New car- accident damage? *Update*

Bowling_4_Gold

Hi all,

Bought a new car (2006 Astra) a couple of weeks ago and having 'got to know it' a bit more, it's clearly been in an accident at some point in it's life.

It's been resprayed at some point at the bottom of the n/s door, as well as possibly the rear bumper (found some rogue masking tape when detailing it).

What do you guys think I should do? I'm concerned that there's going to be expensive issues in the not-to-distant future, which is why I want to act sooner rather than later. I bought it from an independent dealership. Have got a clear HPI report from hpi.co.uk. Please see pics below. Thanks.

OddballJamie

I really hope it's not a 1.4 sxi sports hatch. I know someone who crashed one at the Nurburgring, had it fixed on the cheap and traded it.

Bowling_4_Gold

OddballJamie wrote: »

I really hope it's not a 1.4 sxi sports hatch. I know someone who crashed one at the Nurburgring, had it fixed on the cheap and traded it.

Close! 1.6 sxi

spacey2012

Thats body filler in the picture 2.
I would get a magnet and see if it has any in structural areas, if it has it will fail the next mot.

Bowling_4_Gold

Little update. The dealer had it back for two days last week, as one tyre had a slow puncture and the car was pulling to the left.

He gave the car back to me saying that he wasn't going to do anything about the bodywork and that the car still pulls to the left, but that is normal and it's so you don't go into oncoming traffic (ha!).

He's basically said that I'm going to have to take him to court if I want anything else done to the car, and that there's no way I'd win the case.

What do you guys think I should do? I've noticed a discrepancy in the service history (19 month/15,000 mile gap) despite the description stating 'Full Service History'.

Are these two points grounds for rejecting the car? To me it's not as described (service history) and not of merchantable quality (pulling to the left).

Thanks all for your input.

eschaton

It shouldn't pull to the left but you can't buy a 7 year old car and expect it to have lead a perfect life.

GAZ237

eschaton wrote: »

It shouldn't pull to the left but you can't buy a 7 year old car and expect it to have lead a perfect life.

To be fair to the OP. You would expect it to be roadworthy.

Nothing you can do in regards to the paintwork though as you should of noticed when you inspected the car before buying it.

dogshome

It's had a smack, and from the photo's a cheap fix - But even so if the shunt had put just the tracking out, it wouldn't have cost £'s to adjust

So if it's pulling to the left there's the possibility that some of the suspension is damaged or the entire shell is twisted
Get it into a good 4 Wheel alignment shop, (Not your local tyre fitters), for a check on all it's geometry, then hold the report under the dealers nose