly enough equates pretty exactly to an 8P on the same wheels as the vox - uncanny (or even more closely to an actual 1.4 diesel mk3 polo 'box, on polo wheels). Not to mention that of the Punto I used to borrow*
24 is easily enough for now - it's a 35% overdrive compared to the polo after all. Would have needed a G40 box to get similar.

* actually now i do a little thought-experiment comparison in my mind, the new silver interloper is eerily similar to the punto in a lot of respects. Just got a bigger boot and much better build quality. Oh, and a shockingly small screenwash reservoir. Like, 2.2 litres...

I had a look at the prices of cordobas/cordoba varios after I posted yesterday and there were several good ones to be had for less than 2K. Average mileages too (sub 60K for the ones I was interested in) There were a few on there that took my fancy, like a 98 (R) vario 1.6 SXE with all the trimmings (air con. pas, electrics) the SXE has the tall block engine as well with 100bhp, 54K miles and a pricetag of £2K which I thought was pretty reasonable considering ita a polo in seat's clothing. A similar age spec polo estate would be in the region of £1-2K more. I used to own a polo estate (Mk5 with a 1.9 TDi engine in as you may know) It was a very nice car but the spec wasnt high enough; the drivers seat was not height adjustable for some upsetting reason which meant my knees were always on the steering wheel and it was uncomfortable on long journeys. The turbo lag got a bit frustrating as well. Id own one again but I would get as high spec as I could next time. (the 110bhp TDi version would have been nice)

Anyway, why have I written all this. You obviously dont like the cordoba anyway.

I have no idea what the pricing of the astra is like though so maybe youve got a good deal I dunno. What colour is it?

In my experience its worth travelling if its a good car, The best cars Ive owned have been the ones Ive had to go a long way to look at (100+ miles in some cases) It was always worth it. My current GT came from the birmingham area (wolverhampton) so you lot do have some taste at least.

the favorit would have been a bad choice - dreadful cars, 100% skoda derived i think unlike the felicia which has VW engines...

Im not trying to make you feel bad about not buying vag (honest!) but maybe we could have helped you stay on the straight and narrow a bit more than we did. And for that we should all be ashamed.

quick-mode reply:
cordoba was Golf based, wasn't it?

edit ---- slightly longer...
its not that i dont like em, i just didnt really look - seen em before and they looked at least jetta sized and then just too much of a leap and probably hellish expensive. same reason i havent bought a GTi even though i'd like one

i'd love to be able to travel to look at one or two cars, but i barely have free time to take 3-4 hours out once a week to go pub quizzin'... used up enough damn hours i dont have by going out looking at several (not tons of) nearby cars instead.

think i may make time out to go up hardknott pass this week though, got tons of free time from college's block-week, its only like 2 1/2 hours each way and i always promised the polo it would go there

was checking the vox under the bonnet a bit between work and dinner tonight though.... mayo under the filler cap.... wiped that off and am making a point of checking that again every 50 miles or so through the week (got probably 400 miles to cover by next sunday not including any lake district adventures). Hm. Probably just condensation. Maybe a crapped out gasket. In which case i'm cleaning it off again, smearing the filler cap underside in dirty oil using the dipstick, and flogging it to the first numpty that comes along who'll buy my story of selling it for a sick aunt...

dont worry about the straight and narrow thing - i can give you name, address and phone number of the guy who prompted me to jump feet first into the deep end of the lion's den blame it on him and just be grateful he didnt lead me to a Hyundai Accent (as per the original terrifying game plan)

the cordoba/ibiza/mk4 polo/mk5 polo all share the same basic chassis which is derived from the mk2 golf, so theyre all the same underneath, even all share the same dashboard...(similar age ones I mean)

when i passed my test i was looking at cars to buy and i got an insurance quote on an ibiza gti on a n or p reg summat like that and it was only £1500 or there abouts.

pretty good for like a couple of weeks after just passing.