HELP - Should i be worried?

[JMallows]

Ok, looking for a GTI, and have found one that i really want! Only problem as far as i can tell, it has had a respray... I asked why, and he said

"The repray was due to a minor parking dent in the boot skin that has to be knocked out and sprayed.  as it was being sprayed the previous owners decided to overspray the rest if the car.  It was at the time done at a reputable body shop with warantees etc but that was about6 years ago.  The respray has flaked a bit where the white meets the GTi Blacking on the boot lid.."

Should i be worried about this?

I have a photo of the back of the car, and it looks as such:

[Uruk Hai]

I'm allways rather suspicious of any respraying but you wont find many cars of that age that haven't had some paint work so what counts is how well its been done, if it was done that long ago anything it mite have been covering up would have probably came back through by now. Its not allways easy to sort out problems like flaking paint but if you really want the car you can use these "bad" points as a bargaining tool to help you knock the price down. Have a very very good look around to see if any other areas of the paint work are starting to flake or for signs of overspray or bad masking up, I appreciate your looking at a car that is about 18 years old so it wont be perfect but consider if you buy the car you will probably want to sort out any bad areas of bodywork so try to factor in the cost of these things when you make an offer and point out all the faults to the seller (they may allready know about them and hope you don't notice). As far as the tailgate flaking goes I expect they masked up the black sticker rather than taking it off and putting a new one on when they resprayed the whole area, they were probably trying to save money on the job !

[...joe]

on old cars i now think the body work is the main priority, as its the most expensive to sort. if you don't feel confident, walk away. there are tons of gti's out there and a bit of searching will get you the right one. if you're doubting it now it could be one of those things that always annoys you about the car. at the end of the day that one doesn't look the best gti out there and unless you really really want a 5 door, white,  f reg, small bumpered, corroded teardrop wheeled gti, then i'd keep looking for one you have confidence in!

[JMallows]

Thanks for your help, i have decided not to now anyway... The only thing i liked about it was that it was white, and 5 door... There'll be others

[BigDaveC]

Although white may be nice, it shows the rust badly, and is not a good colour when you sell it.
Dealers can't shift white cars !!
I can assure you 5 doors are VERY handy to have, especially when you need to get the back seats !

[Uruk Hai]

I've had one white car and it was the first and last one I'll ever have, they look nice when there clean and polished but that only lasts until you drive it and as said allready when white cars rust they look really scruffy and rough. As has been said theres plenty more fish in the sea, get your tackle out and see what bites 

[Thom89]

In my opinion, a white 5door has to be the least desirable GTI there is! and its fair to say that in the case of most other white cars, they are frowned upon in the motor trade, and considered to be a "millstone! around the neck of the owners! if you really want a white one then you should be looking at finding one for considerably less money than other colours.. thats just the way it is
Flaking paint is down to poor preparation, and generally points towards not enough parts were stipped off the car prior to new paint being applied
As you say, there'll be others
Tom