I've always loved the look of the r32 but until recently (and I'm not quite sure why) they haven't really been on my list of cars to own.
However, I stumbled across a video of one last week on YouTube and thought it was time for me to take a dabble.
After trawling the ads on ebay, Gumtree and Pistonheads I decided to go for what looked like one of the best packages - 2006, 127k (so high but not too high), DSG, leather and in deep pearl blue. Lots of service history and HPI clear.
When I went to collect, the seller kindly offered to pick me up from the station, so at about 10.30pm I met the car for the first time. It was dark and rainy but despite that I could straight away tell the car was not quite as described. The description was of a fairly mint car. Interior unmarked, exterior amazing and it genuinely looked great in the pictures. However, it was far from that.
Some of the issues were;
Scratches on bonnet
Front door cards insecurely fitted.
Some interior switches (window & light switch) heavily scratched.
Damage to rear "door cards"
Steamed up headlights
Very matted paint in some areas
Rust on the front drivers side wheel arch.
Key mark to rear drivers quarter
Rust beneath VW badge on tailgate
Scratches to rear bumper
Seats don't slide forwards when tipped for rear passengers to enter
Interior dirty
Rear pads and discs heavily worn.
Front pads very heavily worn.
Very worn remote blipper/key
Missing passenger door mirror glass
Wheels scuffed
Worn DSG knob
Very worn steering wheel
Heated seats not working
Lumbar adjustment not working.
Creaky steering (that actually had stopped creaking by the time I got home).
...you get the idea. However, as soon as I started negotiating it was clear the seller was willing to be flexible on price. I did wonder whether to just leave the car and look elsewhere but in the end I managed to get a significant discount, so I did the paperwork and drove the car home. I eventually arrived back in Lichfield at 3.30am!
The car isn’t all bad. It’s neglected, but the engine sounds very sweet, the DSG is smooth and silky, its the colour I wanted with all the options I like, it’s got a mountain of paperwork and a very complete service history with all the DSG box services done on time.
It turned out the seller already had a replacement tailgate to replace the corroding one so that was also included in the deal and came home with me in e boot.
I didn’t intend for this to be a project car, but for the price (and that engine!) I thought I’d take a gamble.
So I thought I'd start a "build" thread as a record of my work to look back on as I get the car back upto scratch. and if anyone wants to follow along then thats great too.
I'll post some more pics soon, so that you can see how the car is from the start of the journey.
James
Attached Files
Edited by Perksy, 19 January 2020 - 07:51 AM.