USED Volkswagen Lupo Hatchback (99 - 05)

My car

Although the Lupo is frequently labelled as being "too small" or having "only room for two", my wife and I have found this not to be the case.

My wife is 5ft 2in and I am 6ft 1in, and we both find the Lupo very comfortable to drive.

Ours is the 1.4 S automatic and the combination of engine and gearbox works very well.

Soundproofing is very good for a small car, and we never feel bullied or intimidated while driving on the mtorways.

My car

aI have owned my Lupo 1.4S for five months now.

I bought it under three years old with just 8,000 miles from a Volkswagen dealership. Although I had to pay top price for the car I wanted the assurance of the warranty and 'Volkswagen Assistance'.

The basic equipment levels are ok, other cars in the same class do have more as standard although I had a cd-player, 15" Alloy Wheels and remote locking fitted, all of which the dealer arranged.

Mine is in bright yellow (much easier to find in the car park!!!). This car is not an exciting drive and can be at times boring, however, being Cabin Crew my job involves a lot of driving and it is therefore nice to have an undemanding car at 3am!

On the motorway the car feels very solid at all times, extremely refined for such a small car and can easily keep up at high speed. The car regularly returns 40+ mpg, even on the trip to and from the airport totaling almost 100 miles.

The ride is quite firm in a sporty way. The space for front seat passengers is excellent, rear seat space is adequate and the boot is a joke. The sound system, all standard bar the cd-player, is also of very high quality.

Apart from a few problems to begin with, the car is very reliable and is what expect from a Volkswagen. Overall it is a very good car, it is low maintenance, is easy to drive, and even easier to park and is so solid I would seriously consider another Volkswagen.

My car

This car is used as our second car.

I have owned the car from new (five years ago) and had optional CD player, alloys, and fogs/heated washer jets fitted from new. It cost over £10K

It has an extremely high standard of build. Quality materials are used throughout. The fit and finish are excellent. There is a lot of headroom both front and back.

Four adults will fit in quite comfortably if they are all under 6ft. A week's shopping will fit in the boot, and with half the back seat folded I have had three sets of golf clubs in there.

It is excellent for teenagers to drive, as it is very strong and has airbags and pretensioners.

It has very good visibility - many driving schools use them, including the one my son and daughter used.

The ride is firm around town, but settles well at speed. (This could be partly due to the 14in alloys fitted).

The 1.4 engine has sufficient hourspower, 75BHP for its size and can easily cope with motorway speeds. Its 93lb ft of torque is the same as the 1.4 Sport and, as a result, its in-gear acceleration is very good.

Overall, it's a very good buy as a second car which is quick enough for everyday use, frugal (average 44mpg) with an excellent build, reliable (no breakdowns), and as they are in demand, I will get a good price when I sell.

My car

Overall we're very happy with the Lupo as our second car. Ours is a 2001 51, which we've owned from new and have covered 35k miles.

Quality is very good but we've had to make a number of trips to the dealer for warranty claims.

The following has been required:

Driver's seat base squeaking - replaced Corrosion on front indicators and rear VW badge - replaced Creaking rear suspension. Many components replaced. Problem went away for a year but then returned Rear wiper failed - motor replaced Brake-disc life seemed to be very poor - 30k miles. Our main car was a VW Bora that we sold with over 60k on the clock and it was still on its original discs, so I can only conclude that the Lupo's brakes are of an inferior quality Numerous attempts to fix buzzing door speakers - problem still exists In warm weather the front windows don't seal when they're closed. Live with it

The main problem is with the poor attitude I've experienced from VW dealers. We've changed our main car to an Audi A4, so we'll see how the Audi dealers fair.