Getting a 2006 Jetta BRM 5 speed ready to sell.

Looking at getting my 2006 Jetta ready to sell. I've taking a quick look at kijiji and the prices are all over the map. There are a few going for 1200-1500, most seem to be asking $3000 range (but some listings are a month old), a few really high priced ones (I think I saw 3 over $5000). There were 39 cars within a 119km radius of Kitchener/Waterloo.


To me (being the owner) it's in decent to good shape. Almost Everything works on it. Had rust repair back in 2014 from VW. Owned it for the past 5 years. TB done in 2017ish, will check records at home. AC works, going to repair the 3rd brake light before listing.

Recent (2018) work includes new headliner, fixed Glow plug fault, aux heater resoldered and replaced. Android Head unit.

In 5 yrs of ownership, I've done:
stage 1.5 Malone tune
tinted windows
at least 3 out of 4 wheel bearings
replaced 2 brake calipers
- front strut mounts
- front LCA bushings
- fixed the EGR bushing
- rust repair
- refinished and clear coated headlights.
- TB/ waterpump at around 265K km (will check)
- tires are in good shape - will do a tread measurement

I'll attach a pic from February 2019 that i took after a quick car wash... will come with different (better condition ) OEM VW rims.

i would consider that great shape for a 2006

thx savage.

Going to maybe do an interior detail on Friday if the weather is decent.

Get it certified! It makes ALL the difference when trying to sell a used car. Otherwise you will be just one of the many as-is sellers. Besides that, clean it really well. Get anything personal out of the car too so it looks as good as it can. Throw in the winter tires and anything else (spare parts like extra filters, etc) that you have left for the car as an incentive. Then post it on Kijiji and get ready for the idiots that want to lowball you. Be nice to everyone for the first reply because you never know who is the serious buyer. Make sure the add has lots of good quality pictures. Have the description include all the option and some of the maintenance that is still relevant. Don't post everything, just enough to get the buyer's attention. You can discuss the rest in person when they come to see the car. i wouldn't list the tune and the delete in the add but would discuss it in person. Keep in mind that any modification screams abuse to the average buyer.

keeping the snow tires as they fit my 15 Golf TDI... I will need to find someone local to do the certification... the mechanic I use doesn't like to do the cert for the seller... Do you have any suggestions?

petee_c said:

keeping the snow tires as they fit my 15 Golf TDI... I will need to find someone local to do the certification... the mechanic I use doesn't like to do the cert for the seller... Do you have any suggestions?

Click to expand...

You mechanic must have gotten burnt by an improper safety.

I would strongly suggest the Mufflerman on Hespeler Rd. in Cambridge. They very honest, have been dealing with them for over 20 years. I never ask who the mechanic is that does the safety at Muflerman, don't want to know, don't want any favors, just an honest safety inception. Also, tell them that you are going to do any work that needed and not to bother writing up a work estimate, just to tell you what the parts are that need to be changed, if any. Best is to drop the car off at night, leave the keys in the key slot on the first bay door and then call them in the morning and tell them to do a safety when they have time. This works out well for them as they can do it whenever they are slow during the day and you don't have to sit around waiting for it. What I always do is, check the car myself before posting it for sale, then replace anything that I find that needs to be changed for the safety. Then when the car is sold (seller leaves a deposit of a few hundred $), I take the car in for a safety inspection. Sometimes people want to buy the car as-is even if you are advertising it certified and sometimes might take more than 36 days to sell it and then it would need re certification.

I've got it booked in for an inspection next Friday... If it needs anything they will let me know, or it will get a safety certificate if it passes...
Should be about $100 for the inspection and then a little extra for the certificate.
Here is the car all cleaned up...
http://peterchang1.blogspot.com/2019/03/2006-vw-jetta-tdi-5-speed-for-sale.html

petee_c said:

I've got it booked in for an inspection next Friday... If it needs anything they will let me know, or it will get a safety certificate if it passes...
Should be about $100 for the inspection and then a little extra for the certificate.
Here is the car all cleaned up...
http://peterchang1.blogspot.com/2019/03/2006-vw-jetta-tdi-5-speed-for-sale.html

Click to expand...

Well done. Should sell easily. With the safety and all cleaned up, I think it will sell easily for $3K. First I would ask a little more and see how that goes.

imo000 said:

Well done. Should sell easily. With the safety and all cleaned up, I think it will sell easily for $3K. First I would ask a little more and see how that goes.

Click to expand...

If I get $3K for it, I'll be happy...I'm hoping for a quick sale... I think I priced it fairly.

petee_c said:

If I get $3K for it, I'll be happy...I'm hoping for a quick sale... I think I priced it fairly.

Click to expand...

Don't get discouraged by all the idiots that first show up when the add goes active on kijiji. There are a lot of lowballing used car salesman or car flippers on there. Wait for the right person and it will sell. I don't think it will take too long either.

the low bidders are funny. Selling my mk4 that died on me last summer for 750, i was getting offers for $200-250, and to counter that, i'd click on their profile and see what they were selling and would low ball bid them in return. Turned out to be some funny interactions, when i started to reply to him in his own words

I found the Facebook groups to be of good value, as an FYI. I have picked up some MKIV stuff off some locals as well. At least you can kinda vet/creep their profiles.

Got the 3rd brake light working with some reflowing of the SMD's with a hot air gun....



I have no idea how long the 3rd brake light has been out.... one of the hockey parents told me about it in the winter, but I didn't want to risk looking at it in the winter as plastics can be brittle, but it may have been out for way longer than that... 1st time i've noticed a faint reflection of the brake light in the rear window....

thx all for the help.

Awesome! A little cleaning up and some fixing goes a long way!

thx. only thing it needed were front brake pads.... they had about 1/4" left, but the shop had discovered both inboard pads had delaminated from the metal backing pad....
The passenger side pad fell out in pieces

$54 for the econo pads from carquest - and they included the brake sensor (which I was impressed), and I was good to go.

The pads that were on there were ABT pads... I had no complaints, and did not have any issues with driving it... maybe sitting for 6 weeks and then getting the vehicle moving caused them to fracture that way... (although I have seen it happen on other vehicles too)