would you buy a used car with signs or repair??

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would you buy a used car with signs or repair??

32 posts & 13 voices | Started 4 months ago by renton | Latest reply from hora

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renton - Member

As most of you are aware we are looking for a touran and have possibly found the ideal car however......

when i went to look at it the car was covered in signs of recently being in a bodyshop, lots of dust and polish marks down the one side.

upon looking a bit clocer the panel gap between the drivers door and the front wing is a bit "off" compared to the other side.

there was also a piece of laccuer the size of a 50p missing by the door handle.

so its obviuosly had a bit of a repair done.

thye have said that they will sort out the panel gap and the missing bit of laccuer for me and have also dropped the price from 9300 to 9000

I test drove the car and it drove lovely.

the hpi is clear so it cant have had a big bump anyway.

would you be put off by the fact its had some repair done??

to compare the same car from a vw dealer is well above 10k.

thoughts please

Posted 4 months ago #
wwaswas - Member

ask to see receipts for the work that was done - if it was just a wing being dented parkign then it's nowt to worry about.

Posted 4 months ago #
bristolbiker - Member

...in signs of recently being in a bodyshop, lots of dust and polish marks down the one side.

there was also a piece of laccuer the size of a 50p missing by the door handle.

so its obviuosly had a bit of a repair done.

thye have said that they will sort out the panel gap and the missing bit of laccuer for me and have also dropped the price from 9300 to 9000

Do you know why it's been into the body shop/what was done (it would appear not from the flavour of the post). Get them to show you receipts for the repair/phone the body shop and confirm what was done - check out if the bodyshop is reputable or done on the cheap by friend-of-a-friend.

It might just be the wording of your post, but it sounds like the seller is very keen to get shot of it, by dropping the price AND sorting out additional repairs..... I'd be wary without further research.

Posted 4 months ago #
woody2000 - Member

Think I'd be walking away TBH

Posted 4 months ago #
MrNutt - Member

if its sounds too good to be true....

Posted 4 months ago #
renton - Member

ive asked the garage and they say they havent had the repairs done so im guessing it was done before they got it.

the price was 9350 reduced down to 9150 and then to 9000 when i pointed out the repairs

evans halshaw dealer.

Posted 4 months ago #
MrNutt - Member

how does it behave under emergency braking?

Posted 4 months ago #
PeterPoddy - Member

Yep. I've done it twice. One was a VW Polo for £1500 when they were worth £2400. No probs at all.
Our current car has been into the 'shop too (55-reg Focus) I know this becasue it came up on the MOT history as having an advisory for body damage, but even now I know it's bloody hard to spot.

Doesn't bother me at all.

Posted 4 months ago #
Rusty Mac - Member

Both the RAC and AA do vehile inspections, if you are concerned there may be underlying issues get in contact with them and get some quotes for them to inspect the vehicle. I don't know how much it costs but it could be the best £100 odd pounds you spend.

http://www.rac.co.uk/products-services/vehicle-inspections/consumer.html/

http://www.theaa.com/vehicle-inspections/index.html

Posted 4 months ago #
slimjim78 - Member

you'd be surprised how many cars havent had some form of bodywork once they hit a certain age.

despite that, its always disconcerting once you manage to easily spot it. As long as the welding and seam sealer along the surrounding seams is all original then theres no harm, however, id still demand an extra £300/£500 off or walk away, there's always another one round the corner.
VW is always going to price comparatively high at a main dealer.

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

Its not a rare car. It could be something or nothing.

Personally as its not a rare car and its 9,000 reasons to find another.

You could look at other signs. Open the bonnet- look at the wiring behind each headlamp.

Open the drivers door- there should be descriptive plates there shouldn't there (should there?) - look at a similar age Touran to see what info (if any) is on the inside/pillar kicker plate. If there should be one and yours doesn't have any then it could be a sign of a repair.

Could this have been a drunk driver or key present theft- so insurance invalid/hence not recordable?:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201117385894047/sort/priceasc/usedcars/maximum-age/up_to_7_years_old/radius/1501/postcode/m154ld/keywords/%22not_recorded%22/page/1?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201202441841891/sort/priceasc/usedcars/maximum-age/up_to_7_years_old/radius/1501/postcode/m154ld/keywords/%22not_recorded%22/page/1?logcode=p

It could have simply been like this though:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201203443205437/sort/priceasc/usedcars/maximum-age/up_to_7_years_old/radius/1501/postcode/m154ld/keywords/%22not_recorded%22/page/1?logcode=p

Posted 4 months ago #
wwaswas - Member

given it;s evans halshaw they should be able to get one of their body guys to look at it with you and give you an idea what has been done.

My 2p - if you don;t know what was done and you're worried now then you'll still be worried when you've bought it...

Posted 4 months ago #
was - Member

You'll be hard pressed to find any used car that's not had paint or repair somewhere, even new cars get damaged in transport.

If you are spending £9k and don't feel capable of of fully inspecting it yourself, get someone who is capable to check it out for you.

Posted 4 months ago #
bristolbiker - Member

ive asked the garage and they say they havent had the repairs done so im guessing it was done before they got it.

