@mossy69; Three of the alloys (all but the front offside alloy) have white worm corrosion, so you could get the dealer to get them refurbished or alternatively budget for around £120 -£140 per wheel to get them done yourself (use it a negotiating point to get a discount off the price of the car if everything else stacks up).
The non tartan sections of interior upholstery look quite grubby in places (white stain marks); get the dealer to clean it properly. It disappoints me when a car’s not prepared to what I would consider to be an acceptable standard prior to photographing and advertising for sale.
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Check that the DSG service has been carried out; it should have been done at 40k miles. Also, check the tyres; from the MOT checker on the government website, both front tyres at the last MOT (Dec 2023) were close to the legal limit.
I can’t remember seeing reports of timing chain issues on the mk7 /mk7.5. There were issues with the timing chain tensioner on the mk6 GTI and the tensioner went through a number of revisions during the mk6’s lifecycle. I’m assuming that lack of reported problems with the mk7 / mk7.5 is an indication that the tensioner used in the mk7 / mk7.5 is fit for purpose.
Good point by @GKR47 about warranty; the dealer selling the car is a Renault dealer, so any warranty won’t be a VW warranty.
Potential issues I’m aware of with the mk7 / mk7.5 GTI;
- a weak point with the EA888 2.0 engine in the mk7 / mk7.5 GTI is the water pump / thermostat housing, so check for signs of leakage and / or low coolant level in the cooling system expansion tank. The car’s service history may show whether or not the water pump / thermostat housing has been replaced.
- there’s been a few instances of the silicate bag in the coolant expansion tank splitting, causing blockages in the heater matrix. Not all cars have the silicate bag (usually indicated by ‘Mit Silicate’ printed on the outside of the expansion tank). If you use the forum advanced search facility, you should find discussion topics relating to this. From memory, blocked heater matrix seems to be more of an issue with diesels, so probably not a major issue.
- rear door speaker seals can leak, allowing water ingress into the rear footwells; carpets for dampness.
- water ingress into the boot / spare wheel well. Possible causes;
a) grommet on the end of the tailgate handle drain tube can perish, allowing water to collect inside the tailgate and drain into the boot / spare wheel well
b) defective seal around air pressure equalisation vents (located in lower rear quarter panels behind rear bumper cover)
c) perished seals around rear light clusters
Check boot floor and spare wheel well for water.
