New car advice

[CP_Vaughny]

So after ordering my R-Line Polo April 2017 it is being built this week. From what I have read on here I should be expecting a 6-9wk week wait until it arrives at my dealer. The only silver lining of all these delays will be a 2019 reg!

This is my first car, so my first new car. I have read and watched lot about the running in period. One thing I am thinking about doing as soon as I collect the car is send it for detailing and having a ceramic coating applied. Is this something you would recommend? I know there's a few wiser, more experienced heads on this forum, do you have any other advice you can share with me.

Either way after a long wait I'm starting to get excited. Once it is here I'll be posting pics and maybe some vids.

[Adam_013]

So after ordering my R-Line Polo April 2017 it is being built this week. From what I have read on here I should be expecting a 6-9wk week wait until it arrives at my dealer. The only silver lining of all these delays will be a 2019 reg!

This is my first car, so my first new car. I have read and watched lot about the running in period. One thing I am thinking about doing as soon as I collect the car is send it for detailing and having a ceramic coating applied. Is this something you would recommend? I know there's a few wiser, more experienced heads on this forum, do you have any other advice you can share with me.

Either way after a long wait I'm starting to get excited. Once it is here I'll be posting pics and maybe some vids.

I definitely wish I got mine ceramic coated. I've found the paint ridiculously soft and easily gets scratches and swirls compared to my older 9n3.

I'm also mildly jealous you have an R-Line. That would've been my choice but they had a beats in stock, so that's what I got... Twice. (Curses for being impatient)

Hope your car is right and it's what you've ordered... I've found my after sales terrible, if yours is right you won't have to suffer too!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[Cadwest]

When I picked my car up I insisted that they did not prepare the vehicle as the people they tend to use are minimal wage usually foreign and know next to nothing about preparing a car and putting any form of protection coating on it. The guy I use is mobile and went to the VW dealers and spent over five hours preparing my vehicle. While doing this he noticed that they typically spent less than 45 minutes on each new vehicle and at one point they asked why the car had purple streaks on it. He explained it was the decontamination solution he was using to remove the iron particles from the transportation process before he applied the protection coating to which they shrugged their shoulders and said they’ve never heard of that.

I never go to the £5 car wash people and always clean the vehicle myself and use my valet guy once every three months, the vehicle is nearly six months old now and apart from one small stone chip on the bonnet has no other marks on it including no swirl marks. I’m fortunate that being retired I can spend the time on a good cleaning regime which involves using three microfibre mits and a couple of good quality drying cloths which are always put in the washing machine after each use. I’m sad to say that I also bought a car hot air blower which is fantastic in cold weather and brilliant at blowing water out of all the nooks and crannies and drying the alloys.

If you can I would pick the car up unprepared and get the people who are going to apply the coating to sort it for you.

[CP_Vaughny]

Cheers guys, I'm doing some research into some local detailers and the coatings they offer. I'm purchasing car cleaning equipment and products so I can look after the cleaning of my car.

After posting this last night, this morning i got the notification to say it had left the factory and is in 'transit'. I'll contact my dealer on Monday to see if they have shipping info so I can be properly nerdy and track it all the way home.

[SRGTD]

When I picked my car up I insisted that they did not prepare the vehicle as the people they tend to use are minimal wage usually foreign and know next to nothing about preparing a car and putting any form of protection coating on it. The guy I use is mobile and went to the VW dealers and spent over five hours preparing my vehicle. While doing this he noticed that they typically spent less than 45 minutes on each new vehicle and at one point they asked why the car had purple streaks on it. He explained it was the decontamination solution he was using to remove the iron particles from the transportation process before he applied the protection coating to which they shrugged their shoulders and said they’ve never heard of that.

I never go to the £5 car wash people and always clean the vehicle myself and use my valet guy once every three months, the vehicle is nearly six months old now and apart from one small stone chip on the bonnet has no other marks on it including no swirl marks. I’m fortunate that being retired I can spend the time on a good cleaning regime which involves using three microfibre mits and a couple of good quality drying cloths which are always put in the washing machine after each use. I’m sad to say that I also bought a car hot air blower which is fantastic in cold weather and brilliant at blowing water out of all the nooks and crannies and drying the alloys.

If you can I would pick the car up unprepared and get the people who are going to apply the coating to sort it for you.

@Cadwest; - agree with all of the above. A good cleaning regime is key to keeping swirls at bay, including a touchless pre-wash (snowfoam) stage to remove most of the dirt before actually washing the car (I use a three bucket method). My car’s nearly three years old and the paintwork looks as good - if not better - than some cars that are less than a year old. I’ve never had my car professionally detailed as I’m a bit of a detailing enthusiast - I’ve got a DA polishing machine and a fairly extensive range of detailing products, so that helps me to keep my car looking good and well protected against the elements.

Like you, I also would never use the £5 hand wash outfits. They tend to use really strong cleaning products that are likely to strip off any protection you might have on your paintwork, and they’ll probably add a few swirls for good measure too. I also never ever let the dealer do the complementary swirl-inducing dirty water and scouring pad service wash when my car goes in for servicing or warranty work.

I don’t consider it sad that you’ve got a hot air dryer - I’ve got one too! I can pretty much dry the whole of my car with it. And yes, it’s great at getting rid of all of the water from those annoying water traps.

CP_Vaughny; if you’re investing in getting your car professionally detailed, I’d recommend that you invest in some good basic car cleaning kit so you can keep it looking as good as it does when you pick it up from the detailer. There’s some useful information over on Detailing World, including a guide to a good washing technique - link below;
https://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/ ... php?t=4637

Enjoy your new car when you get it and please post some pictures up once you’ve had it detailed .

[mike sel]

Can I just say when you go to pick it up check it carefully. do not let the dealer rush you. before accepting it, walk around check each wheel for scratches and marks, check the bodywork for the same. open each door and hatchback. check the seals are all there and not twisted. open the bonnet and check there are no marks. sit in it get it started and check everything works. before you go refresh your memory on the options that you ordered, make sure they are correct and present and that they all work.

main thing is Do not let them rush you. Carry out the checks that you want to.

Enjoy your new car. I like the smell of the inside of new cars. All good fun.

there is plenty of tips on here about tracking the journey of you car from SA to the UK. VW online chat will tell you which ship it is on and you can track it.

[SRGTD]

Good advice Mike.

Here’s a checklist you might like to use when you go to pick up your car. Checklist items are in no particular order;

1. If possible, always inspect the vehicle in the dry. Tell the dealer in advance of collection day that if it’s raining when you collect your car, you dont want it parked outside - you want the car dry and inside or under cover so you can inspect it in the dry and in good light. It’s easy to miss issues or defects on a wet car or in poor lighting conditions

2. Check the condition of all the bodywork, glass and wheels for stone chips, scratches, scuffs, dents or dings, and any transporter lashing strap marks on the wheels. If the car’s got cosmetic damage, best to point this out before leaving the dealership, otherwise dealer can maintain any damage occurred after you’d left their premises

3. Check all gaps between bodywork panels are even, of uniform size and that all panels fit correctly and are not misaligned. Check the paint on all panels is the same colour/shade and there is no dirt/ imperfections in - or poor finish of - the paintwork; note; it’s not unusual for plastic bumpers to be a very slightly different shade to the adjoining panels, due to the painting process used and the plastic parts being painted away from the body shell - possibly from a different paint batch. This is normal and more noticeable on light coloured metallic shades

4. Ensure no cleaning cloths/materials have been left under the bonnet in the engine compartment from the dealer prep of your car

5. Check the interior for fit and finish of trim and for any scratches and scuffs

6. Ensure the black plastic wheel bolt covers and wheel centre caps have been fitted

7. Check all the optional extras you’ve specified are present and correct

8. Ensure any dealer fit accessories that you’ve specified (mats, mud flaps etc.) have been fitted

9. Check spare wheel is in the boot, along with the car’s toolkit, including the locking wheel nut key

10. Check the transport pucks have been removed from the front suspension struts, or get the dealer to confirm they have. Lots of instances of transport pucks being left in place during PDI on mk7 Golfs. If they’ve not been removed, the ride will be uncomfortably firm

11. Ensure owner’s manuals are present in the vehicle wallet (note; no service book now as service records are now digital/ online)

12. Check VIN numbers for the car and documentation are the same

13. Ensure the service regime has been set correctly (Longlife or time & distance). If you have a service plan, then it needs to be set to time and distance

14. Ensure you have two keys for the car

[Cadwest]

@SRGTD another thing I do is instead of using the grit trap buckets Is use a garden riddle/sieve placed on top of a spare bucket and jet wash the mits both sides before I reuse them to dislodge any grit or marks on them.

[SRGTD]

@SRGTD another thing I do is instead of using the grit trap buckets Is use a garden riddle/sieve placed on top of a spare bucket and jet wash the mits both sides before I reuse them to dislodge any grit or marks on them.

I always wash out my mitts in clean water, and the drying towels go in the washing machine after each time I wash my car. I wouldn’t want to use dirty, gritty mitts or towels on my car - I’ll leave that to the sponge monkey doing the complementary service washes on other cars at the dealer’s and the £5 hand wash brigade!

[Cadwest]

@SRGTD one last thing what pre wash foam do you use, I’ve been using karchers but the last batch I got does not seem to foam up and cling to the car, it’s quite watery and seems to run off to freely. I have been using the more expensive karcher foam gun but also have the cheaper one as well but get the same result from both guns so I think it’s the pre wash foam rather than the gun.

[RUM4MO]

Snip --------------------------------------------Snip

I never go to the £5 car wash people and always clean the vehicle myself and use my valet guy once every three months, the vehicle is nearly six months old now and apart from one small stone chip on the bonnet has no other marks on it including no swirl marks. I’m fortunate that being retired I can spend the time on a good cleaning regime which involves using three microfibre mits and a couple of good quality drying cloths which are always put in the washing machine after each use. I’m sad to say that I also bought a car hot air blower which is fantastic in cold weather and brilliant at blowing water out of all the nooks and crannies and drying the alloys.

If you can I would pick the car up unprepared and get the people who are going to apply the coating to sort it for you.

On the subject of car hot air blowers, a friend once said that if I ever considered buying one, just buy the similar product for drying pets, much cheaper - any comments on that, in a horrible wet/rainy climate I'd think that that drier could be handy.

[Cadwest]

@Rum4mo I bought the Gravitis motorcycle blower from Amazon as it gives full control over the heating and blow. I didn’t know anybody with one so I just took a stab in the dark and went off the reviews but I’m quite happy with it.

[monkeyhanger]

Some of that list is entirely impractical to do at pick-up. Are you really going to have the dealership jack up the front 2 wheels to feel around for the transport pucks?

Something you'd do yourself once you get the car home IF the suspension is brutally hard when driving it. I don't know anyone on the forums who had transport pucks left in after 2013, when the first wave of MK7 Golf performance models came in (and I was one of those who had pucks left on my GTD).

You should be looking for damage primarily, above all else - scratches, dings/dents, obvious signs of poorly fixed damage, also a quick check that nothing is missing (never known anyone report an incomplete boot toolkit) - wheel nut caps, infotainment cables, carpet mats, manuals - the kind of stuff that is loose and easily removed - this is the stuff that the dealership can dispute wasn't like that when they handed it over to you.

Scrutinise panel gaps and seals at home if there's nothing that jumps out at you. It's an indisputable warranty fix - you won't have misaligned your own panels after delivery.

Get the salesperson to demonstrate the use of the options you specced. Not a disaster if you don't. Different wheels are obvious, having specced cruise may not be if you don't know to look for a different stalk. If you do find you're missing an option later, again it's indisputable - you won't have uninstalled your climate control and installed standard temp control instead.

Cars do get repaired before pick-up if they get dinged or scraped, and if they're done well, you'll never know.

I only found out last Summer that one of the Pretoria wheels on my Golf R had previously been repaired when the wife scraped it. The paint was unbelievably deep in the scrape and my local wheel repair guy (who turned out to be a friend of a friend) confirmed that I had a double helping of paint, as the cross section clearly showed 5 layers, not 3. Would never have known if not for the scrape.

Realistically, that salesperson will have 20-30 minutes max to deal with your handover, including sorting documentation that goes with. There will not be the time to go into deep scrutiny on the car.

[silverhairs]

That's a load of rubbish, when you collect your car you take as much time as you like, you don't spend that much money and just take thing for granted that every things going to be OK, even if the total time of the hand over takes 2 hours. You insist that you want to properly inspect the car in your own time.
About a month ago, a member wrote and posted a list of what you should look out for, when looking over your new motor for the first time. I printed this out and took it with me when I went to pick my car up. I can tell you I was at the dealers near on 3 hours, once I had signed the papers and they printed out all the irrelevant paperwork, there was no PCP paperwork to sort out as I paid cash and they took the money from my debit card.

So as for 20 to 30 minutes is a load of tosh .

[SRGTD]

Some of that list is entirely impractical to do at pick-up. Are you really going to have the dealership jack up the front 2 wheels to feel around for the transport pucks?

The OP, or any other forum member for that matter, aren’t forced to use the list. It’s just a suggested list of things to check on collection day. On the issue of shipping pucks, some owners over on golfgtiforum.co.uk have checked for these on collection day before taking their car away from the dealer’s premises.

I don't know anyone on the forums who had transport pucks left in after 2013

Owners over on golfmk7.com are still finding them left in - inexcusable IMO this long after the introduction of the mk7 / mk7.5 Golf.

You should be looking for damage primarily, above all else

Agree.

Realistically, that salesperson will have 20-30 minutes max to deal with your handover, including sorting documentation that goes with

Agree that the salesperson will have allocated a specific time slot for handover, and they may have other customers booked in for handovers immediately after the allocated time slot, but there’s no reason you can’t be left to inspect your car on your own without the salesperson watching over you.