Bought new in 1985 - did 28,000 miles in one year under my ownership and then sold as a favour at below trade price to my Father who had a 10yr old Mk2 Escort - the floor of which had virtually rotted off.

I nodded sagely at that - because the Polo followed two basic Fiesta`s - of which I may write later.

There was an odd start with the Polo as it would not start the first morning after arriving home, from new. The VW dealer was called out and I returned home from work that night to find that they had stripped off the entire HT system and replaced it with parts from the car in which they arrived.Thus seemingly messing the car up the second day after purchase as the `new` HT components were obviously not from the same model.

Next morning, failed to start again. At this point (and at the height of my career with a day of appointments) i took out the spark plugs, gapped them to 12 thou - it started and ran perfectly - for the next 15yrs, with plugs so gapped..

I never did get to the bottom of this - never had the time, although I went to the trouble of fitting a new ignition coil, but it was still the same.

Driving - only 40bhp - with a four speed box - it felt different in it`s handling too to the previous Fiesta - but was light- years ahead in paint and body protection - with the one year old Fiesta it replaced being a sheet or red rust underneath.

In my Fathers care (well.. I continued to service it) it went up to 115,000 over 15 yrs. At this point he was only doing a couple of thousand a year to the shops and I changed the oil ever 12 months.

I used 15w40 Castrol or Duckhams, whichever was cheaper at Halfords and I was doubling the recommended interval on time. (this experiment helped me to believe mileage was a more pressing factor for change than time)

I monitored the rocker box - no sludge at all and actually really clean - you could see the metal inside gleam as new oil was poured in.

(So much for worries about low mileage and runs to the shops only)

Actually the sump oil level used to rise slightly and there was a whiff of petrol on draining so I used to fill it to minimum and find it halfway up the dipstick mark a year later on changing.

I put that down to the fact that the old Man was running on choke all the time on those short runs - but years after the car was gone - I got a sudden flash of insight when thinking about this.I reckon there was a petrol seep from the camshaft mounted fuel pump - into the rocker box.

I was giving it a yearly tickle with a waxoil brush at this point - just around the bits you could see on the body edges. Oh, and the power of a handful of grease! - the metal neck (to the tank) of the fuel filler was badly rusted at 4yrs and i put a handful of grease on it - wondering if it would crumble away in my hand. It didn`t and I still did that every three to four years - the tank lasting as long as the car.

A sad day when the Old Man drove it to a local garage and just gave them it when his eyes had got to the point he couldn`t go further with driving.

He took it on the chin though without comment or a show of any emotion even though this effectively left him trapped in the house. That said, he once told me that he was grateful just to have a dry bed - following his years on war-time Malta in the RAF.

I wish I had it back for a day, now I`m retired - bet I could fix that HT issue in a Morning. A real puzzle that though and screwed further I think by the VW dealer slapping a non original full HT system on it and I suspect doing non original wiring mods on the LT side to make it work - while there with the van on our drive.

I remember giving a view on the Polo to my Father as we discussed it at the conclusion of his 14yrs ownership and my 15yrs servicing.

"A mediocre engine in an outstanding body"

There were oil pump failures on these engines, they ran too hot in my opinion and you could not get a sensor that allowed the RAD fan to kick in earlier. Headgasket problems too.

We were lucky with those and it only suffered the repeated driveshaft outer joint boot failures that seemed typical of VW boots at the time.

It`s time was up - but the Old Man watched it running around locally for a few months, driven by the lad working at the nearby garage - to whom it had been given.

I`ve never serviced one car for longer and can still see, in the minds eye - every detail of the engine bay.

Edited by oilrag on 23/04/2010 at 16:49