Small cheap car anyone? 2000 VW Polo, £950

djoptix

Senior Retro Guru
Hello all! We are selling our little Polo as we've bought a retro car! Shameless copy-and-pasting from the Ebay listing follows... it's going on ebay tonight.

For sale is our much-loved and faithful VW Polo!


It is a Polo 6n2, ie facelifted mk3, model. It is in E spec which is the most basic - basically meaning no electric windows or air conditioning, but on the other hand, it also means less to go wrong. It's the 999cc engine which we have found to be very economical and cheap to insure. In terms of fuel economy it costs around £50 to fill the tank at today's ridiculous fuel prices, so I think it's a 40 litre tank, and from this you would expect to get just over 400 miles - if you were driving a lot of motorways you would get about 420, around town maybe 380. This represents 45-ish mpg which is still on a par with newer cars. It is in a low insurance group and it is in the cheaper road tax bracket.

Our history with the car - my wife bought the car in 2004 and it became our main car in 2008 when we got married. It now has 123,861 miles on the clock which will go up a little bit as it's in daily use. It has the service book stamped up to 90,000 miles or so. After this the car was maintained by local garages and by myself, and we have a big folder of receipts to go with the car to support this. It has had regular oil and filter changes and usual maintenance in our ownership. It has an MOT until May 19th 2011 and tax until the end of July 2010.

Good bits


In terms of the original spec sheet it has power steering, twin front airbags, twin rear headrests, heated and electrically adjustable mirrors, split/fold rear seat, spacesaver rear tyre, immobiliser (apparently, we have always used the standard VW keys but it comes up on the eBay vehicle details), body coloured bumpers, adjustable steering column, RDS radio, and ABS. It has no body rust! It has four good tyres with plenty of tread left, and steel wheels with the original VW trims. In terms of usability it's got plenty of room in front (I'm 6 foot 2 and fit fine) and a large boot. We have even taken four people and luggage on a week-long holiday in France in it, though this was a squash! In addition to the work for the recent MOT (exhaust, headlamp and handbrake adjusted, a new numberplate light and a new strut top bearing), it had a new battery during the cold weather about 6 months ago and I have recently replaced the engine temperature sensor, ignition coil and starter motor, which in garage terms was about £400-worth of work!!! These have meant that it's currently starting/running better than ever, and never fails to start first time. I also replaced the driver's mirror (which is why it's yellow) as someone smashed it off the car outside our house.

Overall it's been a really good car for my wife and latterly for both of us. We're only selling because we have now bought a classic Saab 900 - my wife has always wanted one - and we can't afford to keep two cars on the road.

Cosmetics


It is in good shape overall with no major dents or bumps, but obviously it has over 120,000 miles on the clock and this is reflected in a few (small) car park trolley dents etc around the car, mainly on the passenger door. There are some scratches over the offside rear wheel where someone in a van grazed it, and a scratch on the offside of the front bumper. These are the most major scars on the car and you can see photos of both below. Inside, again, there is wear and some staining to the seats but it's still a fairly tidy-looking affair. It has brand new mats and has just been valeted.

Bad bits

It does use some oil over time. I don't believe this is anything to worry about, more just something that most 100k+ engines will do. I check it regularly and keep it topped up. There is no water in the oil and obviously it still passes the emissions test every year so I think it's just a slow leak from somewhere. It doesn't lose any water. Also, the alternator gives out an intermittent whine, but seems to keep working quite happily so we ignore it! Inside there are a couple of niggling things - one heater vent has one broken vane (again, you can see this in the photos below), the glovebox lid handle is missing (but the catch is still functional), and the CD player works only intermittently. I believe this to be a loose connection, and will try and investigate it, but can't promise anything. Er, what else... the seat-fold handle on the passenger side is missing, there are scratches on the driver's door handle (shown below) and it has the aforementioned yellow mirror. If the buyer would like, I will rattlecan this black for no charge, although you might like it in custard yellow! Despite not being the original, the adjust mechanism and the heater on this mirror still work fine.

The sale will include the Haynes manual for the car, original spacesaver spare which has only ever been used once, original jack and wheel brace, and two spare full-size wheels which have barely legal tyres on - but will at least save you from driving around on the spacesaver wheel for any length of time.

It's been a really good car for us and has proved cheap and reliable to keep on the road. We will be sorry to see her go, but the Saab is waiting to be driven! As you can see the car is advertised locally for the Buy It Now price, so I'm afraid I have to reserve the right to cancel the listing before the end (subject to Ebay rules) if a buyer should appear with a wad of cash. Please feel free to check my feedback and bid with confidence. I will be checking my ebay messages every day so please feel free to drop me a message with any questions. Alternatively you can give me a ring on 07799 418 768. Payment; cash on collection ONLY please. The car is located in East Manchester, close to the M60, so it's convenient for picking up. I have tried to be completely open and honest about the car in the description above, including all the faults as well as all the good bits. Sorry about the many photos which follow but you can't have too much information... happy bidding!

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