Resprayed Panel

Spondon_Owl

Hi.
My wife and I have just bought a used car. When delivered we did a good inspection having done what we could remotely and noticed paint on the rubber seals. On a closer inspection one panel has been resprayed.

We paid a lot of money for the car, it's very new (albeit not new) and came with the tag of being practically perfect.

What are my rights in this situation?
Do people have experience of respraying? We love the car but are quite nervous that this is going to degrade over time.

AdrianC

Spondon_Owl said:

What are my rights in this situation?

Did anybody promise you it hadn't ever had paint?
There's no way they could ever know, of course.

The usual estimate is about a third of new cars have had some bodywork done for transport damage before they're ever registered for the first time.

Do people have experience of respraying? We love the car but are quite nervous that this is going to degrade over time.

Done properly, there's absolutely no reason why paint sprayed post-assembly is any different to paint sprayed during assembly.

Spondon_Owl

AdrianC said:

Spondon_Owl said:

What are my rights in this situation?

Did anybody promise you it hadn't ever had paint?
There's no way they could ever know, of course.

The usual estimate is about a third of new cars have had some bodywork done for transport damage before they're ever registered for the first time.

Do people have experience of respraying? We love the car but are quite nervous that this is going to degrade over time.

Done properly, there's absolutely no reason why paint sprayed post-assembly is any different to paint sprayed during assembly.

Genuinely did not know that it was that regula! Crazy really. Thanks for your reply. 

AdrianC

Think about how a brand new car gets from the end of the production line to the collection bay at the dealer...

It gets driven into a compound. It then goes through trucks, trains, more compounds, probably a ship or two, more trucks and trains and compounds... Packed tight at every stage by people who are trying to shift as many as possible in as short a time as possible. It's probably more of a surprise 2/3 don't get scratched or dinked.

chrisw

In the good old days of British Leyland the repaired panels outlasted the original ones.

AdrianC

chrisw said:

In the good old days of British Leyland the repaired panels outlasted the original ones.

You laugh, but... I once went on a tour of Skoda UK's import facility at King's Lynn. The days when it was mostly Estelles, the first few Favorits - so about 1987, while CZ was still behind the Iron Curtain.

You could tell at a glance which cars had had bodywork done, and where. The finish was so much better...

fred246

My experience is that resprayed panels become more obvious with time. Cars are made to incredibly high standards. There is no way that they crash 1/3 of them. Repairs look quite good when they have just been done but gradually get worse with time. I am happy to have factory paintwork with the odd scratch and imperfection rather than have it sanded down, filled and sprayed by some dodgy bodyshop.

neilmcl

Spondon_Owl said:

What are my rights in this situation?

How did you buy the car, was it fully online/remotely?

Also, what sort of thing are you looking to do?

Biggus_Dickus

AdrianC said:

chrisw said:

In the good old days of British Leyland the repaired panels outlasted the original ones.

You laugh, but... I once went on a tour of Skoda UK's import facility at King's Lynn. The days when it was mostly Estelles, the first few Favorits - so about 1987, while CZ was still behind the Iron Curtain.

You could tell at a glance which cars had had bodywork done, and where. The finish was so much better...

Sounds like an exhilarating day out. Was there a long queue to get in?  😊

Spondon_Owl

neilmcl said:

Spondon_Owl said:

What are my rights in this situation?

How did you buy the car, was it fully online/remotely?

Also, what sort of thing are you looking to do?

I'm not sure what I'm looking to do if I'm honest. The car is excellent beyond the respray and even that doesn't look to have any imperfections other than they clearly didn't take it up well enough. I bought it yesterday so I'm just trying to weigh up options and actually to understand whether I should be as aggrieved as what I feel... 

Car_54

fred246 said:

My experience is that resprayed panels become more obvious with time. Cars are made to incredibly high standards. There is no way that they crash 1/3 of them. Repairs look quite good when they have just been done but gradually get worse with time. I am happy to have factory paintwork with the odd scratch and imperfection rather than have it sanded down, filled and sprayed by some dodgy bodyshop.

Just to be clear, is there any bodyshop, garage, dealership or indeed anyone connected with the motor trade whom you don't regard as dodgy?