So, playing devils advocate, they have no record or explanation of any (clearly obvious) work being done on it and will price to sell to push the problem onto you to demonstrate it was not fit for sale at some point in the future.

Is the previous owner still on the V5 - garages tend not to transfer ownership to them while they sell it. Ask to see it - give the previous owners a call. I'd still not be inclined to buy it (purely based on the content of these posts).

Posted 4 months ago #
rocketman - Member

Trouble is, even the tiniest ding these days needs the whole panel replacing and a respray.

When Tesco reversed one of their vans into my parked car it put a fist-sized dent in the bonnet but the insurers whisked it off to the nearest BMW-approved body shop (for a Focus!) where it had a whole new bonnet, grille, plastic engine cover thingy and some other bits.

When I got it back the car was suspiciously immaculate around the front like used cars never are. I knew it was just a dent in the bonnet but it could just as easily have been a bigger hit.

Posted 4 months ago #
renton - Member

ive checked all under the bonnet and nothing untoward under their.

seemed to drive well.

9k is a lot to spend on a car im not happy with

trouble is ive put a £100 deposit down on it on the proviso it gets sorted.

will i lose this if i walk away now?

cheers

steve

Posted 4 months ago #
rocketman - Member

Personally if the repair is visible to the casual observer (no offence) and the dealer can offer no explanation I would walk away.

IME problems like this are never sorted

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

My 2p - if you don;t know what was done and you're worried now then you'll still be worried when you've bought it...

Exactly.

Rocketman- but thats called a proper repair, one that you'd never know existed. Those are the sort of repairs you want. One that shows signs/looks suspect are the cars to completely avoid.

9k is alot of money. As per my links above (and if you look through any salvage catalogue etc) you'll come across 'not recorded', not listed damaged cars...

Posted 4 months ago #
renton - Member

ive text the salesman saying that unless their is any paperwork or guaratnee for the repair then im not buying it.

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

I doubt very much they'll sort the panel gap out. They'd have to peel back/remove the skin or whole panel to do that. They'll get a chips away chap in, give the car a good wash and polish and present it to you.

Then you simply look at the panel gap and say 'no, I'd like my £100 back please'.

Posted 4 months ago #
bristolbiker - Member

trouble is ive put a £100 deposit down on it on the proviso it gets sorted.

will i lose this if i walk away now?

At the time you put down the deposit, did you agree whether it would be refundable or not??

On the plus side, better to lose £100 than £9k

Posted 4 months ago #
renton - Member

yep 100 quid refundable if im not happy.

trouble is its a 300 mile round trip to the garage

Posted 4 months ago #
iDave - Member

If my car was repaired, I'd drive it, so if a different car was repaired I'd drive it too. But I'd want it put right.

Posted 4 months ago #
bristolbiker - Member

guaratnee for the repair

I'm struggling to see how they will honour any guarentee against the repair if they didn't do it - if anything happens, they'll want to push liability onto whoever did it, provaricating on remedial work all the way..... and as they (say) they don't know anything about it/who did it........

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

Renton, better to get a car thats right than visit the garage again later on as the lacquer has started to lift or you've found an issue on the car..

For a private sale I'd literally drive 500miles. For a dealer sale though its local only as you have a comeback on a dealer sale and you definitely need to be close by to take them up on their warranty....

Posted 4 months ago #
rocketman - Member

I'm struggling to see how they will honour any guarentee against the repair if they didn't do it

^^ this

Posted 4 months ago #
Taff - Member

gap between wing and door different could be romt the wind. Seen a few cars in the wind just recently that have had the doors flung open and pushed the wing in. Could be soemthing like that.

I've got a cat d repair but I knew what had happened. Won't put me off if its a cosmetic repair but if it's a mechanical repair then I'd be a bit more worried

Posted 4 months ago #
renton - Member

the thing is its obviuosly had a repair but they are flat out denying they had and repairs done, the salesman told me the car had been buffered and cleaned and that why the dust was there, to which i replied howcome the other side isnt the same then??

that stumped him.

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

The rear of my MX5 was professionally repaired. Boot wall cut out and new section rewelded. New bumper fitted and resprayed.

It wasn't written off or listed as it was under the threshold. Plus I ensured the garage didn't sign off the work until I was happy with the repairs.

Plus- imagine I'd driven into a fixed metal parking bollared when trying to park (not a hard thing to do)- it could have been that then cheaply repaired as a cash job.

Posted 4 months ago #
woody2000 - Member

Just walk away, you're obviously not happy. There's always another one, always.

Posted 4 months ago #
bristolbiker - Member

the thing is its obviuosly had a repair but they are flat out denying they had and repairs done, the salesman told me the car had been buffered and cleaned and that why the dust was there, to which i replied howcome the other side isnt the same then??

that stumped him.

And you still put a deposit down, rather than laughing at him and walking away, because....... ?

Posted 4 months ago #
hora - Member

Ring him, tell him your not happy. Negotiate for £50 to put back on your card over the phone.

The next car- negotiate abit more off the price and chalk it down to experience.

Posted 4 months ago #

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