Bought from dealer in December with unknown damage.
Discussion
Looking for a bit of help and advice, I'm at a bit of a loose end and struggling with this.
I bought a used Fiesta ST-2 in December from a dealer, love the car and apart from what I'm about to tell you.
I got the Car at the beginning of December 2018, no issues. Checked the declared works done on the car and that was some chips to the bumper repaired and four alloys refurbished. Early in 2019 I started to hear squeaking from the rear right of the car, initially I dismissed this, [i] it's a 4 yo car at this stage and I know they squeak, I used to build cars for Nissan and I know whet they're like after only a year or two.[/]
Then late in February it was getting so bad I started to investigate, I started in the boot, right side, and found the trip near where the seatbelts go through to the chassis to be bolted on was out of place, and I popped this back in, I then noticed that through the cargo hooks (to attach carrier bag handles or whatever) I could see clean through to the exterior, between the rear light unit and the body work. I then checked further down from this and found that the carpet was wet, the spare wheel well had about 2cm of water in it and the spare wheel rusted to high heaven. It's a steel wheel I get it, they rust but this is pretty bad.
I then moved to the externals, checked the rear light unit, it was slightly off kilter to the left hand unit and the gaps between bodywork and the lights was really tight on the right side. The rear bumper where it attaches just below the light was protruding slightly and had hair line cracks perpendicular to the join, I looked under the wheel arch and the lining had completely been snapped out of all its plastic poppers, the lower brake light was hanging from its bracket too. Then to top this all off I saw on the black "splitter" moulding of the rear bumper some spray over where this has been touched up. The bumper when you try to wobble it even slightly completely pops off the chassis and reveals the bracket it had been screwed onto gone, three bolts completely ripped out of the threads and glue up and down the join.
This was just before I was going on a mountain biking trip, so I figured I'd deal with ti on my return, unfortunately I had a big off and shattered my collar bone into seven pieces. This rather put my priorities elsewhere and this fell onto the back burner, now I'm recovered and can drive I'm back on with the dealer to get this resolved and they're fighting it every step so it seems.
I've clarified that the car was sent to the branch I bought it from in 2017, sold to somebody then traded back in 10 months later, after which I bought it late in 2018. The salesman told me when I test drove the car that it had belonged to one of the management there for a period and he traded it against a Range Rover (possibly a salesmans lie but unsure). My hypothesis is that he dinged it, caught the rear bumper on something and pulled it away from its mounting, had some bodge work done to remedy it at a glance and traded it in
TL;DR Where do I stand on this, undeclared damage, known or not isn't something I have experience with. I can't afford to fix this, I bought the car outright myself with cash and even stupidly got an extended 2yr Warranty.
Caveat: I haven't had all bad experience with the dealer thus far, the Business Manager of the branch that the car was initially shipped from was very helpful, even agreed that this damage seems very much like a bodge job and sent me some documentation regarding when the car was shipped etc.
Moderator edit: no naming & shaming please.
I bought a used Fiesta ST-2 in December from a dealer, love the car and apart from what I'm about to tell you.
I got the Car at the beginning of December 2018, no issues. Checked the declared works done on the car and that was some chips to the bumper repaired and four alloys refurbished. Early in 2019 I started to hear squeaking from the rear right of the car, initially I dismissed this, [i] it's a 4 yo car at this stage and I know they squeak, I used to build cars for Nissan and I know whet they're like after only a year or two.[/]
Then late in February it was getting so bad I started to investigate, I started in the boot, right side, and found the trip near where the seatbelts go through to the chassis to be bolted on was out of place, and I popped this back in, I then noticed that through the cargo hooks (to attach carrier bag handles or whatever) I could see clean through to the exterior, between the rear light unit and the body work. I then checked further down from this and found that the carpet was wet, the spare wheel well had about 2cm of water in it and the spare wheel rusted to high heaven. It's a steel wheel I get it, they rust but this is pretty bad.
I then moved to the externals, checked the rear light unit, it was slightly off kilter to the left hand unit and the gaps between bodywork and the lights was really tight on the right side. The rear bumper where it attaches just below the light was protruding slightly and had hair line cracks perpendicular to the join, I looked under the wheel arch and the lining had completely been snapped out of all its plastic poppers, the lower brake light was hanging from its bracket too. Then to top this all off I saw on the black "splitter" moulding of the rear bumper some spray over where this has been touched up. The bumper when you try to wobble it even slightly completely pops off the chassis and reveals the bracket it had been screwed onto gone, three bolts completely ripped out of the threads and glue up and down the join.
This was just before I was going on a mountain biking trip, so I figured I'd deal with ti on my return, unfortunately I had a big off and shattered my collar bone into seven pieces. This rather put my priorities elsewhere and this fell onto the back burner, now I'm recovered and can drive I'm back on with the dealer to get this resolved and they're fighting it every step so it seems.
I've clarified that the car was sent to the branch I bought it from in 2017, sold to somebody then traded back in 10 months later, after which I bought it late in 2018. The salesman told me when I test drove the car that it had belonged to one of the management there for a period and he traded it against a Range Rover (possibly a salesmans lie but unsure). My hypothesis is that he dinged it, caught the rear bumper on something and pulled it away from its mounting, had some bodge work done to remedy it at a glance and traded it in
TL;DR Where do I stand on this, undeclared damage, known or not isn't something I have experience with. I can't afford to fix this, I bought the car outright myself with cash and even stupidly got an extended 2yr Warranty.
Caveat: I haven't had all bad experience with the dealer thus far, the Business Manager of the branch that the car was initially shipped from was very helpful, even agreed that this damage seems very much like a bodge job and sent me some documentation regarding when the car was shipped etc.
Moderator edit: no naming & shaming please.
Edited by jeremyc on Thursday 13th June 16:48
I did check it over, it wasn't immediately apparent, additionally it was peeing down and I couldn't see the over spray.
The check list on the car said no damage, four wheels refurbished and some minor paint chips filled on the front bumper. I genuinely believe that the owner of the car prior to me, traded it in with this damage and either it was negligently unchecked or wasn't checked as the staff knew him and trusted him?
I appreciate it's been a few months, totally get that, just wonder what people experiences and advice may be. This is going to cost me a few grand to fix I know it, just from labour time and faffing with stripped bolt holes. Bumper needs replacing as one of the bolts from it has completely come away too bringing plastic with it, found it on the underside of the bumper.
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