[BBMW]

I'm about to buy a 1999 GTI 2.0. It's from a VM dealer and will be certified. I test drove the car last weekend, and a couple of thing bothered me. First, the driver's side door was a little out of alignment. The strike would hit the door slightly, but noticably before the latch caught.
The second thing I noticed was that the car creaked. Whenever I accelerated or broke, it sounded like some of the interior panels were rubbing together making this kind of chiping, creaking sound. While kind of annoying in and of itself, it brings up a bigger issue. I always thought that the Golf IV was a particularly stiff platform. Why would it be flexing enough to make a creaking sound?
I'm starting to get this paranoid thought that the car was hit and repaired. If it was, it was done well. I sighted long the body panels, and checked some of the weld points I could see, and there was nothing apparent. The salesbot swears it wasn't. Would VW certify a car with repaired body damage? Is there any other way to check? I Carfaxed it and it came back clean.
Any opinions/ideas? Thanks.

 

[soundzero]

Re: Creaking GTI (BBMW)

quote:[HR][/HR]I'm about to buy a 1999 GTI 2.0. It's from a VM dealer and will be certified. I test drove the car last weekend, and a couple of thing bothered me. First, the driver's side door was a little out of alignment. The strike would hit the door slightly, but noticably before the latch caught.
The second thing I noticed was that the car creaked. Whenever I accelerated or broke, it sounded like some of the interior panels were rubbing together making this kind of chiping, creaking sound. While kind of annoying in and of itself, it brings up a bigger issue. I always thought that the Golf IV was a particularly stiff platform. Why would it be flexing enough to make a creaking sound?
I'm starting to get this paranoid thought that the car was hit and repaired. If it was, it was done well. I sighted long the body panels, and checked some of the weld points I could see, and there was nothing apparent. The salesbot swears it wasn't. Would VW certify a car with repaired body damage? Is there any other way to check? I Carfaxed it and it came back clean.
Any opinions/ideas? Thanks.[HR][/HR]​

Well, you want to use Carfax.com or call Department of Motor Vehicle to verify the VIN. It will tell you the history of the car. Also you said 1999 GTi 2.0?
GTi doesn't come in 2.0. It is either 1.8T or VR6.
GTi is stiff platform, the sport suspension on GTi loads bit more stress to the frame of the car than those counter parts of Janapnese cars.
You mentioned about out of alignment of driverside door? This is what you should do. Check out the paint job. Look under and inside of the door hindge. Do you see any difference between the driverside door and the passanger side?
OK, how many miles are on this car and how much are they asking?

 

[zilla]

Re: Creaking GTI (soundzero)

1999.5-2000 and i think 2001 had 2.0 GTIs

 

[grue]

Re: Creaking GTI (soundzero)

quote:[HR][/HR]
Also you said 1999 GTi 2.0?
GTi doesn't come in 2.0. It is either 1.8T or VR6.[HR][/HR]​

*bzzzt*. It doesn't come in 2.0 -now-, but it did then.

 

[VeeDubDriver]

Re: Creaking GTI (BBMW)

Bring it to a body shop and have them look at it.

 

[soundzero]

Re: Creaking GTI (zilla)

quote:[HR][/HR]1999.5-2000 and i think 2001 had 2.0 GTIs[HR][/HR]​

My Bad

 

[Lumalux]

Re: Creaking GTI (BBMW)

You will quickly learn that these cars ALL creak at one time or another.

 

[landrumdh]

Re: Creaking GTI (BBMW)

VW's do tend to creak sometimes. Mine only does it when it's really cold out and the plastic dosen't flex.
After it's warrmed up it dosen't creak anymore.
As for damange, bring it to a body shop, they would be able to hoist it up and tell if it's been repaired.

 

[Spiro SU]

Re: Creaking GTI (landrumdh)

quote:[HR][/HR]VW's do tend to creak sometimes. Mine only does it when it's really cold out and the plastic dosen't flex.
After it's warrmed up it dosen't creak anymore.[HR][/HR]​

Yea, mine too pretty much.

 

[BBMW]

Re: Creaking GTI (soundzero)

Thanks for all the replys.
FYI, it's a 1999 GTI, it is a 2.0, with and auto trans (yeah, I know. But it's necessary). It has 33K miles. Is a certified, pre-owned car. We settled on a price of $13,500.