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MK7.5 GTI Front tyres worn to 1.6mm after 5K!

fuelboss

fuelboss

Go Kart Newbie
Location
United Kingdom & Portugal
Car(s)
GTI MK7.5 DSG
Opinions on this please.

Mk7.5 GTI with just under 5000 miles only

My local VW dealer in Bath has a 6-month old MK7.5 GTI direct from VWUK for sale. Today I had a look around it though it has not been prepared for sale as yet. The vehicle has complete 4952 miles but both front tyres are completely & evenly worn down to the tread wear indicators! Well I never experienced wear like this on my MK7 GTI that I had for 4 years and now I am suspicious of what this car has been doing and where it has been.

The tyres are Bridgestone Potenza's S001 so that might explain it but surely this tyre wear has to be abnormal! The rears are fine and the car itself is pristine. It just seems unreasonable to see wear like this given its low mileage, unmarked condition inside & out and the fact that rear tyres are as you might expect for its mileage.

I actually drove this car the other day on what are clearly illegal tyres - amazing!
 
Last edited:
Mikeyd1

Mikeyd1

Ready to race!
Location
Essex (uk)
fuelboss said:
Opinions on this please.

Mk7.5 GTI with just under 5000 miles only

My local VW dealer in Bath has a 6-month old MK7.5 GTI direct from VWUK for sale. Today I had a look around it though it has not been prepared for sale as yet. The vehicle has complete 4952 miles but both front tyres are completely & evenly worn down to the tread wear indicators! Well I never experienced wear like this on my MK7 GTI that I had for 4 years and now I am suspicious of what this car has been doing and where it has been.

The tyres are Bridgestone Potenza's S001 so that might explain it but surely this tyre wear has to be abnormal! The rears are fine and the car itself is pristine. It just seems unreasonable to see wear like this given its low mileage, unmarked condition inside & out and the fact that rear tyres are as you might expect for its mileage.

I actually drove this car the other day on what are clearly illegal tyres - amazing!
Click to expand...
Wheels have proberly been swapped over
 
S

SRGTD

Autocross Newbie
Location
UK
It’s probably been a car on VW’s press fleet that’s been thrashed to within an inch of its life by motoring journalists. Bridgestone Potenzas are a very hard wearing tyre for a performance tyre. They’re not the best for grip, but the flip side is they seem to last forever. So if the front tyres on this car are illegal after less than 5,000 miles, then that does seem to suggest the car’s been driven very ‘enthusiastically’ throughout its short life.

There’s a good chance that many of VW’s press fleet may have been registered in Milton Keynes, so would have Milton Keynes district letters on the registration plates (first letter of the reg no will be ‘K’) as VWUK HO is in Milton Keynes. Press fleet cars will also probably be highly specced - so there are lots of ‘toys’ for motoring journalists to play with and write about in their review articles. So if this car has lots of options, that could be another clue to it having been a press car that’s had a hard life.

I would personally avoid it and look for another. There are plenty of other examples out there.
 
fuelboss

fuelboss

Go Kart Newbie
Location
United Kingdom & Portugal
Car(s)
GTI MK7.5 DSG
SRGTD said:
It’s probably been a car on VW’s press fleet that’s been thrashed to within an inch of its life by motoring journalists. Bridgestone Potenzas are a very hard wearing tyre for a performance tyre. They’re not the best for grip, but the flip side is they seem to last forever. So if the front tyres on this car are illegal after less than 5,000 miles, then that does seem to suggest the car’s been driven very ‘enthusiastically’ throughout its short life.

There’s a good chance that many of VW’s press fleet may have been registered in Milton Keynes, so would have Milton Keynes district letters on the registration plates (first letter of the reg no will be ‘K’) as VWUK HO is in Milton Keynes. Press fleet cars will also probably be highly specced - so there are lots of ‘toys’ for motoring journalists to play with and write about in their review articles. So if this car has lots of options, that could be another clue to it having been a press car that’s had a hard life.

I would personally avoid it and look for another. There are plenty of other examples out there.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. My wife now tells me there were Hankook tyres on the rear though Bridgestones on the front and that now raises more suspicions. I will question the dealer tomorrow over this but as you say there are plenty of others for sale. They have had this car up for sale for quite some time now which suprises me as this appears to be the only low mileage MK7.5 GTI they have on sale.

Correction - all tyres fitted were Bridgestones as wife was incorrect (not often that happens)
 
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Mikeyd1

Mikeyd1

Ready to race!
Location
Essex (uk)
fuelboss said:
Mikey,

My wife now tells me there were Hankook tyres on the rear though Bridgestones on the front. Very odd.
Click to expand...

Yep someone has swapped them over.if it's been thrashed there maybe also some more tell tail signes.pitted windscreen .pitted front bumper. My guess someone at dealership just swapped them over for another sale
 
B

bertj

Ready to race!
Location
Wirral (UK)
The mileage is reasonable for a 6 month old car but have a look at the date the tyres were manufactured. You can find the date in a small rectangular/oval box on the sidewall of the tyre. It consists of 4 digits such as 3417 (Week 34 year 2017) - the first two numbers are the week number and the second two numbers indicate the year. From your description I would expect the worn tyres to be much older than the Hankooks. Obviously you would expect the dates and make of all four tyres to be the same if they had not been changed. I would also expect the dates of manufacture to be not more than a year before the manufacture of the car. My bet is for the dealer to have switched the wheels/tyres to another car to keep another customer happy.
If you want to be really sure ask for the wheels to be removed from the car and their date of manufacture checked on the inside of the wheels!
 
fuelboss

fuelboss

Go Kart Newbie
Location
United Kingdom & Portugal
Car(s)
GTI MK7.5 DSG
bertj said:
The mileage is reasonable for a 6 month old car but have a look at the date the tyres were manufactured. You can find the date in a small rectangular/oval box on the sidewall of the tyre. It consists of 4 digits such as 3417 (Week 34 year 2017) - the first two numbers are the week number and the second two numbers indicate the year. From your description I would expect the worn tyres to be much older than the Hankooks. Obviously you would expect the dates and make of all four tyres to be the same if they had not been changed. I would also expect the dates of manufacture to be not more than a year before the manufacture of the car. My bet is for the dealer to have switched the wheels/tyres to another car to keep another customer happy.
If you want to be really sure ask for the wheels to be removed from the car and their date of manufacture checked on the inside of the wheels!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. I will be at the dealers in the morning.
 
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