About 6 months ago I purchased an approved used vehicle from a main dealer. The car was about 15 months old with 1 previous local owner who had traded it in for another of the same model. The car in my opinion was immaculate and the fact that it had only covered 6k miles made my mind up and I duly proceeded with the purchase.
Now don't get me wrong I'm very happy with the car and plan to keep for about 3 years but here comes the problem. A couple of weeks ago I was washing the car and noticed some paint overspray on one of the rear passenger door window seals. After further investigation it appears that the vehicle has had a repair which involved replacing the rear quarter panel.
Now what to do? The vehicle is covered under the manufacturers warranty and paintwork warranty and I WILL expect this to be honoured should any problems arise but my concerns are more deep rooted. I don't really want to change the car but am concerned that come re-sale this will affect the value. I also feel pretty angry as buying from a main / reputable dealer should be no risk. I just now regret not getting an inspection and ringing the previous owner when I bought the car to ask a few questions.
Any advice / thoughts appreciated before I take any further action with the dealer / manufacturer.
Thanks
JM
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I'm no expert in this stuff, but a surely a second hand car is just that - one which has been pre-owned. So it is not a new car in a lot of respects, bodywork condition/repairs being just one of those.
I would imagine people will agree that this simply underlines that it is the buyers duty to thoroughly inspect the car at time of purchase, and not proceed with something which doesn't suit.
I don't know whether an AA inspection would have reported this, but certainly an inspection would reduce the risk of other faults being overlooked. I don't see what comeback you could have with the dealer/manufacturer, save maybe to get agreement that the paintwork warranty is unaffected.
If the overspray was insignificant enough for you to miss, maybe your prospective purchaser in 3 years will do the same.
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I know its a shock to find your pride and joy has been involved in an accident but here are some relevant points.
Cars have accidents, and get repaired all the time.
It must be a good repair if you have taken 6 months to find it.
Paint/body warranties are not worth the paper they are written on on all new cars accident or not. New cars dont rust anyway so sleep safely.
Clean up the overspray, if the repair is as good as it sounds, no one else will notice it come resale time.
New cars get damaged and repaired and are still sold as new.
This is a crude way of saying, if the repairs a good un forget it and sleep soundly.
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You probably would not believe how much paint work rectification is done to new cars b4 delivery,sometimes one car can be almost repainted.
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Assuming you follow the service schedule for anti-corrosion warrant, you'll not have a problem. Plus the repair should have been noted somewhere, in the vehicles history.
Only problem you'll have is if it wasn't repaired to the required standards, at an 'approved' repairer.
Possibly worth getting a letter from the dealer, stating all was fixed as it should have been.
VB
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There was a documentary on TV a year or two ago and it showed a 'large Northern dealers' distribution depot and it's bodyshop. The damage to some of these and the repairs to same were very impressive. I doubt many new cars don't have some rectification work before sale.
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There was a report a number of years ago that buyers were given the fare to go to the continent to pick up their new cars. It seems that so many cars were arriving in transporter ships so tightly packed that the dockers were walking over the cars and thus damaging the paint. Anybody remember that ?
Also, I passed the car storage yard off the M18 several times; it is visible from the road. I was impressed by the sheer number of cars there. Was the car damaged during storage, and repaired for sale ?
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