Polo Driver

Rich Gooding updates the story of his 159,000-mile, 1994 Polo Coupé GT, which he has owned for almost 11 years. It’s December, so it must be MoT time…

I’d never realised that the various pieces of paper that make up the MoT document portfolio were colour-coded like traffic lights. There’s red for a fail, orange for advisory items and green for a pass. Yesterday, my Polo Coupé GT got all three. But, crucially, it did pass the annual Department of Transport test.

It wasn’t due until 5 January 2010, but in customary tradition, I decided to get it done early. A good tradition with an elderly car. My Satin Silver GT is now 15 years old, and the days of sailing through the yearly inspection are long gone. It’s not too bad, though; brake pipes have been an advisory item for the last couple of years at least, but this year, something finally needed doing.

The Refusal of an MoT certificate stated that the tester thought that the offside rear brake hose had deteriorated so much that he thought it was dangerous to drive the car. So that was duly sorted, the car retested and a pass given. Yes, there’s still one brake hose and four brake pipes that are ‘slightly corroded’ and will need replacing and also the small matter of a minor leak of exhaust gases from the front section of the pipe, but all in all it could have been much worse than a £150 total bill.

Note for 2010, though; older cars need more care, and one that’s covered 159,000 miles maybe more than most…

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It can’t have escaped your notice that the Volkswagen Polo celebrates its 35th birthday in 2010. That’s three-and-a-half decades of stylish, premium small car motoring, loaded with awards and so many model variations, it’s almost impossible to keep up. That’s thirty-five years of worldwide automotive superstardom (in the latter years at least); from humble beginnings in Europe, the Polo has now become a global car in every sense of the word and in every part of the world.

Here at PoloDriver, we’ll be celebrating all generations of the model, starting at the beginning, with the Polo-derived Audi 50 of 1974 and the Series 1 Polo from 1975. We’ll profile the models themselves, look at how they were marketed and sold, and also see if we can seek out high-quality standard and modified examples. A year-long journey over five generations, if you have any interesting anecdotes, reminiscences, stories or feature-worthy cars, email 35@polodriver.com and we’ll do the rest.

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Last time we caught up with Simon Kimber and his 1991 Polo GT Coupé, new standard-length and uprated front shock absorbers, bump stops and top mounts had just been fitted. Was he pleased with the results?

On first impressions the Koni shock absorbers are softer than the Weitecs fresh out the box, but it is something I can get used to in time. The knocking noise from the front nearside of the car has now vanished; the bobbling sounds on uneven surfaces are nowhere to be found. The braking now seems to be much improved, too; it’s a fact that a seriously worn shock absorber can increase the braking distance by quite a margin or make a car a bit uncontrollable in an emergency, at least.

The result of all this work was that when H714 ERP went for its MoT, it passed with flying colours, with not even an advisory item being, well, advised.

The MoT test is not a black art despite what you may think. If you know what to look for and even notice it early enough, you should have no nasty surprises (for the past few years I’ve worked in garage workshops, so like to think I know the basics). You could have your car serviced before its MoT to make sure, but I find it better to do all that around a month ahead of the test to give you time to sort it all out. Of course, it may not help if the tester is having a bad day.

Costs this month: £0

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How’s this for a bit of nostalgia? While wading through online pages last week, we stumbled across this low-tech piece of advertising magic promoting the then new Series 2 Polo. Aired in 1982, the hatchback had been around for a year, and the Classic (Saloon) was about to hit the UK.

Starring Burt Kwouk of James Bond and Pink Panther movie fame, it promotes the safety features of the new car. Kwouk was a star that Volkswagen used frequently around the time of this commercial; eighties strongman Geoff Capes was another.

But, a quarter of a century on, it’s all very different. Just compare Kwouk’s ad to this one for the new Polo, which had its first UK airing a couple of weeks ago. It was safety and traditional values back then; lifestyle, youth and technology now.

[Thanks to: reich967]

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PoloDriver.com contributor Simon Kimber updates the story of H714 ERP, his 1990 Polo GT Coupé that he has has owned for 15 years

H714′s speedometer is now reading over 108,000 miles and of this, I have driven 75,000 of them. Yes, it has taken a while to do it, but the annual mileage now is only 8,000. Throughout all those miles, I have not had one major mechanical failure and the fuel consumption has rarely dipped below 40mpg. On the rare occasion it has hit 50mpg, even though I do drive it quite hard – slightly higher tyre pressures and slotting it into fifth as soon as possible all helps.

I have lost count the number of tyres I have had to replace, though. The original boots were Michelin MXV, with MXV2, MXT following. I then got fed up with those and moved size from 165/65 TR13 to 175/60 HR13 in Toyo’s RoadPro 610 series. I finally moved on to Toyo Proxes C-1 and I can tell you that these tyres are pretty good both in the dry and in the wet stuff too.

I do seem to be replacing them more often than i used to, though. They usually stay on the car for 4 years, with the brand new pair always put on the front. They may be a bit loose to begin with, but they soon scrub in. The fastest that has happened was in after 10 minutes at a trackday.

The MOT has reared its head again, so it was time to have a good look over H714. Finding something that would fail an MOT, I discovered a leaking nearside front shock absorber was quite damp. The rebound was very soft compared to the other side, too and there were no two ways about it – they had to be changed! Oddly enough the rear shock absorbers were in rude health. Suffice it to say, that at 80,000 miles and counting, no doubt I shall be replacing these at some point… not just yet though.

I had trawled the net for the best aftermarket shock absorbers I could find and most of them were in kits, but only in lowering heights from 30-60mm. My only option was to contact C&R Enterprises and see what could be done. Those of you who may know me from previous articles, may know that I prefer standard length uprated shock absorbers.

The car is fitted with a set of Weitec shock absorbers and they were so special they had to be specially made for the car. That stock has now run out due to the popularity and due to the fact that KW now owns Weitec, the company now has ‘no plans to manufacture any more shock absorbers for early Polos.’

C&R told me that there weren’t many new shock absorber options open to me. Koni were recommended as they are the only manufacturer able to supply sport shocks in standard length, let alone straight off the shelf. So a pair were duly ordered on the Monday from Koni HQ in Farnborough, arriving the following Wednesday afternoon.

The shock changeover was carried out in a car park with only the aid of what should be the right tools for the job – a jack and an axle stand. The whole swap took around 2 hours to complete with relatively little in the way of problems.

One of the bump stops was contaminated with oil from the shock absorber and it was the breaking down of the bump stop which allowed the matching shocker to bottom out, resulting in failure and no damping. The top mounts on the other hand could have been used again, such was their condition. With new shock absorbers, bump stops and top mounts fitted it was now time for the road test to reveal just how they would all work together…

Costs this month: £274.32 (2 x Koni 86 1922SPORT shock absorbers £223.00; 2 x 871 412 323A top mounts £37.30; 2 x 861 412 131 bump stop £11.16; 2 x 861 412 135 dust cover £2.86. All parts prices are subject to VAT, and where applicable, fitting.)

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