Jetta Sportwagen oil change history concerns

[wbwanzer]

I'm considering a 2013 Jetta Sportwagen with the 2.5 five cylinder engine. This will not be a main driver as my wife and I each have a car already. This would just be a toy. Why an 11 year old car with 109,400 miles? Just because I've never owned a five cylinder car and I would like to. Of course there are way more fun cars out there but I've already gone through a couple 'midlife crisis' cars. At this time, a five cylinder car is what I want without spending a lot of money.

Now with the explanation out of the way, the Carfax for the car I'm looking at shows that it was a personal lease vehicle for the first 50,000 miles. I've never leased a car so don't know much about it. Would a lease require that the car be serviced as recommended? Carfax shows an OC at 10,000 miles and another at 30,700. At 21,400 it shows 'Maintenance Inspection completed', nothing about work performed. Would a lease require the work to be done? Then at 30,700 the 30,000 mile service was performed (assuming that would include an OC), but then nothing else until new owner has OC done at 52,500. Car was sold to second owner as a CPO. After that the second owner changed the oil regularly every 5000 to 6000 miles.

How big of an issue is the oil change history? I'm on the fence. Would you go for it or no?

Thanks for any help.

 

[DuckRyder]

I personally would not sweat it and just because car fax doesn't show it doesn't mean it wasn't done. Particularly that far back.

 

[Delta]

That 5 cylinder isn't going to really care like their turbo 4 options. Typically people do not do the proper care under a lease, but it sounds like the second owner did well and likely cleaned up anything from the first dummyowner.

I had a 5 cylinder Jetta that was equipped with the 5 speed manual. Was a nice little car. However it had the power of a 4 cylinder and the economy of a 6. The exhaust note was pleasant to me however. If you're going to get in an older VW, the 5 cylinder is one of the best bets IMO.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

I'm considering a 2013 Jetta Sportwagen with the 2.5 five cylinder engine. This will not be a main driver as my wife and I each have a car already. This would just be a toy. Why an 11 year old car with 109,400 miles? Just because I've never owned a five cylinder car and I would like to. Of course there are way more fun cars out there but I've already gone through a couple 'midlife crisis' cars. At this time, a five cylinder car is what I want without spending a lot of money.

Now with the explanation out of the way, the Carfax for the car I'm looking at shows that it was a personal lease vehicle for the first 50,000 miles. I've never leased a car so don't know much about it. Would a lease require that the car be serviced as recommended? Carfax shows an OC at 10,000 miles and another at 30,700. At 21,400 it shows 'Maintenance Inspection completed', nothing about work performed. Would a lease require the work to be done? Then at 30,700 the 30,000 mile service was performed (assuming that would include an OC), but then nothing else until new owner has OC done at 52,500. Car was sold to second owner as a CPO. After that the second owner changed the oil regularly every 5000 to 6000 miles.

How big of an issue is the oil change history? I'm on the fence. Would you go for it or no?

Thanks for any help.

Buy & run some HPL EC30s for 2 or 3 OCIs by substituting 1 quart per fill. There’s a huge thread on it here. Change your filter at 2.5k or 5k when you start this and cut/check the filter for debris. If it’s pretty clean, go from there. 3 OCIs with EC30 will clean up just about anything you’d be concerned about. Use BITOG15 code for 15% off!

 

[CarDude28]

I had this engine in an 09 Jetta sedan. Very reliable and no issues. Ran 0w40 Castrol in it, at 16,000 km oil change intervals. Sold it at almost 300,000 kms and see it around town still.

 

[edyvw]

Don’t sweat. Use Mobil1 0W40 readily available in Wal Mart.

 

[raaizin]

That 5 cylinder isn't going to really care like their turbo 4 options. Typically people do not do the proper care under a lease, but it sounds like the second owner did well and likely cleaned up anything from the first dummyowner.

I had a 5 cylinder Jetta that was equipped with the 5 speed manual. Was a nice little car. However it had the power of a 4 cylinder and the economy of a 6. The exhaust note was pleasant to me however. If you're going to get in an older VW, the 5 cylinder is one of the best bets IMO.

We had 2 Jettas a 2008 SE and 2012 Se. The 2012 was significantly better on gas. The 2008 would get around 28mpg on the highway. The 2012 got 32 -34 mpg. I would say the 2008 was built much better. The interior was almost as nice as wife's 2008 BMW X3. You can really see where they pulled out the cost in that car as well as the loss of independent rear from the 2008. As to the OP I wouldn't worry,we drove the 2008 to 185k till we gave it to someone who needed a car and it was running great. The 2012 was unfortunately totaled.

 

[FZ1]

I'm considering a 2013 Jetta Sportwagen with the 2.5 five cylinder engine. This will not be a main driver as my wife and I each have a car already. This would just be a toy. Why an 11 year old car with 109,400 miles? Just because I've never owned a five cylinder car and I would like to. Of course there are way more fun cars out there but I've already gone through a couple 'midlife crisis' cars. At this time, a five cylinder car is what I want without spending a lot of money.

Now with the explanation out of the way, the Carfax for the car I'm looking at shows that it was a personal lease vehicle for the first 50,000 miles. I've never leased a car so don't know much about it. Would a lease require that the car be serviced as recommended? Carfax shows an OC at 10,000 miles and another at 30,700. At 21,400 it shows 'Maintenance Inspection completed', nothing about work performed. Would a lease require the work to be done? Then at 30,700 the 30,000 mile service was performed (assuming that would include an OC), but then nothing else until new owner has OC done at 52,500. Car was sold to second owner as a CPO. After that the second owner changed the oil regularly every 5000 to 6000 miles.

How big of an issue is the oil change history? I'm on the fence. Would you go for it or no?

Thanks for any help.

Different strokes. I wouldn't go for a third car because of the extra expense of insurance, repairs, etc. + you may just be getting a bad used car. U gotta '23 turbo Santa Fe : use it, or go rent a Corvette for a weekend. Cheaper and more fun than a 5 cylinder,11 year old, "toy" that U own. .02.

 

[wbwanzer]

Thanks for the different perspective.

 

[VolvoZ]

If everything checks out satisfactory, I say: “Scratch that 5 cylinder itch!”.

Since you don’t really need the car, it’s easy to walk away from it if something doesn’t feel right about the deal.