UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Long shot, but I don't suppose it's an easy upgrade to automatic climate control?
I'm hoping it's just a case of finding the dashboard bits and slotting them straight in, like changing a stereo.
I'm maybe way wide of the mark, but here's hoping.....

It’s not a straight swap.

I can recall a forum member on one of the VW (Golf) forums with predominantly USA members doing this some years ago and it was a major job.

From memory, it involved removal of the dashboard, additional wiring, installation of temperature sensors, servo units to electrically control flaps for airflow direction. There was no doubt other work required that I can’t remember the details of as it was over ten years ago. At the time, a four figure dollar sum was being quoted if this conversion was carried out at the USA VW dealer. The cost might have been at that level because the VW dealer probably didn’t want to take the job on, so they priced it accordingly to put the customer off.

IMO not worth the hassle. I’ve had both manual air con and climate control in various cars and never found it a problem to have to manually adjust the temperature dial, fan speed or airflow direction. In fact in many cars I found the manual air con to be better at cooling the car down than the climate control, and easier to adjust when on the move.

Yeah, I guessed the motors for the vents might be an issue.
I'm just used to auto climate control, the display looks very old fashioned with the manual knobs etc (ooh-err matron).
Never mind, cheers.

I'm sure that someone in the 6R/6C section of this forum did, but you would need to look on it as a major project that you just wanted to throw time and money at - and the convenience of ending up with Auto AC was just a bonus!

Fully agree with SRGTD, I have had dual zone climate control in my last 4 VWs but don't miss it certainly not £400-worth as an option. In my Golf R there seems so much processing going on with the air, that even set to LO with no aircon, the air blowing out is always a good 5C warmer than ambient. I set the temp dial on the Polo and it is consistent - it doesn't work overly hard to get to a temp and then drop to a trickle to maintain it like the climate control does but it is easy to use and control cabin temp. One less overly complex thing to go wrong.