VW Polo

Volkswagen Polo Q&As

Check out real-world situations relating to the Volkswagen Polo here, particularly what our experts have to say about them.

• What car should I buy to replace my 2006 Toyota Corolla?

  There are still plenty of great small cars around within your budget, Agnes, and they all have good safety packages (or we wouldn’t recommend them). Look at offerings such as the Suzuki Swift Navigator (with the optional autonomous emergency braking) for around $17,000 (plus on-road costs) or the Kia Rio S at around $19,000 or Kia Picanto S (one size smaller than the Rio) at closer to $16,000. Both the Kias also feature the brand’s excellent seven-year warranty, capped-price servicing and free roadside assistance which is great peace of mind.

  The Volkswagen Polo is a classy drive but a little more expensive at closer to $21,000 for the 85TSi Comfortline. Actually, to be honest, you’ve missed the boat on bargain small cars by a couple of years. Firm favourites such as the Toyota Yaris and Mazda 2 have both been updated relatively recently and have recorded big price jumps in the process. The cheapest Yaris with an automatic transmission is now around $23,000 (it was less than $17,000 back in 2018) while the Mazda 2 Maxx went from being a sub-$17,000 proposition in 2018 to a $23,000 car by the time you add an automatic transmission in 2020.

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• What can I do about the faulty AEB on my 2018 Volkswagen Polo?

  You’re on the right track here and it does appear that your car suddenly thinks it’s about to crash and triggers the Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) system to avoid the phantom prang. And it does that by automatically slamming on the brakes. Again, you’re right when you suggest that if other cars had been around at the time, the car’s attempts to avoid a crash may, indeed, have caused one.

  I have a couple of questions for you: Does this problem occur when you’re driving with the active cruise-control engaged? And, does it happen when driving on a downhill section of road that then begins to level out? If the answers bare yes, then you’re not alone, because those are the precise circumstances reported by more than a dozen 2018 Polo owners in the US. The theory is that the levelling terrain is detected by the car’s sensors, causing it to confuse the undulating road with a potential collision threat. Calibration and set-up is critical in these sophisticated modern AEB systems, and something is not right with your car. I doubt that rebooting the system (as the dealer has suggested) will make much difference if the sensors are angled or calibrated incorrectly.

  Honda has experienced similar problems with its 2014 and 2015 CR-V model which also had the potential to confuse inanimate roadside objects (like wheelie-bins) with potential crash obstacles, and produced a similar response from the car. Honda has actually recalled those CR-Vs in Australia to deal with this, but Volkswagen Australia does not appear to have followed suit, telling me that it hasn’t seen any cases of this yet (at head office level).

  Honestly, I don’t blame you for refusing to take the car back. I wouldn’t want to be driving around in a car that could suddenly, and without any warning or legitimate reason, apply its own brakes as if there was an emergency. I’d be short-cutting the dealer and going straight to VW Australia’s customer service division and spelling it out.

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• How is oil mixing with coolant in my 2015 Volkswagen Polo?

  Despite your extensive efforts to fix this problem, it appears you still have a situation where the coolant and oil are mixing. No oil should be able to mix with the coolant (or vice-versa) and if it is (which is why you’re seeing oil in the coolant tank) then you have a fairly major problem somewhere in the engine. Check the dipstick. Is the oil in the sump milky and opaque? I’m guessing it probably is, and that’s another giveaway that your engine has a major problem.

  Perhaps the cylinder head itself is cracked. Maybe the engine has a split bore. Perhaps the light skimming the head received was not enough and it’s still warped. Either way, the oil and coolant are mixing and that’s bad. The fact that the oil and coolant in the bottle are being forced out of that tank suggests combustion pressure is also playing a part, once again signalling a leak between the oil, coolant and combustion areas of the engine.

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• My new used 2010 Volkswagen Polo already has problems, what should I do?

  Oil leaks are a pretty common complaint in a second-hand car, but if the car as sold to you with a roadworthy certificate (which it almost certainly should have been) then there’s no excuse for those to reappear within two weeks of you taking ownership. I’m always suspicious of a second-hand car with a sparkling clean engine bay, as it usually means it’s been cleaned up to hide leaks, just as you’re now discovering.

  Given that you bought the car from a VW dealership, I’d be having a chat with VW Australia’s customer service and complaints people as there might be something they can do to help in getting the situation sorted out to our satisfaction. On top of that, the dealer who sold you the car has an obligation under the terms of the second-hand car warranty. In WA, that means any second-hand car less than 12 years old (which a 2010 model is) and with fewer than 150,000km travelled, has to carry a one-month warranty on faults like the ones you’ve described. Since these problems were spotted at the two-week mark and pointed out to the dealership at that point, you should be covered.

  The bigger issue from your point of view, of course, is that you were told the car had never been crashed when, in fact, it appears that’s not the case. That would seem like a fairly straightforward case of misrepresentation to me, and I’d be having the car professionally inspected (try your local State motoring club) and getting in writing the fact that it’s been crashed and repaired. From there, I reckon you’d have a decent chance of getting your money back and returning the car.

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