UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi everyone. New to the board, so first of all a big Hello!!

I have been searching for a GTI for a few months now and today have agreed a deal in principle for VW approved car, pending test drive and viewing the car (Car not in at dealers yet)

The car is 'W' plate (May 2000) 3 Door Silver. It has had one lady owner and has only done 27000. I believe I have done a decent deal as I have traded my current car in for a good price and got a full years tax, full tank of fuel, mats and negotiated my next service free of charge as part of the deal.

As the dealer has only basic details I was wondering what to expect. I only know it has black interior, CD changer and Air con at the moment.

As it is one of the older versions are there any cosmetic differences between this and the very newest Polo GTI's ??

I am hoping it has all the bells and whistles on it but I have read somewhere that it may not have EDL or traction control. Also it probably has the door cards which I am not a huge fan of.

I can walk away from the deal as it is subject to test drive etc but hoping it will be spot on but slightly worried it may look a bit dated?????

Any advice / opinions would be great

Cheers

First of all hi and welcome!!

All of the GTi's are pretty much the same, the key things you wanna look out for are if it has the following:

* Climate control
* Leather Interior
* Multichanger

I wouldnt personally buy one if it was missing any of the above as it comes with horrid seats if not the leather ones, some cheap as hell racing ones with a big red 1 on them.



Phill

Cheers for that

Very much doubt it will have leather seats. Not many GTI's around in the VW used approved pot. None at all in leather. I can live with the standard seats though.

Very hard to find the perfect spec to suit especially with so few around at the moment. I was working within a budget and wanted low mileage as a primary concern. It's the door cards that bug me a bit though.

Is there any way a 'W' reg GTI will NOT have them?????

Erm, i think you might be shocked you know, ive looked at 5 polo gti's all of which had leather. Im getting one in september hopefully!

I think they all come with door cards, but not 100% sure..

Phil.

Hello Diablo_red,

Welcome to the forum. As Polosilver has already mentioned, there should be Climate control, 6 CD multichanger, leather steering wheel, Xenons, leather gear stick knob and boot, front fog lights, 15" BBS RXII split rims alloys, piano black dash cover trim and racing one seats as standard.

Some of the earlier models had manual air con and sun roofs. The various cosmetic differences were red seat belts rather than black, all red HT leads in the engine as opposed to red leads and black heads/plugs.

Optional extras were leather interior (sweet!), anti-glare rear view mirror, rain sensing wipers and sat nav. I'm not sure what the legalitied are regarding your test drive but I would have thought that there would be no obligation to purchase if you don't like the drive, they can't force you to drive just because you agreed to atest drive. I put a deposit (which was returnable) so that they would reserve the car until I test drove it...needless to say I didn't have it refunding as I ended up buying my darling!

polosilver wrote:I wouldnt personally buy one if it was missing any of the above as it comes with horrid seats if not the leather ones, some cheap as hell racing ones with a big red 1 on them.

Whaaaat?? I love my Polo's seats! You try driving a Chevrolet Matiz for two weeks and then see what you think of the "horrid cheap as hell" racing seats

I read somehwere that they are Recaros, but they're not. They are however comfortable, supportive and do a fine job of holding your arse in place whilst you are driving enthuisiastically

The fabric trim isn't the greatest it has to be said, I wouldn't mind a retrim but at the end of the day its just fine and like yourself diablo_red I can live with them!

As for doorcards, they all have the red inserts you have mentioned, but the red GTis have grey doorcards so you might be able to negotiate a swap deal with another member who has a red car and is interested in a swap, otherwise you could investigate getting them retrimmed

Here's a pic of the inserts on a red car:


And on a car fitted with the leather trim:


I haven't got one of mine with the usual red inserts in the door cards

I meant the actually "1" design on the seats, not the shape of them. Can you get a GTI with creme lower dash and creme capets? I was thinking of maybe getting a black or red one and having the doorcards and seats retrimed in creme leather.

Would give a really nice contrast... not think?

Phill.

I presume I could remove my red door cards. However, the car is silver with black trim. Not sure they do any other card other than red or grey (the ones that go in the red GTI's)

Not sure it would look right with grey.................

polosilver wrote:I meant the actually "1" design on the seats, not the shape of them. Can you get a GTI with creme lower dash and creme capets? I was thinking of maybe getting a black or red one and having the doorcards and seats retrimed in creme leather.

Would give a really nice contrast... not think?

Phill.

