Should I buy a 96 GTI, 61K for $10,500?

Q.need get a new comuter car. I want something small, zippy, relatively quiet, that will accommodate my basset hounds (at least 2 or 3 of them). I'm looking at a Golf GTI at a local dealer (Seattle area). The car looks clean, has no record of major disasters on carfax.com, and as far as I can tell the asking price is about mid-range. I have a couple of questions. My (simple) understanding is that the major difference between a Golf and a GTI is the 16 valve engine. Is this right? Is it worth the price difference? Does the GTI have other features that make it a more attractive car than other Golf models?

A.You can be sure the dealer gave less than this in actual dollars to the person who traded the car in. At best the dealer allowed around $13175 (a thousand bucks less) and maybe much lower than that. The difference, to state the obvious, the difference between what the dealer allowed for the car in trade-in vs. what he can sell it to you for is his gross profit. On a used car, it is probably very close to his net profit, because the dealer will not keep any used car which requires any work to be brought to spec. IOWs, the dealer keeps the cherries and discards the rest to the used car lots around the area. Have your car cleaned out, empty of everthing (remember to empty the ashtray of change -- sold a used car once and forgot to do this -- left around $20 worth of quarters in the ashtray...), have the tank low on gas and have a spare set of car keys in case dealer loses the car key you might have to give him when he wants to examine your car. (Most dealers can pretty much tell by looking what your car is worth. They have access to all the sales numbers and can know based on experience what kind of shape the car's in and whether it will stay on the lot for resale or be sold to a wholesale used car dealer for disposal. No need to take the car for a test spin, though some might just to berate the car's condition in front of you -- you should always go with the dealer when teh car's evaluated -- to prepare you for accepting less for your used car.)

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