UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

just thought i would warn people from buying from Liverpool VW, after my 2012 Polo was recovered there due to it cutting out on numerous occasions and at one point almost causing an accident, after the vehicle was recovered (VW roadside assistance ) they arranged for a courtesy car i originally thought this would come from VW themselves but is actually through europcar after sorting everything out they wanted a £150 deposit for a rental car which i wasn't going to pay! i then rang liverpool VW to arrange alternatively they then said we don't have any vehicles available i understood this as there booked 6-8 weeks in advance but due to the nature of what happened i felt i was in the right mind to demand a vehicle from them they refused so i spoke to the service manager who got off his backside and said ill give you a call back, calls me back about 2 hours later we don't have any vehicles available there all with customers still next week but a master technician will look at your car tomorrow morning (saturday) i said ok fine.
Gets a call the next day from him your car has been sorted and it needed a ECU update came to collect the car at 12:30 with the missus goes the the car starts it EXACT SAME THING happened stalled and wouldn't turn over correctly, the service guy said oh yeah seems to still be doing it at this point i was furious, he said oh we will have another look at it mysteriously a courtesy car shows up out of the blue when the day before none where available! sits down with the service woman to sort insurance due to my age (19) it would have to go through my policy at a £15 charge fine no problem, what has seriously pee'd me off is if they have this car longer than tuesday i will have to PAY A premium to my insurance for having there courtesy car! i am in the process of contacting trading standards of the way they have chugged me backwards and forwards costing me a lot of money getting Taxis to and from the dealership and phone-calls! i feel they have just lashed me on the side and not taken this seriously would advise wisely from buying from them. Currently in the process now at looking at a new car disappointment as i thought VW would provide the best service i guess not!

When I had trouble with VW, I found the email address for the guy that is the Head of VWUK. Sent him and email and the following morning had a very apologetic phone call from the dealership Also one of his secretaries contacted to throughout to check that the dealership were sorting it out

Might be worth a shot

Sounds like you are having the same problem as me, they think because you are young that they can just walk all over and you won't have the backbone to do anything about it

Contact VW Customer Services. I have twice over the past 6 years for various reasons. I have learnt to contact them before I even approach my dealer, they then (The manufacturer) directly approach your local dealer and practically use their authority. I had a gearbox problem which my dealer said they couldn't entertain as they were booked full for the next 10 days, my next call was to VW Customer Services. Approximately 10 minutes later I got a call back from them saying take the car to my local dealer and they will arrange a courtesy car with Europcar. I too had to pay the £150 deposit but I can understand why this is the case. Infact, the £150 never cleared out my account and I had their car for 4 days!

update from liverpool VW, phoned them about 11am today to ask about an update on my car service advisor * unfortunately no update will be another few days * so she didn't really have a clue! about 5pm gets a phone-call from the service manager who said they have had my car in bits basically and cleaned everything (this being a 8 month old car) tech started it exact same thing car struggled to turn over with the slightest REV, he said it might be the cold i have driven numerous cars from cold starts and none of them dropped the revs so low it almost stalls when given a slight blip on the throttle, i mentioned to him that when the car is given a tiny bit of REV it takes about 1-2 seconds to realise i have touched the throttle! he said we are still looking into it and they apparently went and started two other polo's on the forecourt and guess what exact same thing happened to them from cold starts, now i have my concerns that this could be a global fault with Polo's from cold starts or just the (60-70PS versions) because after setting off wednesday the car stalled as i was driving and i almost collided with the car in front also happened at a junction car revs died and stalled. He is now waiting for a reply from VWUK regarding if this is normal or a possible fault, but i don't think its normal for a modern 2012 car to take 5 minutes to warm up before i can drive it i should be able to get in and go without and stalling or REV problems. regarding your replies was onto customer services they advised me to speak to there head manager to make a formal complaint being my age i think there trying to pull a fast one and bin me with a unroad worthy vehicle with the car being financed and the money i'm paying them for a pretty crap service ill be asking them to take the car back or compensation once i returned to the car on the saturday after they apparently updated the ECU i left half of tank of fuel 125miles range got back to it that saturday morning 70miles left, so it looks like someone also has been joyriding around for a few hours it's getting worse:(

I very highly doubt they have been joyriding in your car mate, why would they want to joyride in a 1.2 Polo when they have access to more powerful cars?

I suspect your range has reduced drastically due to your car being idle during tick over for long periods. This would decrease your average MPG as the car wouldn't have been moving and thus your range would decrease!

Ha yeah possibly could be that or they have been revving it for about 2 hours! Still waiting for a phone call today to see what is going on the insurance runs out on my courtesy car at midnight and I don't fancy getting wacked with a premium! Looking at a new car now possible stay with vw but bite the money bullet and move up to a TSI or even a GTI?

Defiantly get in touch with VW direct. They are dealing with my oil consumption issues and things have improved how the local dealership are treating me! (I'm guessing due to age also)

AJ_7 wrote:I very highly doubt they have been joyriding in your car mate, why would they want to joyride in a 1.2 Polo when they have access to more powerful cars?

