Newbie about to get his first GTi

[Korbin]

Hi Everyone,

After doing some intense research to try and find the "car for me" over the last 6- 12 months, today I test drove a white 5 door GTi and the quest is over!

Now I could crap on on about how great the GTi is but we already know that right?

So story thus far:

I put down a deposit on a second hand 2006 GTi with 6 months still on the new car warranty and am now going about the business of verifying the car isan't a lemon.

The secondhand car dealer has offered to bring a RACQ tester in to do the check as they are registered with them, however, I had another thought.

I would prefer to get an extended warranty with VW here in Brisbane, can VW carry out a detailed check of the car, and approve me for an extended warranty purchase?

Or

Would I be better off getting a RACQ, or other independent assessor to do a final check of the car prior to purchase?

Any recommendations on:
- who should do the checks to ensure its a good car,
- whether its worth getting the VW warranty, or consider the dealer one, and/or
- any other option C's worth considering would be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

Korbin

[Mischa]

extended warranty can be purchased at anytime while the standard warranty is active. get the one from vw australia though, not just a dealer specific one.

as far as knowing whether the car is a lemon... maybe vw have a record of warranty claims made for that vehicle? although whether or not they'd let you have that info is another thing. otherwise just find out where its been serviced etc. the chances of it being a "lemon" are very very low.

[Korbin]

Thanks for the fast reply!

The car has only been serviced by VW, so I am pretty confident that everything should be in order, and its only just coming up for its 30k service, so more reason to go back to them if possible.

Should have probably added that important information...

[Russ59]

extended warranty can be purchased at anytime while the standard warranty is active. get the one from vw australia though, not just a dealer specific one.

as far as knowing whether the car is a lemon... maybe vw have a record of warranty claims made for that vehicle? although whether or not they'd let you have that info is another thing. otherwise just find out where its been serviced etc. the chances of it being a "lemon" are very very low.

Hey Mischa,

I just went through this when we purchased Cam's Comfortline, I contacted the Service Dept. of the dealership that had serviced the vehicle since new and they had no issue in giving me the details of service history. I honestly believe that if there have been no issues and a car is still under new car warranty then it wouldn't have been sold or traded in because it had problems, unless of course it was something that the service dept. had been unable to rectify.



Russ

[Russ59]

Thanks for the fast reply!

The car has only been serviced by VW, so I am pretty confident that everything should be in order, and its only just coming up for its 30k service, so more reason to go back to them if possible.

Should have probably added that important information...

Hey Korbin,

As I just said in my previous post, if you contact the service dept. of the dealership where the servicing has been carried out there should be no real reason why they wouldn't give you the service history unless they have something to hide. If the dealer you are purchasing the car from is prepared to have a pre purchase inspection carried out on the car for you at their expense and it will be by an unbiased party then I'd say get it done.

I also mentioned earlier that I don't think the car would have been sold or traded whilst under new car warranty if it had any serious problems unless as I said it was an issue that the servicing dealer had been unable to rectify. Personally I can't see you having too many dramas with it and with only 30,000 k's travelled and the option to purchase an extended VW NEW car warranty (not dealer warranty) you'd have another 3 years on top of what's left now.

Best of luck and be sure and keep us posted. Oh and welcome to the forum

Russ

[GTI32]

just make sure they dont give you a Suzuki

[Greg Roles]

just make sure they dont give you a Suzuki

Welcome to the forums, you'll find a lot of info here. I'd agree it's very unlikely there's any real risk of a car that new having any problems, perhaps if you search on here for common GTI problems, such as air conditioner compressors and the like, you can go back and have a look yourself and ask the right questions. To my limited GTI knowledge there's nothing major to watch out for, that's common at least.

To explain the above, the GTI boys get upset when you type GT-i which is technically the Suzuki model.

[Russ59]

Welcome to the forums, you'll find a lot of info here. I'd agree it's very unlikely there's any real risk of a car that new having any problems, perhaps if you search on here for common GTI problems, such as air conditioner compressors and the like, you can go back and have a look yourself and ask the right questions. To my limited GTI knowledge there's nothing major to watch out for, that's common at least.

To explain the above, the GTI boys get upset when you type GT-i which is technically the Suzuki model.

And equally as upset when you mention GT TDI

[zz2]

Peugeot also makes a GTi

(not that theres anything wrong with a Peugeot GTi)

[Korbin]

Thanks for all the replies!

I contacted Austral VW today and they couldn't get me in for a standard pre sales check until the 9th of march

However I have booked the car in for a complete master check done at a RACQ inspection site which will be much more detailed, and only cost $70 more then the VW "yes the wheels are on looks good" check.

Austral VW were a little annoying though, I asked them if I supplied the VIN number could they go through the service history with me. They said that they could confirm that yes the car had been serviced, but they would not go through any of the details...

Unfortunately the yard isan't coming to the party and I am funding the inspection as they have had the car RACQ checked ready for sale, however, for my own peace of mind as this is my first big car purchase its worth the money and time to transport it myself to and from RACQ at Tingalpa for an off site inspection.

Everything else seems to be in order with the car, so fingers crossed that its not too good to be true, but all will come out in the wash tomorrow! Will let you know how I go, hopefully it will be a stupidly grinning happy GTi owner and not a "glad I dodged a bullet" unhappy none GTi owner.

Korbin

[Russ59]

Thanks for all the replies!

I contacted Austral VW today and they couldn't get me in for a standard pre sales check until the 9th of march

However I have booked the car in for a complete master check done at a RACQ inspection site which will be much more detailed, and only cost $70 more then the VW "yes the wheels are on looks good" check.

Austral VW were a little annoying though, I asked them if I supplied the VIN number could they go through the service history with me. They said that they could confirm that yes the car had been serviced, but they would not go through any of the details...

Unfortunately the yard isan't coming to the party and I am funding the inspection as they have had the car RACQ checked ready for sale, however, for my own peace of mind as this is my first big car purchase its worth the money and time to transport it myself to and from RACQ at Tingalpa for an off site inspection.

Everything else seems to be in order with the car, so fingers crossed that its not too good to be true, but all will come out in the wash tomorrow! Will let you know how I go, hopefully it will be a stupidly grinning happy GTi owner and not a "glad I dodged a bullet" unhappy none GTi owner.

Korbin

I would be careful with this purchase. I gather from the way it sounds that the vehicle is for sale from a non VW dealership, I would be interested to know why Austral VW won't give you any details of the service history. When I was organising the purchase of my son Cam's '07 Golf Comfortline only a month or so back, the dealer I was looking at purchasing from gave me the details of the VW dealership where the car had originally been sold and even went to the trouble of emailing me service history details from the log books. It didn't actually show if anything had been repaired or replaced under warranty but when I rang the VW dealership in Victoria ( I live in N.S.W.) the service department was very helpful and had no problem disclosing details of all work which had been done.

The car is a 2.0 TDI and had only travelled 16,500 k's so it came as no real surprise that there hadn't been any issues to speak of, but the servicing had been carried out as scheduled. I'm not sure what the rules are in Qld but I'm sure as there are plenty of Banana benders on the forum they can help out here, what are the regulations with disclosing if a vehicle has been water damaged or is a repairable write off in your state ?? I know in NSW they are pretty stringent but I'm not sure about Qld laws. Hopefully everything is legit and it's a genuine low k vehicle, I am just a little dubious about the VW dealer not being willing to discuss servicing details. I'm probably just being paranoid, but I've been bitten before and it won't happen again It's your decision though and I wish you all the best with it


Russ

[Greg Roles]

Austral have such a bad reputation, even though I know there are good people there, I will drive an hour outside Brisbane not to go there.

Highway out Ipswich way, Toowoomba and Maroochydore ( where I went ) have amazing reputations, and personally I'd be making sure that none of these highly recomended SE Qld dealers have a similar car.

At the moment ANY car dealer is going to be very eager to make a sale!!

[Russ59]

Austral have such a bad reputation, even though I know there are good people there, I will drive an hour outside Brisbane not to go there.

Highway out Ipswich way, Toowoomba and Maroochydore ( where I went ) have amazing reputations, and personally I'd be making sure that none of these highly recomended SE Qld dealers have a similar car.

At the moment ANY car dealer is going to be very eager to make a sale!!

By bad reputation Greg, do you mean they are bad at servicing or just have a bad attitude. The fact that Austral is not the actual dealer selling the car, but yet they are not even prepared to give out details on service history which would not do them any harm, makes me smell a rat somewhere in the deal. I would personally be shopping around a bit because as you said there are plenty of good deals to be made and still a few good dealerships out there who would bend over backwards for the business.

Russ

[Greg Roles]

I would only buy a new or secondhand car at, or serviced by, the above three mentioned dealers given the choices available in Brisbane.

But that's me.

[Mischa]

I would only buy a new or secondhand car at, or serviced by, the above three mentioned dealers given the choices available in Brisbane.

But that's me.

i'd buy one serviced by jmac without question