Buying used: what cosmetic imperfections to accept

[Teutonic_Tamer]

I'm trying to learn to judge wear on car keys too as you can tell the mileage of a car based on the car key as there's so many people who clock their cars for company car mileage...

Also worth checking the seats for wear too...

The keys alone can be very misleading.  On one hand you can have a car which travels non-stop from say Glasgow to London (and return) each day, thus clocking up mega mileages - but the key will only be in and out twice per day.  At the other extreme, someone who is say doing very low mileages - but constantly stopping and starting (taxi, delivery driver, or meals on wheels service as examples) will have major key use compared to mileage! 

You really need to assess everything as a "whole", and that includes things like keys (both), pedal rubbers (though these are easily changed), steering wheel/handbrake/gear lever wear, seat wear.  Also look at the condition of the carpets and floor mats, the boot mat, the seat backs of the rear seats, scuffs on the door sills.

And a classic example of differentiating between low speed town use and high speed m.way use - at constant high speeds, the front bumper, bonnet and windscreen will be more prone to stone chip damage, but also be more subject to "sandblasting" type of wear too.  Whereas a town car will probably not have any stone chips, but will more likely have scuffed alloys, scuffed bumpers, and general little dings from car parks and shopping trolleys.

[carl1]

Ignore the keys they can not tell you anything much.Im a builder and my keys are a bit tatty with all bits going in my pocket at work and i have only done 9000 miles in 18 months

[Dan-Brown]

Monzas are ridiculously easy to kerb but can be refurbished for about £75 a wheel so maybe mint condition on much over 10k miles is going to be difficult to find.

However, shameless plug alert!!!

I've got one for sale, a slight scratch on the rear offside wheel, a tiny ding on the end of the drivers door, othersiwe huge spec and mint condition, AND i'm open to sensible offers! 

Do a search on autotrader for golfs within one mile of IP28 8EA,

[Chris-White]

At the end of the day, does the price reflect the condition? 

[stokeballoon]

Hello all.

Hi James.  A warm welcome to the forum. 

I'm a bit of a lurker on this forum as not yet an owner but have stepped up my search for a Mk5 GTI DSG.

You don't actually have to own a GTI to post away here!      So get posting away, and enjoy arguably the most knowledgeable and friendly Golf forums on the planet!   

- The wheel studs had this odd white stuff on them.

The centre caps were going, but that could be a warranty fix.  Anyone know what would make the wheel studs go a mixture of black and white?

If the wheel bolts did not have those little black covers on them, and they had a white furry substance, not too disimilar to limescale, then that is relatively normal.  It is basically galvanic corrosion, and is caused when two different metals contact each other (the cast iron of the brake disc, the aluminium alloy of the wheel, and the steel of the bolt). 

When you get the car, slaken the bolts, jack up the car.  Carefully remove the wheel.  Wire brush the mounting face of the disc, and the wheel bolts, and very carefully do the same to the mounting face of the alloy.  Then smear a thin layer of anti-sieze paste in the mounting face of the wheel to disc, and also the apply the same on the bolt threads and concial seat of the bolt.

Nice way of words there TT!  But i must agree!

[James_H]

Wow - thanks for the welcome and all the posts.

I remember seeing the star shape on the wheel bolts so I gather it could be plastic covers.  If so, they can only be pence to fix, it's just that I had never seen white on the bolts like that before.

All your posts are quite reassuring.  I think I'll be very lucky to find a used car in brand new condition.  I do have a contact for smart repairs if I bought as is, though I haven't tried him yet, but it is always a negotiating point.  The interior of this one did seem tidy.  Mechanically I didn't drive the car hard, but didn't find anything amiss.  There's a dash-top rattle, but I saw the post about how to sort that. 

The car is two years old and advertised at £16k with 25k on the clock.  Spec-wise it's the closest so far to ideal, which explains why it's at the price of some 07 regs or even near the bottom end of ED30s.  It is isn't seriously over the odds either, so if I leave it too long it could always go.  I've never actually bought from a used car dealer before, having only ever bought privately or via family.  I normally search only eBay, the classifieds on here or the private ads of AutoTrader or Pistonheads.  I expanded the search to dealers, saw it was only a few miles down the road and so worth having a look.

The chips can be touched in, wheels refurbed in a couple of years when they need it.  I think what bothers me the most is the noticeable scratch along the side and that if it could be polished out, it hasn't been done yet.  I think it's worth a call to check it hasn't sold already and see if they can actually try polishing out the scratch.  I'd be willing to take some ScratchX down there myself and have a go.

Dan - I had come across yours on my searches (and I'll be passing by on the A11 this weekend).  I'm really after a five door though.

[Dan-Brown]

Fair enough, even the most ardent modders on here would probably think twice before adding a couple of extra doors with an angle grinder!