So there seem to be more threads than usual lately in the "Bad" thread category. Both on the buying and selling side. Usually these threads get quickly thread jacked. TDI club has a IRC Chat Channel. There are a good number of us that sit round and BS about life, politics and occasionally TDIs. We always get a good laugh out of these threads.
I'm creating this post to hopefully help people on BOTH sides.
Buyers
TDIs and Diesels in general are in High Demand. Edmunds, KBB and other price sites usually price low. If you're looking to pick up a TDI for what KBB says good luck. Good deals do exist but they are rare. You are unlikely to find them on TDI Club (But sometimes they do happen). You might search Craigslist or Crazed List, other sites to check are Cars.com and Autotrader.com you might even have luck on Ebay.com.
You have to CONSTANTLY keep looking. Set up an RSS Feed or bookmark it and check it hourly. (Firefox has plug-ins to check for changes to pages).
Good deals like $3000 Mk4 Golfs and $2000 Mk3 Jettas do come along but if you're not in the right place at the right time, you're not going to get it. Sometimes someone doesn't know what they have. Grandpa selling grandma's car. Children selling off estates. People who just have no clue what they have. Broken cars.. Things literally come down to the minute.
Be prepared to travel. I know this may be hard to fit into your work schedule. Finding exactly what you want, where you want it when you want it is going to be no small feat, most especially if you live in a rural area or less populous areas of the country. Personally I flew to LA from IN. The seller was more concerned with the money than getting rid of the car. I had the money in hand within a few days and flew out a few weeks later.
Hesitation = deals lost. The guy that e-mails the seller with money in hand will get the car before the guy that e-mails with a list of questions. HOWEVER. If you are looking for a daily driver with 0 problems, this may not be the best course of action. Some of the "Collectors" on the forums (And you know who you are) will do this. They know exactly what they're getting themselves into. If you are an expert mechanic and have another vehicle then you may be able to do this. Sometimes these cars are perfect, sometimes these cars need everything done to them. "You get what you pay for". If I walked across a Mk4 TDI in craigslist selling for 1500$ and the body looked good I'd get it in a second.
Ask questions. This is contradictory to getting the deal of a lifetime, but if you are a first time TDI owner, new car buyer or looking for your primary vehicle you want to make sure you get the best VEHICLE possible. Timing belt, oil change interval, oil, general maintenance, these are all things you want to know about. Not knowing these things can lead to a bad buying experience. You can blame VW, blame diesels, TDIs in general when the real problem is the maintenance by the Previous Owner, things which could have been discovered by adequately discovered by a good round of questioning.
Do the math. There are numerous "Are TDIs for me?" threads and you can find them on the search page. These cars last a long time but they aren't appliances. If you spend $5000 extra to get an extra 20 MPG you're saving yourself 133 gallons over 10,000 miles. $400 at todays prices. Break even is a far time in the distance. Look at the last 4 cars you bought, how long did they last. Did you drive them until the DMV said they were no longer suitable for road travel or did you 'trade up' when the high gloss wax wore off? TDIs are not for everyone. VWs are not for everyone. I've owned a Mk3 and 4 Mk2s. They will 'nickel and dime you', if you can perform your own maintenance you'll save a bundle. If you plan on driving this car into the ground without as much as checking air pressure, the car won't last and you'll end up frustrated and mad. More importantly, you could be 'stealing' a buy from some body who does want to invest 200,000 miles into this car and really is in it for the long haul. No thread can tell you if you are 'right' for a TDI but don't forget common sense when you see "50 MPG". Real life, most people get into the 40s and even into the 30s... Do your research.
While posting WTB threads are fine, be reasonable. Take into consideration everything above and everything below. You are not going to find a 2006 Jetta with <50,000 miles for $8,000. We're going to laugh at you, either publicly or on the side. State where you are (or fill in your dang profile location) what you are looking for and be reasonable on what you expect to spend. Most of the time WTB ads are filled by someone saying "Hey I'm selling my car in this thread". Spend 10 seconds to READ the posts. Don't register and post a WTB thread 30 seconds after joining and don't expect US to do YOUR work for you. If you want your $2000 mint condition one owner car that was only used to go to Church on Sunday don't expect us to tell you about it. Find it yourself because if we see it first, it's ours.
--
Sellers
TDIs are in high demand. It is definitely a seller's market. You car is not made of gold. Asking 2x of KBB or $5k over the highest eBay auction you found will not move your car. It will draw hecklers and tire kickers.
Set a reasonable price. Check eBay auctions and "Sold" threads. Set it at or a bit higher than comparable sales. If you just bought your car 5k miles ago from the dealer and you're looking to break even, it most likely won't happen. If you know the TB needs to be done or you just blew a head because you didn't do the TB, knock that off the price. Use common sense.
