Dodged a bullet
Discussion
Cautionary tale!
We took delivery of a 118d from a dealer here in Spain a few weeks ago, as per this thread...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
When it arrived I gave it a cursory inspection to make sure known there were no extra marks/defects on top of what had been specified in the ad. Everything seemed in order except a missing 2nd key, which we pointed out, and were told we could order a new one and be reimbursed. Annoying, but not the end of the world.
Anyway after it basically sat in the car port for a few days (bar quick school runs) as it was a busy week, we hopped in it to run some errands on a Saturday. While it was parked up at a shopping centre, I noticed what appeared to be some unusual panel gaps. Got home, had a good look round the front and also under the bonnet, and found more misaligned stuff, and then I noticed some welds on the LHS top mount which looked markedly different to all the others, and also in proper light, paint with a difference surface finish. See pics below for interest, comparison of one side of the car to other.
Despite the car being sold as "never crash and repaired", it had clearly been involved in quite a serious knock. Anyway, once that became clear, I immediately contacted the dealer, requested to return the car (they offered an extra year of warranty if I'd keep it
) Luckily it's a Spanish car supermarket outfit (Autohero), so the customer service person on the other end of the customer service line doesn't have a personal interest in the situation/money, so they (as per their Ts and Cs, 14 day return if you don't "like" the car) accepted the order cancellation and initiated collection and refund proceedings. Just glad I noticed it within the 14 days so I didn't have to rely on the car being "mis-sold" to me to return it.
Anyway, this has learned me. Got a bit frustrated with lack of choice/availability over here, and the urgent need for a 2nd car, and broke some of my own car buying rules, and almost got stung. In hindsight I feel like a right muppet for not spotting it all on delivery, so obvious once I saw it all. And a couple of other things triggered my spidey senses which again I ignored. Should have paid more attention to my gut.
We took delivery of a 118d from a dealer here in Spain a few weeks ago, as per this thread...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
When it arrived I gave it a cursory inspection to make sure known there were no extra marks/defects on top of what had been specified in the ad. Everything seemed in order except a missing 2nd key, which we pointed out, and were told we could order a new one and be reimbursed. Annoying, but not the end of the world.
Anyway after it basically sat in the car port for a few days (bar quick school runs) as it was a busy week, we hopped in it to run some errands on a Saturday. While it was parked up at a shopping centre, I noticed what appeared to be some unusual panel gaps. Got home, had a good look round the front and also under the bonnet, and found more misaligned stuff, and then I noticed some welds on the LHS top mount which looked markedly different to all the others, and also in proper light, paint with a difference surface finish. See pics below for interest, comparison of one side of the car to other.
Despite the car being sold as "never crash and repaired", it had clearly been involved in quite a serious knock. Anyway, once that became clear, I immediately contacted the dealer, requested to return the car (they offered an extra year of warranty if I'd keep it
) Luckily it's a Spanish car supermarket outfit (Autohero), so the customer service person on the other end of the customer service line doesn't have a personal interest in the situation/money, so they (as per their Ts and Cs, 14 day return if you don't "like" the car) accepted the order cancellation and initiated collection and refund proceedings. Just glad I noticed it within the 14 days so I didn't have to rely on the car being "mis-sold" to me to return it.Anyway, this has learned me. Got a bit frustrated with lack of choice/availability over here, and the urgent need for a 2nd car, and broke some of my own car buying rules, and almost got stung. In hindsight I feel like a right muppet for not spotting it all on delivery, so obvious once I saw it all. And a couple of other things triggered my spidey senses which again I ignored. Should have paid more attention to my gut.
Mario149 said:
Cautionary tale!...
On the plus side, I took it as a sign from the universe that I should buy something a bit more fruity and newer (looks like everything over a few years old here has been crashed/damaged at some point), so treated myself to a nearly-new Hyundai i30N 
Also managed to view it before buying it this time 
Only done 50 miles in it but it's an absolute riot so far
only downside with it so far is it makes you want to drive like a t
t so I'm currently averaging 20mpg Seeing that top suspension mount welded and repainted must mean it was quite a crash that the car had suffered.
Pretty bad of the dealer to have it up for sale without disclosing the damage.
Guess they don't have the Cat D, E etc categories in Spain.
I was in Greece last week. Judging by the state of my hire car and others on the road, I'm not sure they even have an MoT.
At least I wasn't worried about adding bumps on the rental Fiesta
Pretty bad of the dealer to have it up for sale without disclosing the damage.
Guess they don't have the Cat D, E etc categories in Spain.
I was in Greece last week. Judging by the state of my hire car and others on the road, I'm not sure they even have an MoT.
At least I wasn't worried about adding bumps on the rental Fiesta
This is what your post appeared to me like, and i was sat there for a second thinking "boy Fiestas have changed since i last looked at one" 
croyde said:
Seeing that top suspension mount welded and repainted must mean it was quite a crash that the car had suffered.
Pretty bad of the dealer to have it up for sale without disclosing the damage.
Guess they don't have the Cat D, E etc categories in Spain.
I was in Greece last week. Judging by the state of my hire car and others on the road, I'm not sure they even have an MoT.
At least I wasn't worried about adding bumps on the rental Fiesta
Pretty bad of the dealer to have it up for sale without disclosing the damage.
Guess they don't have the Cat D, E etc categories in Spain.
I was in Greece last week. Judging by the state of my hire car and others on the road, I'm not sure they even have an MoT.
At least I wasn't worried about adding bumps on the rental Fiesta
On the Cat D, E etc note, I imagine they do have something similar here. But what might be a Cat D in UK wouldn't get to that here as cars (especially any used cars particularly old regular ones, and also 300bhp+ brand new high end cars) are much more expensive here (about the only thing that is to be fair), plus garage labour rates are much lower, so cost to repair vs value of car is generally a much smaller percentage
I can't speak for what happens in Spain, but there are many instances where a car can be damaged and never recorded as a category in the UK. The category is applied by the insurance company in the case of a claim, so no insurance claim, no category. This can happen under a variety of circumstances, such as an uninsured driver, some companies and organisations such as car hire companies (the police even used to do this) self insure and don't record a category against a damaged car.
Add to this the number of cars which are poorly repaired by body shops, and there are thousands of cars which slip through the net every year. I have a friend who worked as an assessor and more than once he was called in to check repairs on a vehicle to find they were so badly repaired that they were reclassified as a write off.
Just saying, that just because a car doesn't have a marker against it, doesn't mean it shouldn't have a marker against it. Inspect anything you're buying carefully.
Add to this the number of cars which are poorly repaired by body shops, and there are thousands of cars which slip through the net every year. I have a friend who worked as an assessor and more than once he was called in to check repairs on a vehicle to find they were so badly repaired that they were reclassified as a write off.
Just saying, that just because a car doesn't have a marker against it, doesn't mean it shouldn't have a marker against it. Inspect anything you're buying carefully.
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