2nd Hand Stories - The TDI Sportwagen

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
02/22/2019 at 14:25 • Filed to: unnecessary car shopping without E90M3

My boss’s lease on his WRX is ending on Monday. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but wants a 2nd car to supplement a car that he can’t drive when it is wet or when the temperature is below 40 degrees. He has been looking at leasing something cheap, like a Civic Si, or buying something in the $10k range.

(Sidenote: apparently Si leases are cheap ! Like $220/mo.)

He used to own a Sportwagen TDI and as the ex-dieselgate ones seem to be flooding the market at the moment, he was interested in picking one up. A tasty one showed up at the local dealer so he called. After confirming the still had the car he headed over, only to be told they’d actually sold it a couple days ago.

Par for the course for a VW dealer, so he moved on.

A week later (yesterday) they called him and let him know that actually the car was back on the market! The buyer “couldn’t get financing,” so they’re OK with selling it to him. He heads back over.

Turns out “couldn’t get financing” is dealer speak for “we backed it into a pole and the buyer refused delivery”. Also, upon closer inspection the front tires were baaaaaald. Ok, well body work is body work and tires are tires. He took it for a test drive anyway. Apparently on the first turn the brake pedal went to the almost to the floor and he very nearly wet himself.

He turned around, parked the car, and left.

Now we’re rethinking this whole thing because, as it turns out, all of these cars had been sitting for a good long while and that could cause problems. Further, in the time between the buyback being announced and the cars being bought back, it is unlikely the cars received any maintenance and also pretty likely they were abused.

Now he is rethinking the whole endeavor.

I hope he gets one, it’ll scratch my itch to buy one my proxy and that would be helpful for my wallet haha. Also I think working with someone who owns a manual diesel wagon will make me more Oppo, right?

DISCUSSION (8)

The Ghost of Oppo > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
02/22/2019 at 14:28

Body work may be body work, and tires may be tires, but a used Volkswagen will always be a USED VOLKSWAGEN

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
02/22/2019 at 14:38

a 2nd car to supplement a car that he can’t drive when it is wet or when the temperature is below 40 degrees. He has been looking at leasing something cheap, like a Civic Si, or buying something in the $10k range.

Somebody please tell this man to buy a simple NA Subaru Impreza, Forester or Outback.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time
02/22/2019 at 14:41

Those are on the list too. He liked his WRX a lot. Just looking for a cheap (<$250/mo) manual that isn’t terrible, preferably with AWD.

B_dol > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time
02/22/2019 at 15:18

Or cold weather tires.

WilliamsSW > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
02/22/2019 at 15:47

If it were me, I wouldn’t necessarily give up on a TDI Sportwagen, but I would absolutely give up on that stealership.

That said, I think he might need to be a little careful with any car that sat doing nothing for a year or two - but I thought those cars had some cheep pricing and good warranty coverage (?).

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > WilliamsSW
02/22/2019 at 15:52

All of that. Yes. I hooked him up with a dealer friend of mine and hopefully they’ll be able to find one at auction for him. Car goes in Monday so... not sure what is he going to do haha.

WilliamsSW > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
02/22/2019 at 15:58

Good! Good luck - hope he comes out with something interesting - that Si lease ain’t bad, either.

jminer > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
02/23/2019 at 00:53

I bought one of those back in December a 2014 black sportwagen with the 6 speed and the sunroof. I love it so far and have put about 3k miles on it without issue, it was in pretty good shape and according to the car fax had sat about a year but had been maintained before that regularly. Paid $12k for it here in St. Louis and am thrilled with it.