buying a car sight unseen
 

Well i pulled the trigger on this one and ill be having it shipped to me (by far the largest shipment ill have ever recieved :lol: ) , its from a trusted member of the tdiclub forums, ill be finishing the transaction tomorrow....


Its a 2000 model Jetta TDI 5 speed with 69k miles and ALOT of work done to it.

All work has been performed by Chris Hill "mrchill" @ Kraftwerke Autotechnic in Braintree, Ma.

breakdown of maintenance He has had done to the car in the past year:
- New timing belt and water pump (@50k, upgraded to the PD 100k timing belt)
- New brakes at all 4 corners (installed 9/15/09)... See More
- R32 control arms bushings (installed 9/15/09)
- Rear axle beam bushings (installed 9/15/09)
- New Battery (11/12/09)
- New OEM N75

Here is the performance mods:
- Garrett 17/22 hybrid turbo (installed 6/13/09)
- Southbend stage 3 clutch w/14lb flywheel (installed 7/1/09)
- Rockship stage 4 tune (24lbs sustained, installed 6/13/09)
- EGR delete (installed 6/13/09)
- pp764 nozzles (installed 7/29/09)
- PD Turbo inlet pipe (installed 7/29/09)
- Custom TDI Parts 2.5" straight exhaust with magnaflow muffler (installed 10/16/09)
- Koni FSDs with H&R OE springs (installed 9/15/09)
- New rear axle beam bushings (installed 9/15/09)
- Defender-tech skid plate (installed ~ August 09)
- Cat 2 micron fuel filter (7/12/09)

Misc Mods
- Frostheater block heater (intalled 11/12/09)
- Jetta Winter grille cover
- Hella Micro DEs with 3000k 35w HID bulbs
- Pyrometer, aka EGT, aka exhaust gas temperature
- NewSouth performance gauges (boost, egr, voltage)

Stereo:
McIntosh MX406 head unit - (this is a $1000+ unit)
Audiocontrol four.1i EQ
Boston Acoustics 6.26" SR60 seperates
JL Audio 500/1
JL Audio 450/4v2
JL Audio 10" w6 subwoofer

Wheels:
- freshly polished (literally, this week) audi fat 5s with new dunlop direzza's (0 miles)
- hankook winterbear snow tires on 15" steelies with OEM hub caps


oh boy i can hardly wait till it gets here!

oops forgot the pics.

sounds cool. never had luck with my vw, hopefully you will!

my parents have owned a 03 jetta TDI since new and they wouldnt trade it for the world, great cars despite some of the smaller issues.

But this one is well built by a tdi guru with no expenses spared, hell just look at the audio equipment and you can tell that the owner didnt skimp of the little things.

besides 50+ mpg and a FAST fun drving car arent usually one in the same.

Sleeper? Thing looks stock like a regular VW.

How much is shipping of that beast? Probably by far the most you've ever spent on shipping to! :lol:

a little over $630 to have it shipped door to door, which is alot cheaper than me flying up there and driving over 1500 miles back with it....

Hmm, where did he ship from?

Shipping for my Camaro from California was $1200. Its not cheap, but was better than driving there...

Yeah, my brother shipped his 06 Accord from Cali to West Virginia, $800 for the cheapest carrier, took a few weeks, but we got like $600 back... Complaining always works.. :D

well its actaully about 3/4" to 1 inch lower than stock thanks to the suspension and well you gotta picture it in your head with brand new polished audi fat fives and and the dunlops, theyll fill out the car nicely.

shipping is from MA to AR...

and yes with the stock wheels on there it is a total sleeper, unless someone with a keen eye catches the rather large turn down pipe.... and the "its a diesel" plate might give it away..... but im sure theyll know something is up when im feeding them black smoke as i litterally smoke them.

Have fun with it... Strange that a car with 69k miles needed a water pump. Somehow my 02 f-150 with 180k miles has not needed it, or anything else...

My advice, do not wreck it, as "snaptite by vw" do not take well to be taken apart and reassembled. Everything clips together, and the front bumper alone has 2 dozen parts, each costing 100 bucks or more. For an "economy car" they certainly went over the top with design, guess that is what the germans do (see bmw and m-b).