I suspect your range has reduced drastically due to your car being idle during tick over for long periods. This would decrease your average MPG as the car wouldn't have been moving and thus your range would decrease!

I left my car idling for around an hour the other day and the range didn't drop off at all...

another update from Liverpool VW, got a phonecall today at about 12:30 'we have tested your car and other exact polo models and this erratic tick over has occured on all of them so its just the way the car is designed and i must give it a few minutes to warm up before i set off' so i could not be bothered arguing and have said ill collect my car at 6pm (as the insurance on this junk they have give me is due up at midnight) will let my mates dad check to see if it's normal for it to have this erratic tick over, in the meantime i will be onto VWUK to discuss the utter noddy's they have working at liverpoolVW and the way i have been fobbed off again no new car should have a tickover that sounds like its struggling to keep running or even stall, if this is the case i should of dirrectly been told when i purchased the car or in the manual when the car is started leave to tick over for 2-3minutes before driving nowhere does it say thisi would understand if it was a diesel! It might be me going mad or its VW trying to getting rid of me the saga continues....

I've always had Polos but have driven diesel variants since around from 2000-2011 and none of them had a problem like this. I had a 1.2 60ps 6R for a year which I bought in 2011 when I was made redundant and that survived the winter. No erratic tickover. I think the worst temperature was -8 too. I have the 1.2 TDI now and it has been fine, but it's not been majorly cold, -4 at the most, at those temperatures it will push the revs up to around 1k but after driving for a minute it's fine goes back to 750, doesn't cut out at all. I think they're fobbing you off to be honest.

it's very hard to explain ill upload a video tomorrow morning ... i start the car, rev's to about 1100RPM (normal) i blip the throttle which takes a second or 2 to realise i have tapped it rev it to about 1600-700 RPM then car rev's drop drastically down to about 600-500RPM and in cases will stall all together then go back to normal 1100RPM, doing this i have to wait at least 5 minutes before driving to avoid it stalling and to warm up if i leave the car for about a hour or 2 after warmed up then go back start no problems rev up same 1600-700 blips down to operating 850-900RPM VW are telling me that this is 'normal' in my eyes it's poor i understand a car must warm up but not after waiting 5 minutes for it every morning in the winter i might as well buy a old Ford escort with a choke and that will warm up faster! so i feel i am being fobbed off as a youngster with no brain building a case to put to VWUK against the way i have been treated getting my freinds dad independent mechanic to tell me that it's normal for this to happen if its normal fair du's i will have to live with it, if not VW liverpool/UK will have a very angry customer on there hands will give update later once i have picked it up from the clowns.

It's definitely not normal and they are fobbing you off.

You should be able to start any modern car and drive away whether it's cold or not

It'll auto choke at 1100-1200rpm then drop to 850ish rpm when it's warmed up, but it manages this itself

It sounds like the auto choke isn't running for long enough causing the engine to stall when cold.

ANOTHER update from Liverpool VW collected the car on the tuesday night returned to the car (recorded the TRIP at 291.1 miles on the saturday morning and the Fuel range at 70miles) (quater tank) after they told me that they had driven the car for a number of miles on the monday-tuesday and come to the decision nothing was wrong with it, i checked the TRIP guess what TRIP at 291.1 miles and 70miles range of fuel FOBBED OFF started it erratic tickover soon as blipped throttle to 1200RPM had to sit there for 5 minutes till it warmed up drove home and have kept my anger in till tomorrow as my day off work will be a stressful one, will be on the phone to trading standards and a email and formal complaint letter will be getting posted to VWUK recorded delivery, spoke to my friends mechanic, and he said it's not normal and a danger if the car is to stall as the engine is flooding fuel into the cylinders which could cause extreme damage in the future will be requesting VW to replace the vehicle as they have had over 2 attempts at fixing it and have fobbed me off twice saying this is normal will seek legal action against this as they have stated all other 60-70ps polo's they tested do this and class it as normal in my case almost caused a serious crash with a child onboard, again SAGA continues....

My 2002 1.2 Polo (same basic engine) will sit at around ~1100 rpm when cold, before dropping to the normal idle (~750rpm). The only time it's ever stalled is when I've stalled it by being useless.

They are totally fobbing you off- there's absolutely no chance that a modern car like the Polo has any issues with cold starts. It's not the '70s. I can 100% guarantee that all the other Polos they have in their lot do not do what yours is doing. You need to contact VW UK. Also, when I was 19 and had issues with insuring a courtesy car, they just phoned up their insurer (I guess it's VW's own insurance company, the same one that provides for those '1 year free' things) and got it sorted. They wouldn't allow me the Golf they had planned for me (they hadn't realised how young I was), but gave me a new Polo 1.2. Which started fine...

If you get chance upload a video of it and I'd be happy to compare it against mine. I've got 1.2 60ps, I've read what you posted earlier got in mine today started engine blipped throttle and the revs did dip but nothing further. Sounds like they are definitely giving you the run around.