PoloDriver

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…