Have no idea about any reliability issues with these, other than to say that I used to work for Europcar in the UK which at that time was 50% owned by VW. We had a lot of Seat models in the hire fleet including Cordoba saloons and wagons. We never had any issues with them (unlike the Fiats and Rovers on fleet which were always breaking down).
Remember the Cordoba is not a rebadged Polo - it is the other way around. VW used the Cordoba platform to build Polo saloons and Caddy vans from, so they do not have the same underpinings as the Polo hatch of the same era. The Cordoba is built on the Seat Ibiza mk2 platform, which is itself a modified Golf mk3. Mechanically the Cordoba shares lots of parts with the Golf 3, and I understand the suspension parts are fully interchangeable, but they share no body or trim parts with the Polo.
So, any damages to the exterior whilst parked at the station could be costly, as Polo body panels, door mirrors or headlights, for example, will not fit and parts will need to be sourced from europe via a VW dealer.