2010 Polo 1.2 TDI

[ashwales]

The girlfriend looking at getting her first car and looking to see if a 1.2 Polo TDI (2010) have any common issues or anything to look out for?

[cuprabob]

Does she do the mileage to justify a diesel and the risk of DPF issues if only used for short journeys?

If not, I would consider the petrol variant.

[CJ1]

I have a 2011 Polo 1.6TDI 90. Have had it for 3 years as a first car. In all honesty just get a Petrol, mpg is average. Does around high 30’s in town and 50-55 on a run (but drops to mid 40’s at motorway speeds).

The biggest issue for me however is the DPF, it goes into regeneration mode once a week/200 miles and takes about 20 mins of hard driving to clear it out. You can tell it’s doing a regeneration as the RPM’s at idle sit at 1000 and you’ll burn your hand if you touch the bonnet! Because the majority of my driving is low speed town stuff it never gets the chance to regenerate and il get a warning light on the dash.

Unless she’s doing lots of miles just get a Petrol.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

I had a blue motion 1.2 tdi it was fine good economy but I was doing 30 miles each journey iirc I was getting 60+ most of the time. Never had any issues with it except it was dull

[podwin]

ashwales said:

The girlfriend looking at getting her first car and looking to see if a 1.2 Polo TDI (2010) have any common issues or anything to look out for?

being 2010 it may not have a DPF

[ashwales]

Its not the bluemotion version, I'll check if it has a dpf hopefully it doesn't

[cuprabob]

It will have a DPF.

Have a read of this;
http://www.motorreviewer.com/engine.php?engine_id=...

[A900ss]

We have a 2014 Seat Ibiza with the 1.2 TDI engine and it’s great. It does no city driving but averages low 60’s with 70MPG possible on a motorway at about 70MPH.

It revs quite low so makes a good cruiser (2k revs is 65MPH) and I have taken it to the Alps on a Roadtrip. 2,500 miles in a week and no complaints at all. It’s also roadtax free.

I wouldn’t buy it for city driving though due to possible DPF issues but we’ve never seen the light illuminate due to our driving mix.

Good luck.

[sparks_E46]

Don’t. We had one and it had a new engine, EGR and other bits you wouldn’t expect of a 2012 car. Luckily covered by warranty at the time. We sold it on and I notice it’s now off the road. The dealer told me the 1.2 tdi was short lived.

[x type]

Agree with everyone 1.2tdi heap of rubbish
daughter got one and hates it
mpg especially around town low 30s
better on a run on motorway

It feels very underpowered unless you give it some welly and the mpg drops

The regen problem kicks in all the time when doing short journeys

Buy a petrol one instead

[Super Slo Mo]

My wife has the 1.4 Petrol. It’s a nice little engine and is quite peppy considering, I drove it 180 miles on the motorway and it keeps up with traffic well enough not to be an issue.
If the OBC is to be believed, it’s quite economical too, wife averages mid 40’s around town, it got up to around 52 mpg on yesterday’s run.
That really isn’t much worse than the 1.6 diesel she had before.
I haven’t cross referenced the OBC so have no idea how accurate it is, based on previous VW’s though, it’s probably 5% optimistic, but even if you said it over reads by 10% that is still pretty good.
You don’t need the diesel in any circumstances in my view.