I located a Jetta GLI on ebay I thought my son would like. Contacted Inspectmyride.com as mentioned earlier in this thread and was underwhelmed. Basically they told me they do a visual inspection. That doesn't help much so I contacted a local mechanic shop and they performed a thorough PPI for me and charged me one hour labor. They test drove the car, removed the wheels and measured remaining brake pad thickness, discovered a cracked timing belt cover, torn CV boots, missing fasteners, an epoxied nipple on a coolant hose, several other catches then sent me a report.
Anyway, I got these items fixed at a negotiated cost. The dealer picked up some and I took care of others. While at it I had the timing belt and water pump replaced as well as put on new tires.
I think my son will be happy with this as a first car. I like the Recaro seats and BBS stock rims. He still doesn't know. We saw it on the internet but I told him it sold. I just didn't tell him it sold to me. Having it shipped and it should arrive next week. As many here have said, get the PPI.
