Faults:

Electric windows have broken twice. $280 x 2.

Air con broke $1000 repair.

Gearbox broke and clutch broke. $1500 repair.

Problem with fuel tank - car wouldn't start $1350 repair.

Transmission gone, needs total replacement. $thousands.

Not to mention the ridiculous service costs.

General Comments:

Attention everyone even thinking about buying a VW - they are lemons!! Had nothing but trouble since buying this in October 1999. Thought VW's were meant to be robust and reliable - was so wrong...

We have spent so much money on fixing this car. The latest problem, the transmission will apparently set us back thousands of $$, nearly as much as the car is worth.

As usual, I complained to my dealer. Same story - we cannot afford to keep forking out money (we have a toddler and a baby on one income), blah blah. I asked him should I expect to keep getting problems? Could they stand behind the quality of their product? I told him I had a japanese car, which was always reliable - weren't german cars meant to be even better? His reply - "No. VW's aren't meant to last. They are built for easy driving and luxury - the japanese car's parts are more bulky, less delicate and can withstand more wear and tear"!! So he was actually ADMITTING VW's are useless.

We had it advertised before the recent problem for $7500 (dealers are selling for around $9900). But now cannot sell and wouldn't want to sell it, I would feel dishonest. As I am an artist, I'm thinking about doing something creative with it (an installation) and hopefully pushing the message out there in the media that this brand of car is a lemon!!!

Faults:

Wire from battery to starter solenoid rotted through where the terminal is crimped on at the solenoid. £5 repair by auto electrician still holding up.

General Comments:

Bought this car as it's got no extras except electric mirrors. So less to go wrong. 99.9% reliability over 4 years ownership - it has to be a good car!Only fault has been the wire to the solenoid which caused little inconvenience and certainly didn't let me down on the road. It's a lovely long legged cruiser- comfortable to a point -I wish the seats were a little plusher -I get lower back discomfort on a long drive, but it's OK for a 2-3 hour stint before a break becomes necessary. Has averaged 60mpg overall this drops 4-5 mpg in very cold weather and I've had a one off best of 73.03mpg. The engine appears bullet proof and uses no oil between services. I always fill the tank when low using the trip meter to measure mileage covered. It gets pretty hot in the summer (no A/C) but in winter has a powerful heater than distributes warmth without stuffiness.

Faults:

At around 10000 miles the E C U was causing some splutters running of the engine, took the car to VW and they replaced the e c u. A known fault with this model. Has run fine since.

General Comments:

As my second car. I found it to be an ideal students car. Average performance, not a hot hatch, but nippy enough to beat most modern warm hatches.

Handling is set more for comfort as with all Volkswagens, but the Michelin tyres supplied ensured you stayed on the road and went round the corners without effort.

Economical, manual suggests 270 miles per £30 tank of fuel I could get 340 from it. Doing long journeys.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong since I have owned the car, it passed it's MOT fine last month.

General Comments:

This build quality of this car is fantastic - it is solid as a rock, though you do tend to feel the bumps in the road!!

My Polo has driver and passenger air bags, first class safety features for a bottom of the range car of this age.

The only bad points I can think of is no central locking or alarm, they have fitted electric heated mirrors as standard - I would much rather have electric windows or central locking.

This is my first cat and I can't complain at all, 100% reliable, easy to drive with power steering, built to last.