UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Im thniking of getting a 9n but Ive read a few reviews stating its quite unreliable with a lot of common expensive faults (Ive no idea if this is true) such as steering pumps etc costing £300+. Also read a lot of statements saying its not as good as the mk4 or mk5. I've currently got a mk4 and Ive got £3k to spend and I can either get a mk5 or a 9n (sorry to mix up the mark names). Im steering towards the mk5 although Id prefer the 9n as its newer and I like the mods and styling it can achive. But the build quality concerns me?

Thank you

i think like any car it depends whos owned and looked after it, my mates 9n is on over 100k and other than wear and tear items it still runs mint, i also got my missus to get one (like a second car for me also) and have no complaints,
look after a car and it should look after you

Mates polo has done 156000. Only little wear on it mint and last mot last mont no faults at all

so quite reliable then even when quite old. Most dont seem to have air conditioning I notice, guessing the equipment was a bit low on most models.

Vw mate lol "what's that you want aircon. That will be an extra 600" lol I don't know the price it cost just made it up. If u get a 1.4 Tdi twist I know that has air con

i have the 1.2 SE and it has aircon, just got to look around mate, when i was looking quite a few had aircon

We had a 2002 1.2 9n for a year. Worst car in the world. My advice would be, if you really are going to listen to all the "my mate's mate's polo has been to the moon and back" posts is steer well clear of early model year 9ns (2002, 2003), and don't go anywhere near the 1.2 engine unless it's a lot more recent (2005 onwards when they fixed the design fault in the timing chain tensioner).

But seriously. The horror stories are real, and personally I'll never be buying Volkswagen again, let alone a Polo - that little car destroyed the reputation of VW group in my eyes.

and just like any car yours was one case in how many? just the same as if you dont look after the car ie regular servicing, cleaning, general mainteneance then the car isnt gonna look after you, as for worst car in the world i doubt that by a long shot, also for you deciding that the whole volkwagen group is let down then thats your loss i guess, i admit the build quality has suffered a lot on newer models because of cost, i would rather run my 2000 b5 passat forever than get the latest passat,
and also whats the problem with saying "my mates car" i say that because i dont own a polo directly but ive have done the regular servicing on "my mates" car and also most of the modifications, and now my missus owns one which i pretty much share its not even on 50k but i bet it will easily do triple that with nothing more than servicing and wear and tear parts

im not having a go im just trying to explain it but i can see that it might look a little blunt like every car some people have a good experience some have bad, unfortunately youve had a bad one

Mine's been great. 50k miles without a hitch. Same as every Polo I've owned. Lady at work has one (1.4tdi), has no issues. So does one of my colleagues (bluemotion), no issues from him.

2 friends up north have had an Ibiza and Fabia TDIs - no issues.

The problem with the "my mate's mate" stories is they're often partly hearsay and tend to gloss over details.

I can give you details about the 2002 1.2 Polo - the fact that they didn't bother clipping the rear washer hoses together to stop them popping open and filling the boot with washer fluid for example. The fact that the servo motors controlling the hot/cold airmix and the recirculation flap in the heater system are notoriously weak and routinely fail after just a few years, leaving you with uncontrollable heating that costs £2-300 to fix (more at the dealers) and is nigh on impossible to fix yourself. How about the fact that the timing chain tensioner on the 1.2 engine has a known design fault which causes the timing chain to slip after 50,000 miles or so, requiring a complete strip down of the engine? Which of these have anything to do with not "looking after" the car? Answer: none of them. Wrap it up in cotton wool if you like, early 9n's and especially the 1.2 still come with all these problems and more.

How about the squeaky bushes or the anti-roll bar that rusts out after a few years? I'm not even getting onto the stuff specific to my car yet. For that I might mention the failed catalytic converter after 62k, the broken throttle body, the blown EGR valve (which, when replaced with a genuine vw part, blew again after 6 months), the ABS pump "failure" related to a fuse box design fault, the leaky radiator, the electric door mirrors that randomly decided to sync themselves, and all on a car with a spotless service history that had - yes - been looked after.

The stuff I'm talking about isn't just bad luck, and it definitely isn't anything to do with neglect or improper servicing, it's just a long list of shocking manufacturing standards, terrible design, and downright bad engineering. Any car company capable of producing such rubbish (and not doing the decent thing and recalling it all years ago) doesn't deserve my custom again - there are so many better cars on the market, and I'm much happier driving them.

I think it depends really you could buy an absolute minter of a polo and mechanically it could be a nightmare mechanically it's hit and miss with any car if I'm honest stay away from the 1.2 and stretch for a 1.4 sport if posssible as it's a smooth engine and pretty decent on fuel. The only thing id say being a vw some genuine parts can be pricey but I think you pay for what you get and the polo is quality

Having owned my gt now for 18 months only issue I have had is the bushes failing but the car has been dropped 100mm+ so they done well I know that with any car you can get bad times I had a metro before ( not much difference lol) but that had a whole new loom and engine to solve an idle fault and 3 weeks later bam issue was back but that luck

ok mate no need to get all defensive, yep we all know the common little niggles, then again how many new cars get re-called for certain things? the 1.2 engine problem is exactly that an engine problem... does this problem happen to occur in a lupo by any chance? or maybe a fox?
the electric door mirrors on pretty much all vw range adjust both mirrors when set on one side and only one mirror when set on the other meakes it easy say you want to adjust the mirror down when reversing into a space it moves both sides without having to mess about,
if a car was that bad it would just die out except from the few hardcore fanboys etc,
same with my motor (passat), some people reckon its the worst car theyve owned.. others have laughed at 200k miles and going strong
i never said it was a perfect car, buts its deffinately not the worst,
either way you go enjoy crying rivers about polos while we enjoy ours

I've got to agree with JUV completely, but also a bit with 88rsr, VW and SEAT, in retrospect, should not really have involved themselves with using a crap Skoda design - most drive train parts used are still Skoda designed/sourced. On the other hand, using an old AUDI design, in the case of the B5 and B5.5 Passat has proved to be a winner and its only now with the crappy new "VW" Passat "B6" that buyers have started to get the old message and run for cover and buy from other manufacturers. I've just stuck it out with the 9N Polo (2003MY 1.4SE 68,000 miles) though it does like new bits frequently - last being rear bumpstop rubbers, another cheap design error! Now I'm moving back to the front end to see what new reasons there are for clunks etc, oh joy! It does keep the wife mobile though and does return about 45MPG overall. (I can get over 50MPG though at weekends!)

Oo=W=oO