USED Volkswagen Polo Hatchback (02 - 05)

My car

I purchased this car from a local VW Dealer. The car is expensive and lacks equipment: with no light in the boot, no speakers in the rear and only a cassette-player as standard. A CD player was extra and for DAB look elsewhere. The sales staff didn't know enough about the car to offer equipment that would have made a big difference.

The engine is very noisy, you also feel excessive vibration through the clutch pedal making it painful to drive round town. It's certainly not a city car.

The two good things are the blue dashboard lights and the powerful three-cylinder engine.

My car

Not as small as it looks. The cabin is quite spacious. It gives good fuel economy, only fill it up twice a month and generally get 500 miles to a tank of diesel. Easy to park.

My car

Wow, my 53-reg' Polo 1.4 16v Sport is one year old today (bought from new) and 12,000 miles on the clock. It still remains a peach to drive, having taken it from London to Cornwall and also London to Northern Ireland via the Republic of Ireland just for good measure.

Only around 38mpg but I do occasionally have a heavy right foot.

Aside from misted up fog-lights and dodgy rear brake callipers (all replaced under warranty during my first servicing) nothing else has gone wrong with this great car since first inspection and I have been thoroughly impressed by its well equipped interior and highly enjoyable drive.

The stiff Sports suspension is geat for cornering but does tend to make the ride somewhat bumpier than normal but the driver and front passenger sports seats make up for this.

My local VW dealer has been exemplary and I would definitely stay with VW when trade-in time comes around.

I haven't seen many Polo 16v Sport models on the road, are these things Limited Edition or something?

My car

We wanted to replace our 2002 Polo 1.2 and shortened our choice between diesel versions of the new Golf and Polo.

We didn't even think about the Polo Dune until we saw a freshly delivered model at our local dealership. Sure, it is expensive compared to other Polo range but the specification you receive is very impressive and by opting for the TDi version will help provide strong residuals.

With only 350 Dune models being delivered to the UK provides an individual appeal and, to this date, I haven't seen another Dune on the road.

Before we took delivery, we opted for VW's maintenance pack which covers servicing, breakdown assistance, tyres, parts and labour for the next three years which will save us a lot of money, especially coming to the time when we have to replace the 17" tyres! Fuel costs are proving to be very good by averaging 54mpg.