Advice on the engine reliability + service schedule

[CynicalRobot]

Hi All, i am looking at a few 2014 MK7 GTI's and one has interested me but it has 60k miles on it. I have had the same car for the last 10 years which is a Nissan so i dont know much about VW's in all honesty.

Im reading online that on modern engines these days that kind of mileage shouldn't be anything to worry about but can anyone here give me a heads up if any major service will be due soon? i can try and use that to get the price a little lower

I plan on keeping the car a good 4 years and do 15k a year so do you think i should be reasonably safe with that car? it has a full service history.

Sorry if this is in the wrong area, i honestly just do not know enough about these cars and would like some input from you. I drove the car and fell in love with it  drives really well, no weird noises etc

Thanks!

[fredgroves]

Mk7's were from end of 2013, so you are pretty near the beginning with a 2014 plate one.

Therefore nobody can predict the future, because we don't have any experience with how these age yet.

There are a few things that we on here have seen go wrong fairly regularly with the Mk7, the main one being the water pump...however that's very much a case of it goes wrong when it goes wrong and with little warning.

Will it last you 4 years and another 60k on top of the current 60k? Maybe - but I'd say that about any car, not just a Golf.

You are about to push a 5 year car probably to its end of life... I'd imagine there will be some bumps along the way.

[CynicalRobot]

Thanks Fred

Appreciate the fast reply!

Keeping it well maintained is my goal, what would you recommend for oil change intervals for the gti?

[CynicalRobot]

I rang vw who were actually really helpful, refreshing to get information quick and easy, the car does have a full vw service history so that's help put my mind at rest a bit

[fredgroves]

Keeping it well maintained is my goal, what would you recommend for oil change intervals for the gti?

There are two service schedules, one is 10k or one year and the other is 20k or 1 year (long life). Basically its an annual service.

The log life one is the default from the factory and if the previous owner had done 60k since 2014, its probably been on long life.

Things I would probably avoid in a 60k second hand car would be :

DCC (the shocks are expensive when they go and they will go in the lifetime you have it)
Sunroof (over time that will be a problem too).
The paint is supersoft and the pearlescent colours (pearl white or black) are expensive to patch up. Get one of the other colours.
19 inch wheels can or might have already buckled and the tyres are expensive too.
If its a performance pack car with the LSD, this needs a service which isn't on the service schedule. Every three years, its about £300 a go...

Oh the other thing I've observed go wrong at 4 years is sometimes the heater grid (cabin heating)... its about £1000 to fix. 

[CynicalRobot]

Keeping it well maintained is my goal, what would you recommend for oil change intervals for the gti?

There are two service schedules, one is 10k or one year and the other is 20k or 1 year (long life). Basically its an annual service.

The log life one is the default from the factory and if the previous owner had done 60k since 2014, its probably been on long life.

Things I would probably avoid in a 60k second hand car would be :

DCC (the shocks are expensive when they go and they will go in the lifetime you have it)
Sunroof (over time that will be a problem too).
The paint is supersoft and the pearlescent colours (pearl white or black) are expensive to patch up. Get one of the other colours.
19 inch wheels can or might have already buckled and the tyres are expensive too.
If its a performance pack car with the LSD, this needs a service which isn't on the service schedule. Every three years, its about £300 a go...

Oh the other thing I've observed go wrong at 4 years is sometimes the heater grid (cabin heating)... its about £1000 to fix.

Thanks Fred i will take those into account!

The dealer is going to give me a 6 month warranty, how would i go about checking the state of DCC?

[fredgroves]

Oh and you can't retrofit/upgrade the stereo unit with another VW OEM one. So if it doesn't have sat nav and you want sat nav then you never will unless you buy one of the Kenwood units that are compatible... but they really suck IMHO.

If it has satnav, then you may need to pay VW for map updates as you only get them for the first three years.

A 2014 car doesn't have satnav with live traffic data (only RDS, which is sh!t in the UK) and cannot use carplay/android auto (that was later and cannot be retrofitted)

[fredgroves]

The dealer is going to give me a 6 month warranty, how would i go about checking the state of DCC?

Warranties on the 2nd had cars are barely worth the paper they are written on, but...

You can't really tell anything about DCC unless the shocks are already leaking.

Have a look at the replacement part costs - for DCC you will need a VW OEM shock, if its non-DCC you can use third party ones of course at a much lower cost.

[CynicalRobot]

The dealer is going to give me a 6 month warranty, how would i go about checking the state of DCC?

Warranties on the 2nd had cars are barely worth the paper they are written on, but...

You can't really tell anything about DCC unless the shocks are already leaking.

Have a look at the replacement part costs - for DCC you will need a VW OEM shock, if its non-DCC you can use third party ones of course at a much lower cost.

Thanks Fred really appreciate you advice

[Watts]

The GTI is a great car and a great drive, but, get yourself a good comprehensive warranty or have some cash squirreled away. Turbos can go, clutches, dsg gearbox, wheel bearings, headlights, waterpump/thermostat housing. All these will cost from a lot to mega bucks. No timing belt to worry about though and servicing costs are reasonable. Mine has so far (whilst hoping not to jinx anything) been the most reliable car I've ever had so despite what I've said, I think overall they are pretty good. I love mine and really can't think of much else I'd want to change it for

One other thing though is wheels, 19s are prone to buckling and tyres are expensive. 18s are better from that point of view but are a bit marmite design wise. All standard wheels though are diamond cut and therefore are expensive to refurbish and have a limited number of refurbs possible, a 5 year old car may have had them done once or twice and may not be able to be refurbed again, worth bearing in mind.