Damaged car missold?

geeandgree

In October 2023 we purchased an ex demo car which was a few months old. All was fine until a year later when I noticed the paint had rubbed away in a small area at the front edge of the door. On closer inspection, I could see that the door and the front wing are touching when the door is opening and closing. This prompted me to investigate further. The headlights were incorrectly fitted, the bumper was a very slightly different colour (which I always put down to the fact that it was plastic) and the shut lines weren't the same distance apart all the way down on the drivers side door/wing. Contacted the dealership who said the bumper had a smart repair due to a scratch which I argued because the wing had clearly been pushed backwards. After some back and forth they agreed to collect the car and put it right. When the car arrived back at the dealership I was contacted by the workshop manager who told me that prior to us purchasing it, they had replaced both headlights, the grille and the bumper, which needed to be sprayed. None of this information was given to us prior to purchase and we even have a sales video saying what a lovely brand new car it is. I've now lost confidence in the car as I don't know the circumstances surrounding  the repairs but I don't know if where I stand legally. Have the dealership broken the law by omitting to tell me about the repairs? Have I been missold? What can I do about it?
Thanks for reading.

Mildly_Miffed

No, they haven't.

That's why we look carefully at cars, even near-new ones.

By some estimates, up to one third of brand new cars have bodywork damage rectified before delivery.

Headlights/grille/bumper doesn't necessarily imply major damage. If the wing alignment had been just that little bit better, you'd probably never have known about it - you didn't notice for over a year, even so.

Tucosalamanca

I was recently at a large car supermarket, looking at very low mileage vehicles less than a year old.
The had a large number of identical vehicles, which was part of the reason why I made the journey.
On inspection, every single one had body issues, mostly inconsistent gaps between panels, as you have described.

It turns our that there's quite a large tolerance allowed for from the factory.

I eventually purchased a different vehicle from a main dealer. They had just invested several million in a new smart repair facility and did a cracking job of refurbishing the vehicle, repairing faults that I (and the salesperson) had identified when agreeing the purchase. No drama, no inconvenience, they were just happy to deliver good service.

Your car's faults were not so serious as to be identified at the time.
After a year, I think your garage is going above and beyond to help you and can't see that they were dishonest at the time. They sound like one of the good guys...

fatbelly

Paint can look different when you compare plastic and metal.

The dealership has agreed to address the minor issues. For 13 months after the purchase of a used car, that's more than fair