If you want the MOST amount of money for your car, TDIClub is probably not your best place. Ebay is full of dumb buyers. Set a high reserve price and let it run its course. Sprinkle in terms like "up to 50 MPG" (or if you want to push it "Up to 60 MPG") and "Runs on BioDiesel, no War Needed." Tug at heart strings make make grandiose statements, 'exceptions rather than the rule' claims. Fill it with big red letters. You will sucker in some buyer. There have been a few that came here trying to get 4k+ for their 20ish year old car and we all laughed and asked him to keep moving but he eventually found a buyer on Ebay. Sellers are highballers and buyers are lowballers here, that's the way it's been since I joined. This forum is not the place for maximum money. But you will guarantee your car is going to someone who at least takes interest in your car.
Pictues Pictures Pictures Pictures. You're going to get requests for them. You might as well save yourself and us the time of requesting them. You can upload to TDIClub's own server, Image Shack, Photo Bucket, Flickr or any number of other websites. Post them and post them early. A picture is worth 1000 words. People are going to want to see them, especially if your price is in the upper sigma of prices for similar cars. If you're selling your car at KBB or under, you can probably get away without one.
Questions. Expect them. Maintenance history most especially. Timing belt and oil are going to be the first questions that everyone wants to know. Know when, where and how the timing belt was done. Receipts too. If you don't know SAY YOU DON'T KNOW (And knock down your asking price by 500-1000$). Same with oil. If you have been running full synthetic but you've only owned it for 3k out of 190k miles and you don't know what the PO ran, then state it. It's going to get asked. PDs require 505.01 oil. Earlier cars required full synthetic. There are 1000 oil threads and no need to rehash them in your FS ad, but if you decided to 'experiment' with Rotella-T in your 2006 and start a thread about it, see below.
Don't try and fool us. This forum is full of experts, mechanics and people who think they're experts. If you start a thread "How Mark and Spray TB change worked for me" don't be surprised if someone puts two and two together and asks about it or even posts a link to it in your FS thread. If you were having loud clicking and valve trouble 3 months ago and suddenly your car is for sale, we're going to ask about it. All it takes is an Advanced Search or clicking on your username and "Find More Posts by ...". Anything you post can help or hurt you. See Bleached Bora's thread (Linked below), he's been around long enough that people know what has gone into his car. His presence on the thread did nothing but help his sale. Newbies, don't think that you're going to get away by not having any of these threads. Someone is going to be even more suspect if you just joined this month and your first post is to sell your car. "Long time lurker" doesn't make it far.
Be descriptive. While I could fill my quota with examples of Bad FS threads, here are a few GOOD FS threads.
Bleached Bora Sells his Mk3
Mk3 for sale
And if you don't know much or haven't done much, you can still put what you know.
Your car is not perfect. There are some forum members cars who are, but they will never be for sale (and they don't need to read this post to know how to make a forsale thread). It has a ding, a dent, a rust patch, a leak, a tear, a smell, a shake, a rattle, a maintenance problem or a missing part. Tell us what it is. Some of the better threads I've seen are "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" format. You'll get less questions and people will probably trust your sale more. Even if you consider your car perfect, close your eyes and run your hands along the exterior. "Small ding on rear door, no paint broken", etc. Sure you can lie, but you'll just upset the buyer down the road and you never know when Karma's looking.
If you list bare plain statistics you're going to do better than 1/2 the threads out there: Year, Model, Body Style (Wagon/Sedan/Hatchback), Miles, Color, Sunroof/NoSunroof, Tire Age/Tread condition, Mods and PRICE. Posting a 'feeler' thread is fine, but if you toss up that your car is for sale the first post is most likely going to be "Price?". "Car for sale. TDI. Located in Chicago, call me" says absolutely nothing.
It may seem stupid but why are you selling your car? Your wife just have another kid and you can't fit the car seats? Did your job just issue a company car for that 200 mile a day sales trip. Did you get a new car? Someone just trying to dump their car just seems suspicious.
When the car is sold, edit your first post. Put in Big Red 7 Size Font SOLD! There is nothing worse than some newbie coming in and seeing his ideal car, looking at the first post and then harassing you via PM or bringing the thread all the way back up to the top. Say the car has sold. Leave the pertinent information so people can do research on what prices are good, etc, but put that the car has sold.
Last but not least: TDI Club sold your car for 'free'. EBay, Cars, Auto trader, local newspapers all cost money to sell. If you sell your car via TDIClub consider a donation. At this moment "Currently Active Users: 957 (256 members and 701 guests)". Bandwidth is not free. Even if you only donate 1/2 of what it would have cost selling it on eBay it's more than nothing for Fred.