Ahh right sorry Phill, misunderstood what you meant

If you have a spare £1500 knocking about a professional retrim would solve your problem and get you a smashing creme interior - it's cheaper if you know someone who you can do it for you for mates rates obviously.

Diablo, yep, you can remove the doorcards and retrim them or replace them with a custom doorcard (maybe fibreglass painted the same colour as the car or something), the only choices as standard, as you point out, are red, grey or leather (probably leatherette actually).

HTH

polosilver wrote:I meant the actually "1" design on the seats, not the shape of them. Can you get a GTI with creme lower dash and creme capets? I was thinking of maybe getting a black or red one and having the doorcards and seats retrimed in creme leather.

Would give a really nice contrast... not think?

Phill.

creme lower dash and carpets ?

Some golf's have the lower half of the dash creme along with the carpets if they have creme leather seats. would be nice if the same applied to polo's. Id love some door cards for mine? How exactly do you fit them to a car that didnt come with them?

How much are they ish?

Phill.

Right, with regard to the different levels of equipment.....

I have had a look at Glass' website which seems to depict what equipment came as standard for all the different years of manufacture.

The car I am interested in is a 2000 W reg. I have compared this to a 2001 X and the differences are that the 2001 model has:

Automatic Air Conditioning (W reg lists it as just 'Air Conditioning)
EDL Differential Lock
Side Protection Mouldings

What is the difference between the two 'Air Cons', Is EDL a useful thing to have (I am not the sort to throw it around everywhere) and what are the side protection mouldings???

Also I spoke to the VW fella today and he seems to be unsure whether the car I am interested in has a factory fitted alarm. Glass' has alarm and immobiliser as standard but the bloke said the key fob had something to do with a scorpion alarm on it.

I hope it has a factory fitted as my doubts about this car are getting stronger. I thought all Polo GTI's had the same equip but it seems a few things are different.

Also, I am not sure I am going to like the black/red interior combo.

Should I pull out and wait for a newer Red GTI or will this be ok?

All advice gratefully received!

Cheers

Wait until the car arrives at the dealer and see what you think of it then! After I saw and drove mine I just couldn't say no

OK so with regards to the differing specs, as I understand it the 2000-W cars are "pre-alignment", so have a mix of different specifications. For instance mine doesn't have climate control, it has regular A/C and a sunroof! I have no EDL either.

So the automatic air conditioning you mention there is climate control, which keeps the cabin temperature at a level you specify, rather than working like my manual A/C, where I have a hot/cold dial and adjust it to suit.

EDL is effectively traction control, nice to have!

No idea about "side protection mouldings"?

Finally, regarding the alarm system, you should have a fatory fitted alarm and immobiliser which works via remote central locking on the VW keyfob. Plus the doors have deadlocks built in to prevent break-ins and theft but the previous owner might have had the system upgraded, hence the Scorpion keyfob?

Wait for the dealer to get the car in and have a good look around and a test drive (remember to give her some beans and see how she goes!) before deciding whether or not its for you!

Cheers

My Polo is an early 2000 W-reg and if i was you i wouldn't be too concerned about leather, climate or the multichanger.

For a start there is nothing wrong with the cloth trim and the red "1" looks quite smart and adds to the sporty interior. My GTi was the 4th i looked at and none had leather. Mine also has the red door cards which again i quite like but it's down to personal taste. Mine also has black seat belts. No GTi's had a creme/black dash. And all carpets are dark.

As i've said in previous topics, it took VW well over a year into production of GTi before they started to sort the standard spec list. An 2000MY W reg is likely to have air-con as climate only came later on or was an option.

There is nothing wrong with the multichanger and the Gamma head unit but again if your not planning on keeping it standard in the ice dept then it's not needed.

Some people with GTi's don't like the EDL as all it does is kill the power and make weird grinding noises, which doesn't sound very nice.

If i was you, as long as it has the Xenons, BBS splits, leather wheel and gear knob, leccy windows and mirrors and your happy with it. Buy it.

Cheers guys, really helpful stuff.

Si GTI - Does that mean that manual air con means no 'climatronic' unit near the bottom of the central control panel?? What does it look like ??

(Impatient aren't I !! I will be seeing the car on Thurs!)

Also, Del_GTI - I am not sure what you mean by the following:


"There is nothing wrong with the multichanger and the Gamma head unit but again if your not planning on keeping it standard in the ice dept then it's not needed"

Cheers fellas!