All of Us
Ian's Dad
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2005
- Location
- Brookfield, IL
- TDI
- 2015 NMS Passat SE TDI "Gin" 2006 A5 New Jetta TDI "Graycie" and 2003 A4 Jetta GLS TDI "Liath"
Volks:
Over the weekend I picked up a new (to Me) TDI. It's a sweet "03 Jetta GLS TDI with less than 100k on the odometer, just less (93,690 miles). I found the car on Autotrader and was interested but could not justify a 5 hour trip for a test drive. The problem was that the car was in Midland, Michigan and I live in Chicago, over 300 miles away. Luckily, I met a few folks from Michigan at various GTGs (thanks Jetaah and Old Navy) and was able to contact a few to find out whether they were near Midland. I contacted Lew Pavlovich (lrpavlo) and Mark Gilson (Mark of Diesel). Turns out Lew lives within 20 miles of Midland and Mark used to live in the area too, but has since moved to northern Michigan.
Lew agreed to go up to Midland and look over the car on my behalf, and based on Lew's analysis of the car I was able to negotiate a good deal with the seller without ever having driven the car and only seeing pictures of it. Since the car was almost due for a timing belt job (100k mile interval belt on the 5 speed "03's) if I bought the car Lew offered to help me do the TB job before bringing the car home to Chicago. I jumped at the chance having never done a TB job before myself and having the opportunity to have someone with expreience help out was too good to pass up. I went up to Midland on Friday (11-13-09) and picked up the car and headed down the road to Merrill and Lew's house. Friday night Lew and I did an oil change and some Mods and maintenance work including a snow screen cleaning, the coolant tank mod to avoid coolant migration, a ventectomy, the 5 brake light mod, and installed a cabin filter since none was in there to begin with. Saturday morning Mark stopped by to lend a hand and we did the TB replacement. It went well and the new car made it home to Chicago with a new TB, and I made it home with a lot of good memories and a lot more knowledge about TDIs.
I can not thank Lew enough, because without him going to look the car over I would never have had the confidence to make an offer on the car. I also want to thank both Lew and Mark for taking the time to help a fellow Club member and sharing their knowledge on how to change a timing belt. Lew and Mark are both invaluable assets to TDI Club and I can not thank them both enough.
Dan
Over the weekend I picked up a new (to Me) TDI. It's a sweet "03 Jetta GLS TDI with less than 100k on the odometer, just less (93,690 miles). I found the car on Autotrader and was interested but could not justify a 5 hour trip for a test drive. The problem was that the car was in Midland, Michigan and I live in Chicago, over 300 miles away. Luckily, I met a few folks from Michigan at various GTGs (thanks Jetaah and Old Navy) and was able to contact a few to find out whether they were near Midland. I contacted Lew Pavlovich (lrpavlo) and Mark Gilson (Mark of Diesel). Turns out Lew lives within 20 miles of Midland and Mark used to live in the area too, but has since moved to northern Michigan.
Lew agreed to go up to Midland and look over the car on my behalf, and based on Lew's analysis of the car I was able to negotiate a good deal with the seller without ever having driven the car and only seeing pictures of it. Since the car was almost due for a timing belt job (100k mile interval belt on the 5 speed "03's) if I bought the car Lew offered to help me do the TB job before bringing the car home to Chicago. I jumped at the chance having never done a TB job before myself and having the opportunity to have someone with expreience help out was too good to pass up. I went up to Midland on Friday (11-13-09) and picked up the car and headed down the road to Merrill and Lew's house. Friday night Lew and I did an oil change and some Mods and maintenance work including a snow screen cleaning, the coolant tank mod to avoid coolant migration, a ventectomy, the 5 brake light mod, and installed a cabin filter since none was in there to begin with. Saturday morning Mark stopped by to lend a hand and we did the TB replacement. It went well and the new car made it home to Chicago with a new TB, and I made it home with a lot of good memories and a lot more knowledge about TDIs.
I can not thank Lew enough, because without him going to look the car over I would never have had the confidence to make an offer on the car. I also want to thank both Lew and Mark for taking the time to help a fellow Club member and sharing their knowledge on how to change a timing belt. Lew and Mark are both invaluable assets to TDI Club and I can not thank them both enough.
Dan
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