Wheel re-furb ot not? 25 Anniversary car

[Nick L]

Hello

Wonder if you guys can help me here. I'm new to the VW scene but have been lucky enough to get hold of a mint condition 25 Anniversary GTI  (150 diesel) from a friend who had it from new (40 year old woman had it as her company car so its never seen above 2000 revs 

Well, I say mint. That is with the exception of the wheels which after reading through this site is normal on these cars. I have had a quote from Pristine for £400 which I am happy with given that I know they will do a proper job on it. BUT - I will only be able to keep the car for about another 9-12 months probably (gonna need a 5 door soon - nooooooooooooooooooo    and I wanted to know if someone who was buying this kind of car would be looking for it to be absolutely standard even though the wheels look really tired with the lacquer problem, or if I got as a close a match as possible whether they would think this was a problem.

The problem has been explained to me by two wheel specialists and I still can't understand how VW have got away with not replacing them. Its a design fault by all accounts and because of the unlaquered edge on the inside this was always going to happen. I will give VW UK a go before I decide to pay for it but because the car is a few years old they'll no doubt tell me where to go.

Thanks

Nick

[Rhyso]

keep it standard.  It's a lmited edition model and the reason they hold their value is exactly that.  I've seen a few Anni's which have been modded and it's done the overall look of the car no favours

VW are useless when it comes to this sort of stuff.  if they took 2 minutes to look at the whole design a whole host of problems could have been avoided 

I think the boss man JV approached VW about the wheels for his Anni and they told him they would replace them but not with the original finish.  I don't think they even entertained the idea of helping towards refurbishing costs  which is a bit stupid as surely it would be cheaper for them to do that rather than replace the wheels!!

£400 does sound a lot mind but then i guess the finish is unusual.  whether or not you'll see the cost back is another matter and i guess would depend on who you sell the car onto

[jv]

Under warranty vw used to replace all the wheels for free, initially with exactly the same polished finish. These also were then suffering so that the later replacements are the same wheel but in a more normal finish. I bought my Anni at almost 4 years old so well outside warranty. The dealer local to the guy I bought it off allowed me a replacement set at 75% discount so I paid about 180 quid for a new set of BBS but yes they are in the non-polished look finish.

I don't really think vw are to blame on this one - with proper care, regular cleaning and not getting all the winter salty crap on them, they would probably have lasted fine