I'm creating this post to hopefully help people on BOTH sides.
Buyers
TDIs and Diesels in general are in High Demand. Edmunds, KBB and other price sites usually price low. If you're looking to pick up a TDI for what KBB says good luck. Good deals do exist but they are rare. You are unlikely to find them on TDI Club (But sometimes they do happen). You might search Craigslist or Crazed List, other sites to check are Cars.com and Autotrader.com you might even have luck on Ebay.com.
You have to CONSTANTLY keep looking. Set up an RSS Feed or bookmark it and check it hourly. (Firefox has plug-ins to check for changes to pages).
Good deals like $3000 Mk4 Golfs and $2000 Mk3 Jettas do come along but if you're not in the right place at the right time, you're not going to get it. Sometimes someone doesn't know what they have. Grandpa selling grandma's car. Children selling off estates. People who just have no clue what they have. Broken cars.. Things literally come down to the minute.
Be prepared to travel. I know this may be hard to fit into your work schedule. Finding exactly what you want, where you want it when you want it is going to be no small feat, most especially if you live in a rural area or less populous areas of the country. Personally I flew to LA from IN. The seller was more concerned with the money than getting rid of the car. I had the money in hand within a few days and flew out a few weeks later.
Hesitation = deals lost. The guy that e-mails the seller with money in hand will get the car before the guy that e-mails with a list of questions. HOWEVER. If you are looking for a daily driver with 0 problems, this may not be the best course of action. Some of the "Collectors" on the forums (And you know who you are) will do this. They know exactly what they're getting themselves into. If you are an expert mechanic and have another vehicle then you may be able to do this. Sometimes these cars are perfect, sometimes these cars need everything done to them. "You get what you pay for". If I walked across a Mk4 TDI in craigslist selling for 1500$ and the body looked good I'd get it in a second.
Ask questions. This is contradictory to getting the deal of a lifetime, but if you are a first time TDI owner, new car buyer or looking for your primary vehicle you want to make sure you get the best VEHICLE possible. Timing belt, oil change interval, oil, general maintenance, these are all things you want to know about. Not knowing these things can lead to a bad buying experience. You can blame VW, blame diesels, TDIs in general when the real problem is the maintenance by the Previous Owner, things which could have been discovered by adequately discovered by a good round of questioning.
Do the math. There are numerous "Are TDIs for me?" threads and you can find them on the search page. These cars last a long time but they aren't appliances. If you spend $5000 extra to get an extra 20 MPG you're saving yourself 133 gallons over 10,000 miles. $400 at todays prices. Break even is a far time in the distance. Look at the last 4 cars you bought, how long did they last. Did you drive them until the DMV said they were no longer suitable for road travel or did you 'trade up' when the high gloss wax wore off? TDIs are not for everyone. VWs are not for everyone. I've owned a Mk3 and 4 Mk2s. They will 'nickel and dime you', if you can perform your own maintenance you'll save a bundle. If you plan on driving this car into the ground without as much as checking air pressure, the car won't last and you'll end up frustrated and mad. More importantly, you could be 'stealing' a buy from some body who does want to invest 200,000 miles into this car and really is in it for the long haul. No thread can tell you if you are 'right' for a TDI but don't forget common sense when you see "50 MPG". Real life, most people get into the 40s and even into the 30s... Do your research.
While posting WTB threads are fine, be reasonable. Take into consideration everything above and everything below. You are not going to find a 2006 Jetta with <50,000 miles for $8,000. We're going to laugh at you, either publicly or on the side. State where you are (or fill in your dang profile location) what you are looking for and be reasonable on what you expect to spend. Most of the time WTB ads are filled by someone saying "Hey I'm selling my car in this thread". Spend 10 seconds to READ the posts. Don't register and post a WTB thread 30 seconds after joining and don't expect US to do YOUR work for you. If you want your $2000 mint condition one owner car that was only used to go to Church on Sunday don't expect us to tell you about it. Find it yourself because if we see it first, it's ours.
--
Sellers
TDIs are in high demand. It is definitely a seller's market. You car is not made of gold. Asking 2x of KBB or $5k over the highest eBay auction you found will not move your car. It will draw hecklers and tire kickers.
Set a reasonable price. Check eBay auctions and "Sold" threads. Set it at or a bit higher than comparable sales. If you just bought your car 5k miles ago from the dealer and you're looking to break even, it most likely won't happen. If you know the TB needs to be done or you just blew a head because you didn't do the TB, knock that off the price. Use common sense.
