Newbie purchase

[66RBS]

Gentlemen

First post here. Thinking of buying 2016 GTI SE with performance pack. Has 18000 miles 6 speed

Prepurchase inspection at VW dealer tomorrow. What trouble areas should they look for?

 

[the]

18,000 miles is almost suspiciously low for a year 2016. You should check the title to see if it's a returned lemon vehicle, as that will be a concern if you decide to resale. Personally I would be curious what the life on the tires, brakes, rotors look like. Stock tires would be at the 6 year / 20k mark, so they should be ready to be replaced. I would assume the brakes are also EOL. But I mean, since both of these are wear items, not much to be said. In a normal market you may be able to talk the price down a bit over these items.

 

[oddspyke]

Water pump is a known issue, def look for leaking coolant. Are you concerned about previous modifications? Check the DP and the firewall insulation by it (really easy to dent it up swapping the pipe). You can send the VIN to major tuners and find out if it was tuned. Crank walk is the scariest thing to watch out for, but only if it's a manual. Just Google "mk7 GTI crank walk symptoms" and pay attention on your test drive. The motor/trans mounts get trashed pretty quick when tuned, but hard to diagnose unless you know what they felt like before (they start kind of sloppy/loose). Good luck!

Edit: also, emissions readiness.

 

[FooDogg]

Concur on low miles. Some buybacks on pano leaks have reportedly been recycled so look at headliner along A pillar and also rear hatch area, spare tire well for old water stains.

There is a TSB on the easy stuff:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2017/MC-10125582-9999.pdf

If its been serviced in past by VW the VW dealer can look up previous work by other VW dealers, including if its a buy back.

Good luck! If it checks good you have some fun ahead!

 

[dequardo]

Make sure to check CARFAX

 

[66RBS]

18,000 miles is almost suspiciously low for a year 2016. You should check the title to see if it's a returned lemon vehicle, as that will be a concern if you decide to resale. Personally I would be curious what the life on the tires, brakes, rotors look like. Stock tires would be at the 6 year / 20k mark, so they should be ready to be replaced. I would assume the brakes are also EOL. But I mean, since both of these are wear items, not much to be said. In a normal market you may be able to talk the price down a bit over these items.

all good points. Car has new Michelin pilots. Service records from VW dealer consistent with mileage. Recall on fuel tank issue. One owner. VW dealer ran vin #. My only concern is car stored outside 6 years in rainy Portland so I will ask on prepurchase to look for sign of leaks nothing suspicious on Carfax

 

[Superfreak]

… is car stored outside 6 years in rainy Portland …

This would be a show stopper for me, in any region.

 

[Strange Mud]

Many people park outside.

 

[Genegenie]

As above ^^ and with any such poss purchase, do your homework, talk to as many 'in the know' people as you can - then do it again. It MAY j-u-s-t be a "genune one careful owner car, only used to go to the shops and back, well looked after", etc, such cars are rare but do exist. If in any doubt, walk away, there will always be another car. Good luck.....

 

[KevinC]

18,000 miles is almost suspiciously low for a year 2016.

"almost"

If it was somebody's second car, or they work from home, or a zillion other legit reasons, that's not necessarily unusual at all. Of course still prudent to verify, but this could simply be a great find.

 

[SnailPower]

Many people park outside.

My car has never been parked inside (apartment living, no garage). I think the difference is more so, being parked outside and not being moved, vs parked outside and driven daily...

 

[JC_451]

Don't forget this person could have just started working from home and just simply stopped using the car.

If the price is right, jump on it. If it's north of $20k I would pass.

I wouldn't be surprised if this car has a super premium attached to it because of the low mileage. A really quick search turned up a few GTI with serious mileage still somehow being well north of 20 grand.

 

[swcrow]

Honestly, I'd check out all suspension bushings and components. 18k on a 2016.....no regular moving, or moving just to make all the parts move (which would have taken place if someone worked from home simply going to the grocery store).....might see some dry rot creeping in (hence the new tires they threw on) or overall breakdown of rubber components.

 

[FooDogg]

all good points. Car has new Michelin pilots. Service records from VW dealer consistent with mileage. Recall on fuel tank issue. One owner. VW dealer ran vin #. My only concern is car stored outside 6 years in rainy Portland so I will ask on prepurchase to look for sign of leaks nothing suspicious on Carfax

Fwiw, a friend works for AutoTrader/Kelly and says AutoCheck does a better job on picking up data than CarFax.
I was helping daughter shop a vehicle at time so ran same VIN on both and AutoCheck did find two items CarFax missed. A bit less expensive too.

https://www.autolist.com/guides/autocheck-vs-carfax

 

[FooDogg]

Honestly, I'd check out all suspension bushings and components. 18k on a 2016.....no regular moving, or moving just to make all the parts move (which would have taken place if someone worked from home simply going to the grocery store).....might see some dry rot creeping in (hence the new tires they threw on) or overall breakdown of rubber components.

Take a close look at wiring and connectors for chew marks. Sounds crazy but rodents are attracted to the soy based compound VW switched to, and thats a thing in cars parked outside. (Speaking from experience...)