Could this be accident damage?

[MitchT]

The OH is interested in a 118i.

First thing I noticed was the gap and alignment between the bonnet and the nose cone...



Here's another to show correct alignment...



Overthinking or walk away?

The car is a couple of hundred miles away and the dealer charges £99 to move it to a local branch. This is deductible if you buy it but lost if you don't, which is a bit annoying if you're wanting to look for evidence of an accident. She's used their contact form to ask about it but, predictably, had no response.

[VeeTenM]

I think they're just crap fitment, if you look at others on sale you can see some have smaller gaps than others, mainly on non-m model spec.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Habe you Vchecked it? I don't trust dealers and for £5 I check all types of sellers before I commit.

Plus if they charge £100 and you find any reason not to go ahead rather than say 'oh your right our fault'...

Sod that.

[MitchT]

Not V-Checked yet but will do. I'd always V-Check a car regardless of who's selling it. There does look to be a bit of inconsistency across other ones, though not as obvious as that, so maybe it's fine. She wants one with heated seats, which narrows down choice a lot on these cars.

[dxg]

Headlight to wing interface also looks iffy.

Cars like that are two a penny. Keep searching.

[MitchT]

Except they're not two a penny... she wants one with heated seats which are nigh on impossible to find on this model.

[Boxstercol]

If it’s the same as the F30 series 3 series, there’s about 5 torx bolts underneath the rubber weather strip when you open the bonnet - very easy to adjust the gap.

Could it be that the dealer had painted the front bumper to remove stone chips & not aligned it correctly when refitting?

[MitchT]

Found a video on YouTube of someone adjusting it on an F30. Looks easy. Only concern is why it might be like that in the first place but, let's face it, if it had been in an accident and the new nose cone aligned properly you'd be non the wiser, so you could easily buy a car that's been in a shunt anyway. As long as it's straight does it really matter?

[ashenfie]

It’s unlikely BMW put on that badly. It takes quite a bit of time and fiddling to adjust the panels to align correctly. A good check is to use a coin to measure them.

[twokcc]

For me if I'm spending a 5 figure sum have car checked by RAC they will check paint thickness only way to tell. TYhen depends on how many panels unless you can find previous owner details. Invoices, etc sometimes in glovebox but less likely with all service history recorded on car

[rottenegg]

Not necessarily accident damage. The F30 was notorious for uneven gaps as well if the bumper had to come off for what ever reason. Stone chip repaint, headlight replacement, minor shunt repair from hitting a kerb etc etc.

The gapping is fiddly and time consuming to setup and most techs can't be bothered to do it properly.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Just buy it, then you can focus on the st Peugeot engine

[The Conflated Outlier]

Hugo Stiglitz said:

Just buy it, then you can focus on the st Peugeot engine

Three cylinder B38 in that, nothing PSA about it. They're not a bad engine if well looked after.

[MitchT]

That's what I thought. B38 is part of the same modular family that spawned the B48 and B58. Seems to have a good reputation for reliability too. Can't find any reference to PSA in the info online.

Anyway, it's up to her. The local branch of the dealership now has an Estoril Blue one, which is the colour she really wanted, so we might take a look at that.

Edited by MitchT on Sunday 25th May 09:44

[Hammy98]

Loads of this generation of BMWs have this, it's because you need to loosen the clips at the top of the front bumper to get access to change the kidney grilles - which a lot of people do. Majority of them have the black grilles installed or will have had at some point, it's hard to get the bumper to line up properly and most people dont care enough to mess about getting it perfect.

[rottenegg]

Or for an easier life, you just break the old ones out and push the new ones in.

It doesn't take much to realign the gaps if you know what you're doing. BMW built in a lot of adjustment.

I certainly wouldn't reject a car because of that if the paint matches.