GSW buyback with no maintenance history

I’m looking at a GSW TDI with 50K on it, CPO from a dealer. The carfax has a lot of annual state inspections listed and other stuff but no sign of regular maintenance intervals except for the one done by the dealer to prep it for resale.

I know carfax doesnt always get maint reported if it was an indie shop or even DIY. I’m not sure why anyone would do that since first few oil changes should have been free. When dieselgate broke, I know there were people that wouldnt even spring for an oil change until they did a buyback.

Not too worried about the car itself since its a CPO but is there any way to know if the engine is ok other than a compression test?

How involved are those to do on the EA288?

Thanks

Being it is a CPO, if it starts and runs good with no annoying sounds, I wouldn't worry. It has made it this far and you have 2 years to see if anything pops up. I would insist they do the 40k service though before buying it. If it is a DSG this will be $800 +/-.

For 2015s vw only covered one oil change. Not all dealers report to carfax, my local dealer does not.

If it restarts instantly once warmed up and under the oil filler looks clean, I would not worry about it.

Perhaps owning those older Merc diesels makes you a little concerned about compression Don't worry about that on a modern TDI. You'd be able to tell right away if it was anything other than "normal."

As others have advised, if it starts right up, idles smoothly and makes decent power it's more than likely just fine. Of course, I'd do the oil change and fuel filter change, and if it's got a DSG transmission I'd ask for a discount on the flush service which was likely overlooked. I'd want to be sure I got fresh fluids in there, then motor along knowing you have 2yrs "pretty much everything's covered" CPO warranty and another 8-10yrs or up to 120K miles of the extended emissions warranty which also kinda covers most of the important bits.

In short, if it checks out clean, runs well and has no rusty bits, I'd buy it.

Thanks all. Well, the car got snatched up by someone else before I could move. Still on the hunt..
Yeah, the old MB’s keep compression on the mind

Don't sweat the small stuff!