If you want the MOST amount of money for your car, TDIClub is probably not your best place. Ebay is full of dumb buyers. Set a high reserve price and let it run its course. Sprinkle in terms like "up to 50 MPG" (or if you want to push it "Up to 60 MPG") and "Runs on BioDiesel, no War Needed." Tug at heart strings make make grandiose statements, 'exceptions rather than the rule' claims. Fill it with big red letters. You will sucker in some buyer. There have been a few that came here trying to get 4k+ for their 20ish year old car and we all laughed and asked him to keep moving but he eventually found a buyer on Ebay. Sellers are highballers and buyers are lowballers here, that's the way it's been since I joined. This forum is not the place for maximum money. But you will guarantee your car is going to someone who at least takes interest in your car.
Pictues Pictures Pictures Pictures. You're going to get requests for them. You might as well save yourself and us the time of requesting them. You can upload to TDIClub's own server, Image Shack, Photo Bucket, Flickr or any number of other websites. Post them and post them early. A picture is worth 1000 words. People are going to want to see them, especially if your price is in the upper sigma of prices for similar cars. If you're selling your car at KBB or under, you can probably get away without one.
Questions. Expect them. Maintenance history most especially. Timing belt and oil are going to be the first questions that everyone wants to know. Know when, where and how the timing belt was done. Receipts too. If you don't know SAY YOU DON'T KNOW (And knock down your asking price by 500-1000$). Same with oil. If you have been running full synthetic but you've only owned it for 3k out of 190k miles and you don't know what the PO ran, then state it. It's going to get asked. PDs require 505.01 oil. Earlier cars required full synthetic. There are 1000 oil threads and no need to rehash them in your FS ad, but if you decided to 'experiment' with Rotella-T in your 2006 and start a thread about it, see below.
Don't try and fool us. This forum is full of experts, mechanics and people who think they're experts. If you start a thread "How Mark and Spray TB change worked for me" don't be surprised if someone puts two and two together and asks about it or even posts a link to it in your FS thread. If you were having loud clicking and valve trouble 3 months ago and suddenly your car is for sale, we're going to ask about it. All it takes is an Advanced Search or clicking on your username and "Find More Posts by ...". Anything you post can help or hurt you. See Bleached Bora's thread (Linked below), he's been around long enough that people know what has gone into his car. His presence on the thread did nothing but help his sale. Newbies, don't think that you're going to get away by not having any of these threads. Someone is going to be even more suspect if you just joined this month and your first post is to sell your car. "Long time lurker" doesn't make it far.
Be descriptive. While I could fill my quota with examples of Bad FS threads, here are a few GOOD FS threads.
Bleached Bora Sells his Mk3
Mk3 for sale
And if you don't know much or haven't done much, you can still put what you know.
Your car is not perfect. There are some forum members cars who are, but they will never be for sale (and they don't need to read this post to know how to make a forsale thread). It has a ding, a dent, a rust patch, a leak, a tear, a smell, a shake, a rattle, a maintenance problem or a missing part. Tell us what it is. Some of the better threads I've seen are "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" format. You'll get less questions and people will probably trust your sale more. Even if you consider your car perfect, close your eyes and run your hands along the exterior. "Small ding on rear door, no paint broken", etc. Sure you can lie, but you'll just upset the buyer down the road and you never know when Karma's looking.
If you list bare plain statistics you're going to do better than 1/2 the threads out there: Year, Model, Body Style (Wagon/Sedan/Hatchback), Miles, Color, Sunroof/NoSunroof, Tire Age/Tread condition, Mods and PRICE. Posting a 'feeler' thread is fine, but if you toss up that your car is for sale the first post is most likely going to be "Price?". "Car for sale. TDI. Located in Chicago, call me" says absolutely nothing.
It may seem stupid but why are you selling your car? Your wife just have another kid and you can't fit the car seats? Did your job just issue a company car for that 200 mile a day sales trip. Did you get a new car? Someone just trying to dump their car just seems suspicious.
When the car is sold, edit your first post. Put in Big Red 7 Size Font SOLD! There is nothing worse than some newbie coming in and seeing his ideal car, looking at the first post and then harassing you via PM or bringing the thread all the way back up to the top. Say the car has sold. Leave the pertinent information so people can do research on what prices are good, etc, but put that the car has sold.
Last but not least: TDI Club sold your car for 'free'. EBay, Cars, Auto trader, local newspapers all cost money to sell. If you sell your car via TDIClub consider a donation. At this moment "Currently Active Users: 957 (256 members and 701 guests)". Bandwidth is not free. Even if you only donate 1/2 of what it would have cost selling it on eBay it's more than nothing for Fred.
Last edited: