UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

i'm hoping/praying that once these three little probbies i have with my poolo (ok, make it 4*) have passed, it will be dandy and ok. however, to take a jumping assumption that the garage look it over and say, mate, it's gonna cost you £300 or more to sort this crap out and get it thru the MOT, and there's every chance you'll be back again in 3 months time with buggered shocks/etc ---- what might you guys reccomend?

1. sight-unseen genesis off ebay (as i fancy a 1.3 with an 8P and "full" clocks, as ever... pref SB, but any shape any colour really as i dont carry much gear these days). there's some nice looking ones that will certainly sell for less than the cost of the petrol tank and pedal fettlin' - but you dont really get chance to see them in flesh without a usually costly visit, "you are bidding to buy not look" after all and there's only one within sensible no-bid looking distance this week... the other side of brum but £2.50 cheap day return on the rails! next nearest... manchester and gloucester!
2. genesis or some other mk3 out of autotrader, local news, off the street, cheap-ish nearby dealer, etc.... at the risk of ending up with another money pit if i dont get wise with it
3. some other polo/vw??
4. the rather nice 1967 (no tax ) morris 1000 (4-door! must be retro fit...) thats on sale just up the road, or the beetle of similar vintage round the corner from it.... both utterly impractical (but for the rear doors!) but have novelty fun-time value and also a long established hot rodding scene (less "rice", more the yeasty dregs at the bottom of your ale ) with serious speed and bling potential.. could i ever afford it
5. something else...??

5 put in, because --- it's been a long time since i considered what i might buy, and back then it came down to a narrow spread of cars that ran up to I.G.6 but weren't total death traps (Uno, Polo, Favorit, Astra... Fiesta?!). Could do with some fresh ideas - low budget is still a key element but i might be prepared to go up to, say, GT level or at least 1.3 coupe.... First one to suggest Saxo, Corsa or Ka without a very good explanation gets shot!


* 1. petrol tank, 2. mildly knackered pedals (covered more than 20 miles only using clutch/footbrake in emergencies so far), 3. screwed up new door respray (paints coming off already), 4. conked tyres.... not counting the non-"fatal" faults - non-tilting seats ive planned to replace, binding brake shoes, badly lubed throttle cable, mysterious oil leak etc......

I would say stick with a Polo, but maybe get it checked out by the RAC/AA (possibly even a mechanic you may know through a friend of a friend?)? If you can factor in another £100 (dependant on who you go with) you can have a full check done, if you particularly see a car that you like. I know it may be pointless if you walk away from the car, as say the AA may find it to be rotten throughout or another serious fault, but it would be better than finding loads of little faults cropping up, or you buying a potential death trap, or clunker on its way to the VW dealer in the sky.

Its just a thought. And even if you don't get a mech to check the car out, I suppose theres enough people on here with Mark3s to give you a list of what to watch out for or problems they incurred, so you may not need to call someone in anyway.

Thanks.

Karl.

Tahrey1043 wrote:low budget is still a key element but i might be prepared to go up to, say, GT level or at least 1.3 coupe....

My old Coupe 1.3 S is still avaliable - see posting in for sale section

Or follow the link below

http://www.tigerstyle.co.uk/poloforum/v ... php?t=4921

I think the link to the pictures stills work - if you want any more info contact me

still havent managed to shift that one mate?
dunno what my folks would think of me ditching this old banger to go with something 4 years older, but sounds pretty good for £400 notes

towbar as well

how much were the alloys again?

(hm, wonder if i could injection convert it... wiring would probably be a b***h)

then again, norfolk, and i'd forever be whining about the lack of servo


a thought to chew over at least.... seeing as it is, after all, minty as kendal cake. 147 pages of service history? how did it not sell?