I almost ended up with a turbo 4 banger gas jetta, but the oil seal in the turbo let go (car did have 75k miles...) and I had a destroyer style smoke screen laying down as I drove thru palm beach fl... Luckily the guy took the car back and all I lost was 500bucks for the deposit and $800 for the plane tickets, got to sleep in the airport too, bonus!

However that 1300 bucks was change compared to what vw charges (gouges) at the dealership. So better get good at fixing that beast!!! Parts are uber pricey too, I always cringe when I think what a new beetle side mirror costs to replace, plus you have to buy it piece meal (cha ching) and assemble it yourself (not easy even after a few).

I did drive a stock version of your ne ride, and it was very solid feeling and accorsing to the owner he could get 47mpg combined hwy/city if he was easy on it. So that is good stuff. Not sure if it offsets the cost of ownership, but at least it is green.

At least you did not buy a new beetles, those are huge piles of crap.

Don't they throw in a free lobotomy to obscure the reality of the purchase?

im fully aware of how the vws are made and you right the snap tite crap sucks, after we had to replace a part of the front bumper on my parents jetta i went thorugh and installe clip nuts every where possible and put rivnuts every else now the entire front end including fender wells....

as for the water pump being replaced it was done "just for the hell of it" because when you replace the timing belts its extremely easy to go ahead and do both.

the SOB backed out at after we had already arranged shipping and i had changed my insurance policy and everything.......

What a dbag.

Did he give you a reason?

Thats fricken BS he would do that! But honestly, I would see that as a blessing! I would buy a Kia before i owned another European car.

Cause Korean cars are so much better...:sarcastic:

chrysler owns mitsubishi which owns hyundai which owns kia :) But i am far from a Dodge guy. I am a (dare i say it) toyota, and a chevy guy

Not to hijack an already hijacked thread, but....

FYI, Chrysler no longer owns Mitsubishi, who in turn do not own Hyundai and Kia. Mitsubishi has a joint manufacturing alliance/partnership with Kia.

Yea, I'm a Chevrolet guy too. About the farthest I could venture from Chevy is to Pontiac (R.I.P. :cry:).

the only car manufacturers i would buy from is Ford, VW, Audi, BMW.. maybe some exceptions...

Im looking at another jetta now its got 200K miles and is all stock the price is ALOT cheaper so i would easily beable to go through the engine and mod it how i want and stay within my budget.

Just be patient you'll find what you want.

^^^ sound advice.

Nothing like the sound of a lil turbo sucking in air and crapping it out through a fart can!

Get a V8! or a diesel!

Just drove my buddy's 99 lotus esprit v8 turbo. 3.5 liter v8 with twin turbos. Fun, was doing 100+ in the neighborhood. And it only runs 10psi. He plans to pump it up to 15psi, 550hp or more.

As far as anything german goes, I will never own one again. The MB I had was just cheaply made. I am a ford guy, but would buy a dodge or (cringe) a gov't motors vehicle before I went german again...

Just working on these cars everyday (paint and body) shows me how unnecesarily complex they are. Even the toyotas and nissans are going that way. Have not fooled with too many new ford cars, but the trucks are still ok. Parts are getting more complex though, which is nver good. Guess it is just a sign of the times.

:rules: re-read :yes:

I have a highly modded 97 F-250 7.3

and im looking to buy a VW TDI which is a diesel.... :whistle:

i found one in fortworth im driving down friday to check it out, if it is as he says im buying it on the spot and then dumping $4500 in parts for it because its all stock and cheap. I want to have one thats fixed up and its gotta have double the stock power (stock is 90hp and 162tq) im looking at 170-185hp and atleast 330tq with the engine additions. Thats why i want one.

Love that sound!

Seriously? :no:

I'd like to think I have a fine appreciation of all engines, I drive a turbo, so does the wife - no pop-off valves or other audible junk...fuel costs about twice the US price here in Australia, so there's a second consideration when buying. While I don't mind the sound, under the bonnet is a mad womans breakfast...best to keep that covered up

I friend bought himself an RS4 last week...now that thing sounds amazing, has a little sport button that lets the drivers seat grip you firmer & changes the exhaust note. Goes like a scalded cat

Damn are you Aussies hard to understand sometimes. :lol: "under the bonnet is a mad womans breakfast"?

Anyway, a little 4 banger with a snail under the hood never really appealed to me. And as far as the "audible junk," nobody ever complained about the sound of the blowoff valve on my Camaro. Nothing like a turbo V8. :mdr: