Hi Everyone,

I’m in the market for a Continental GT and found one in Texas that I may fly in to see.
If the car passes my inspection, I want to get it mechanically inspected. I was considering the local Bentley dealer in Houston, but the reviews on their service department are not good.

Does anyone have any thoughts on independent vs dealer on pre-purchase inspection?

Thanks,

Jim

 

Do an internet search. There are independent inspectors all over the country. Just make sure they know the vehicle and how to check all the systems and look for body damage. Dealer $600 and up. Independent will go to the vehicle and save towing costs and should cost a couple hundred.

 

Dealer should be able to do a scan of the VAGCOM system on the car to look for stored fault codes. You'd prob want that as part of your inspection. Indy inspector may not have the necessary hardware to do that.

 

That goes without saying. If they can't scan for codes get another inspector. I paid $189 to have mine looked over and had it shipped 2000 miles before seeing it. I got 75 pictures, a 6 page report to include body and mechanical and all system operations. I also talked to the inspector pre and post inspection to make sure he knew what he was doing.

 

I’m bringing my VAGCOM with me. It turns out that the dealer in Houston does not do pre-purchase inspections.
I found an independent that will do it, but will scan the car myself as well.

Thanks for all the great input.

Jim

 

While overall, I'm very happy with my car, I have a sneaking suspicion that my selling dealer cleared the codes before shipping it. There's no way I would have bought a Bentley sight-unseen with a check-engine or other warning light on, and the dash was certainly clear when it came off the carrier, but within a short while I ended up with a check engine light (turbo waste gate controller). I was able to clear it but it came back a while later.

So yes, bring your own scanner, and I don't know enough about the software to know if you can see old codes that have been cleared, but if you can, that is a good way to go.

In the end, I did about $9k of engine work after that first check engine light came on after I bought it, which included an engine-out for my waste gate. As I've written before, once the engine was coming out, I wanted lots of parts changed out so I didn't have to do it again, so the $9k is a bit exaggerated, I probably could have gotten away for about $5k.

Some things to check for:

1. third taillight. I think this is a "when not if" problem.
2. Vacuum leak. Same.
3. water in the spare compartment, or evidence of water in the spare compartment

I wouldn't worry about the radio, they all suck, just know that you're going to get a sucky radio/stereo.

Also, I am most certainly an absolute novice at the VAG codes, but I did learn (from guys here) that very scary sounding codes, like "EEC communication" are just nuisances, so don't get freaked by stuff like that. I would do some searching of this forum and the Audi forums for common nuisance codes to arm yourself.

If you do get codes, if you post them here, sometimes guys are kind enough to interpret them for you, but it usually takes a while, so don't count on it being instantaneous.

But I have learned that internet searching the codes can pop up very useful information, often on the Audi forums.

 

Good luck and post some pics if you're successful.

 

Jim

Am in Houston and have some car contacts in local area if you need any input.

What year is the model you are considering?

Tony

 

Make sure you run it around trough all the gears during the test drive and check every system operation. The last thing you do is check for codes.

 

Thanks Tony and everyone - I had to cancel my trip as the owner tested positive for COVID.
I’m looking for a White W12 Coupe - 2014 to 2017 Model year range.

Best,

Jim