Personally I'd say, for practicality, budget, reliability etc, get another old polo, just make sure you really check it over properly this time. For the cool factor, go with one of the old ones local to you, but bear in mind that beetles come in two flavours, the cherished, maintained after every trip to the shop type, and the 40 year old and never had an oil change type with the floor falling out. There are an alarming amount of the latter. Plus, they drink (and I mean -drink-) petrol, even if they're well maintained. Lucky if you get 25mpg out of one.

I'd say the best advice I could give you would be to buy one from someone on a polo forum, be it bstardchild's mk2 or some other one. That way, you can almost be certain that it's been maintained by a competant owner and pretty much cherished for years. Plus, you can check back through their past posts to see what problems they've asked for help on

Ah yeah, and I wouldn't bother converting it to fuel injection.. just as much hassle as a full engine conversion, much less power increase and insurance premiums will go sky high anyway. You'd be getting a more powerful car with the 1.3 engine (and no cat ) anyway, it's not really worth it.

mind you 44mpg aint bad......

bit of an update on this one basically i've been plugging bits into endsleigh's premium calculator... now, take these numbers with following caveats...
1. my current premium is about £480 for the same cover i'm trying for
2. when i plugged my current car and details into it - inc the extra years no claims i just earnt - it told me about £750
3. changing "bar staff" to "medical student" (come september!) dropped that to £500 so i could be seeing happy insurance times ahead with the renewal discount and seeing as my real premium is so much lower

Polo CL 1.0 : 500
Polo Genesis 1.3: about 600-650, not so bad
Polo GT: 680...!
GT coupe: 700-750..
G40: TWO GRAND i'll wait til i'm 25 and the prices are back on the rise as they get properly rare (seeing as they stopped production when i was about 15)
Old Coupe S: 575 or so
Fiat Punto 60S: 620-ish (offered for sale on works noticeboard)
Punto 75SX: 700 ish (mums old one, nice car)
Rover 25 1.4 hi-tune: 750 (mums current... hey i could afford that, sort of! controls are FAAARRR too light tho)
Fiat Panda: 450 (hardly seems worth the change )
Saab 900: 1300 (also on works board.... nevermind)
Volvo 240: 1000.... (dads... worth it for all that extra metal and grunt)

and now....
VW Beetle, 1972: £1200!
Morris Minor 1098cc, 1967: £1680!!! Screw that!

Looks like that Coupe might actually be in with a good chance then, if its been coddled as much as I suspect B*stard might have Wonder if a brake servo mod would be easy (swap it out from current, hope the buyer doesn't notice how firm the brakes are). Been looking again at Ebay and Autotrader, and nice as the ebay prices are, a chance to look over them would be nice, or at least get better history that others might back up. The Genesis that was a £2.50 train ride away turned out to be the rust-ridden one and autotrader was useless.

Aw, crap, i forgot to check out Astras and Xantias... (dads other car - automatic and air suspension... luckshureh.. hehe)

Tahrey1043 wrote:still havent managed to shift that one mate?
dunno what my folks would think of me ditching this old banger to go with something 4 years older, but sounds pretty good for £400 notes

To be honest - For ages and ages I was tempted to keep it and sell the 1.4 CL - it doesn't go half as willingly as the old Coupe S.

Tahrey1043 wrote:towbar as well ?

It's not fitted at the moment - but I do still have it It only towed a garden 4 x 3 trailer once!!!!

Tahrey1043 wrote:how much were the alloys again? ?

I have a set of nice clean (well grubby but no kerbing but could do with a bit of paint) MK1 Golf/Sirroco GTi alloys complete with OE centres - was tempted to fit em but never got round to it - seem to go for £75 -£95 on Ebay

Tahrey1043 wrote:(hm, wonder if i could injection convert it... wiring would probably be a *****)

then again, norfolk, and i'd forever be whining about the lack of servo ?

Braking isn't too bad without a servo it jut needs a firm shove on the pedal

Tahrey1043 wrote:a thought to chew over at least.... seeing as it is, after all, minty as kendal cake. 147 pages of service history? how did it not sell?

It didn't sell cos I wasn't going to give it away - I had lots of enquiries locally when I put it in the free ads but most were 16/17 year olds who hadn't even passed their test and wanted to take it for a test drive - honestly they wanted to drive - jesus!!! Not a single person was even intersted in the two A4 ring binders of history...... weird...

It has it's faults but maybe I've made too much of them - if it's going to an enthusiast - I'd maybe just maybe let it go for £350 with tow bar and alloys included but it would have to be a good home and you'd have to be a nice person.

£120 for the new tyres recently fitted
£35 worth of MOT till middle of next year
£35 for bout 3 mths of tax from memory
£30 for the full tank of fuel
£75 For the alloys

Plus it's had a recent service oil and filter plug and ignition leads - it doesn't need brakes doing or an exhaust

That means the car itself is £55...... How cheap is that!!!! - if you had had to spend any money on it in term of running expenses in the next 6000 miles I'd be amazed - It's good to go and I reckon will give several years more trouble free motoring

PS smart alecs - No I won't accept £55 for the car and I keep the tyres alloys and towbar and surrender the tax myself - it won't drive half as well on steel rims - mind you it'll be low!!!!!

Tahrey1043 wrote:Aw, crap, i forgot to check out Astras and Xantias... (dads other car - automatic and air suspension... luckshureh.. hehe)

All I can say is: WARNING! Check the suspension system on the Xantias. They can be up to a grand to fix, and the number of L and M platers in my local scrappy suggests they tend to go at that kind of age.

Thanks.

Karl.

Adding a mk3 brake servo to a mk2 would require you to completely re-engineer the bulkhead. Otherwise I'd have done it months ago

Seriously though, give it a week and you'll be completely use to it. They stop just as.. well, badly as a mk3 does, it's just a bit of a different technique. Trust me though, after a couple of weeks you'll instinctively be trying to lock up the wheels of anything you drive with a brake servo, it just comes naturally

If I were you, I'd go for it. It'll be a lot nippier than your mk3, and by the sound of it, a fair bit more reliable...

Tahrey,

I'd say, go for bstardchild's car. Better an older, well-looked after car than a newer money pit. It's all in the profile of the previous owner(s) really.

Whoever the first two owners were, they were about as obssessive about their cars as I am with mine (yes I also keep all my petrol receipts from the day I took delivery of the car - sad I know). I'd go for that.

A word of advice: DO NOT bite more than you can chew. That means, stay away from mid-sized cars until you can actually afford a new or nearly-new one.

'90s Xantias, Passats, 405s etc. may be cheap now but their running costs are as high or higher than when these things were new.

Same for highly-valued used cars like older Golfs - you can only afford to buy 'image' in a new car, never in used ones.

And if you decide for something other than bstarchild's car, take your trusted mechanic, or any mechanic, along with you for the test-drive. I can't stress that point enough.

(unless you're an experienced mechanic of course)

i would have to agree with babe ruthless on this one........

Ross

I hope bstardchild appreciates the selling job we're doing on his car

Xantia insurance: over £1000...... no ta, endsleigh!
Astra (same spec as my bro's): not appreciably more than a Coupe S

hmm!

Dad's Xant is a P-plate, and he's already had a time with suspension and brake issues (the old citroen thing of them stopping you with similar force to an apollo rocket taking off, but requiring a worrying half-second to respond) and - hopefully - got thru the woods with it, having dealt with it at a time when he was considerably more flush. Then again, probably because he did drive fairly enthusiatically when there was excess cash for petrol, and liked to play with the up/down suspension feature at traffic lights - a LOT Only recent problem being a leaky fuel line at the forward pump, solved by chopping the (slack) piping short and re-crimping it in place.

Think it would be horrible (for me) to drive though! It's the french industry's best impression of an american boat-style car, but boil-washed to the minimum comfortable size for a 5-door. Plus points - nice styling even today, air con still works and the stereo's pretty good. (oh yeah, work that sale)

Something I forgot about from my first time out, looking for a car - Pug 305, around the same age as mk3s. Very nearly went for one of them, a tidy looking one that just needed a hell of a clean and valet, but the seller never answered the phone. Odd that. They still any good?

Or an Ibiza! Belgian flame-haired girl who went skydiving with my bro (and gave him a lift while his car is being de-dinged.... at about twice his usual cruising speed) has a metallic green 5-door ibiza saloon.. very odd but quite nice. And the car's not bad either (um? )

Feeling a bit more like I can keep this one a while, at least bring it up to a decently saleable state (IE sort the tyres out ... so i can keep the mk4 wheels and get that bloody door re-repainted and blended) and see how i feel about it in a week or so's time. After all it's given nearly-faultless service but for all the parts that have worn (belts, bearings, shocks(?!), leads, pads etc) and this current double-whammy. Would like something "better" though.

The carroty one wrote: Seriously though, give it a week and you'll be completely use to it. They stop just as.. well, badly as a mk3 does,

no, there's nothing wrong with the strength of the brakes... I *meant* to abort that overtaking maneuver with only metres to spare before tucking back in behind the truck...
The ol' vacuum assistance does give an almighty help to the initial "OH SH*T" sharp-application response time tho! i might miss that a little first time an emergency stop is needed... when the mk3 comes back i might practice going down a (quiet) hill ignition-off, pump the pedal a few times then try to lock 'em as quickly as possible.

it's just a bit of a different technique.

Hit 'em fast and hit 'em hard?

Trust me though, after a couple of weeks you'll instinctively be trying to lock up the wheels of anything you drive with a brake servo, it just comes naturally

Almost did first time i had to stop at lights on the way home with it. Might have been something to do with it having no braking force at all on the rear wheels tho.. hehe..

If I were you, I'd go for it. It'll be a lot nippier than your mk3,

Well, 100kg or more weight loss, 1300cc, it'd be like multipointing the old squareback (and putting it on slick 195/50s)

and by the sound of it, a fair bit more reliable...

now be fair, most of its been bad luck, but for certain this thing's either been swimming in the sea, or parked next to a winter salt silo when the local scallies have been round looking to knock things on their side...



Ahem. Anyway. Yes, between you all, bstard et al, a good selling job going on... the car itself going for £55 and all (mine'll probably go for a price where the frame and basic powertrain components have negative value). Probably be prepared to offer a little for the wheels and stuff if i decide to buy (not sure on the towbar, though it might be more neccessary for a coupe - however, no trailer certification on my license!). Even if it IS in norfolk.
Suppose you attracted the kids because of it's bad-boy look hehe.. i'm going to go look over the spec list again, but i still have questions that it may or may not answer...
is it dropped?
what are the seats like? (if theyre dodgy fox style ones, i'll be visiting concept-e still)
how many clicks on the foglight switch?
whats the stereo like?
how much dya reckon clear indicators would be?

serious ones: got any decent interior and detail shots? those outside pics look good, but to be picky - they're small, from a distance (showing whole car) and in the rain
why are you keeping the 6n in preference to it?
are those alloys therefore larger than standard (and needing a recalibration, even if just mentally, of the speedo) if it's "low" on standard steels?
the 5-speed is an 8p, or GT style? i cant remember... dammit....

hehehe...
I'm a nice chap and unlikely to thrash it so much any more (well, maybe the first few times out... recipe for being wrapped round a tree yeah), it's a "good home" ... just theres so much i (and my bank account) can stand for in the space of 2 months!

BTW is that rubbing strip on your door made of rubber rather than plastic? i have a feeling the door i bought was off a scrapped one in exactly the same colour and trim as yours (thereby definatlely pinning it down as an Mk2 one)!!

GroovyCarrot wrote:I hope bstardchild appreciates the selling job we're doing on his car

I do indeed...... but it appreciates it more as it's missing being used on a regular basis....