suspicious about roof of car

kupus

Urgent Need help with this one guys, we were looking at an opel Minerva.2003. 1.7CDTI and its in great condition.

However there is little hailstone sized marks on the roof and just the roof only, none on the bonnet.
Would it be out of the question that this car was crashed in a write off and pulled apart and straightened again?
The seller told me that it was caused by hailstones which is not uncommon in this part of the world.
(Balkan Winters)
But Yet again a seller has told me he doesn't sell cars. And a quick google later showed 4 cars sold in the past year. So I trust him as far as I can throw him.

In truth they would be like marble sized dents but there is no cracking of paint and as I said there is no sign of these marks on the bonnet.

I would like to hear from mechanics and panel beaters from here about this particular problem.
I won't be online again till tomorrow noon, so thanks for all helpful remarks in advance......

MidlandsM

sounds like it was sprayed and moisture reacted in the paint finish.


Run.

colm_mcm

Just walk away

Anan1

kupus wrote: »

In truth they would be like marble sized dents but there is no cracking of paint and as I said there is no sign of these marks on the bonnet.

It's quite possible that the car was damaged by hailstones and that the owner replaced the bonnet but not (on cost grounds) the roof. If it's much cheaper than an undamaged car and everything else checks out during a mechanics inspection then I don't see why not. It'd want to be cheap, though.

lifer_sean

MidlandsM wrote: »

sounds like it was sprayed and moisture reacted in the paint finish.

The OP says there are dents in the roof. A reaction in the paint can't cause a dent.

OP, do you literally mean a dent, ie the metal is bent, or is it blistering of the paint ? Blistering is caused by a reaction to the paint, typically due to a contaminant on the surface being painted (eg silicone). This would only happen if the roof had been resprayed.

Check of the roof pillars are okay, if the doors, boot door and windscreen are original. If they are original I wouldn't be too worried. Check also for any overspray. If the roof was painted it might be due to a simple dent, not crash damage. For example, students walked across the roof of my car years ago when it was parked, resulting in the roof being repaired / resprayed.

kupus

Thanks for all the replies lads.

Back online again.
I just wabt to add that I looked at pillars and to my untrained eye they seemed ok also doors seemed to sit fine within the frames.
:owever when I cheked numbers on windows there was two different set of numbers....

I think the numbers went something like. E 000 061. And the other numbers were E 000 062.
Is this cause for concern?
My reason for asking is a lot of wrecked cars from euroland come here and get registered illegallly and get fixed up and then sold on.....no such thing as motorcheck.ie here!!

And to answer the question its like a marble was dropped onto roof from a height and it left a perfect sized smooth dent with no blistering, there is about 30 or so of these indentations. Tbh you won't notice them until you are up close to the car,

And after reading honestjohns review and the link he provides to the eps steering column huge problems we just may walk away, but We are taking it in to the main dealers tomorrow for a pre test, maybe they can shed more light on it cost is about 100 euro and they hook it up to some machines etc. for 2-3 hrs. My own cost as I would prefer ro pay that now than get hit with a big cost later on.

Another answer is the car is costing 5000 euro 160K KM. 03 1.7 CDTI. Cost is expensive I know but its average for this place.

Keep it coming lads all input appreciated.

mathepac

kupus wrote: »

... I just wabt to add that I looked at pillars and to my untrained eye they seemed ok also doors seemed to sit fine within the frames.
.

Use the edge of a coin 0.10, 0.20 or 0.50 cent, I can't remember which, to assist you in checking the consistency of the shut-lines (the gap between fixed and moveable panels).

kupus wrote: »

... :owever when I cheked numbers on windows there was two different set of numbers... I think the numbers went something like. E 000 061. And the other numbers were E 000 062.
Is this cause for concern?

Is this just the difference between left-sided and right-sided windows?

kupus wrote: »

... And to answer the question its like a marble was dropped onto roof from a height and it left a perfect sized smooth dent with no blistering, there is about 30 or so of these indentations. ...

Some drunken slapper in high-heels doing River Dance up there maybe?

kupus

The numbers are different both sides so they are mixed up. ill have another look in an hour or so.

166man

To be honest OP if you're having to ask this many questions about the car, it might be better to just walk away as that car sounds like it could have big problems, I personally wouldn't take the risk.

Plenty of other cars out there to choose from you know.

lifer_sean

kupus wrote: »

And to answer the question its like a marble was dropped onto roof from a height and it left a perfect sized smooth dent with no blistering, there is about 30 or so of these indentations. Tbh you won't notice them until you are up close to the car,

TBH I would doubt this indicates accident damage. What panel beater in their right mind would repair/paint a roof and leave these marks in the finished result ?

I'd check with some locals if this "hailstones" damage is plausible for their weather conditions. Mention it to a savvy local and check if it registers on their bullsh** detector ! It doesn't sound right for Irish weather but I know nothing about Balkans weather. If the story is true it should be a fairly common occurrence ... most cars will see similar weather conditions in the same locality.

kupus

Just a quick update and thanks for advice here.....WE WALKED AWAY,
Reasons:
~Seller told us timing belt was changed, the pre test showed it wasnt.
~Seller told us car was bought in the country..... papers showed it wasnt.
~Seller told us the car was his, according to the papers it wasnt.
~Seller was very nervous at the checking of the car, complete 180° turn from the day before. As if he had something to hide. And he did, all of the above.

Good thing we took a pre test as if we drove off in it, taking his word we would have had a bust timing belt in no time and all the problems associated with it. 160K KM and no timing belt done :smiley for facepalm insert here:

The way I look at it is:
€100 well spent for the pretest, instead of a nightmare €2-3000 cost in the not so far future

So to anyone who reads this BRING A MECHANIC WITH YOU WHEN YOU PURCHASE A SECOND HAND CAR even if its a young kid mechanic and give them €50, Mine was expensive as I had to go to main dealer, but it saved me a fortune in the long run....

We went to look at a Renault Modus then and that's
another fcukin head-wrecking story involving a......
~main Renault dealer selling a car for their client, and she thinks the sun moon and stars shine out the arse end of the modus,

~a salesman who would only let us test drive it on the forecourt........so cue 3 of us in the car driving around the petrol pumps as a test drive, me complaining how the fcuk am I supposed to buy a car for 5 grand and and him saying thats the only drive you get and no warranty with it either. Eventually got it registered though after nearly a half hour of tense negotiations.
I SWEAR IM NOT MAKING THIS UP.

~and a mechanic telling us that the turbo is fine and not going to go bang, in fact the loud whistle from 2000-4000 rpm is because the engine is closer to the driver so the noise is louder and the noise reduction panel is not great quality.
(I went to another forum about this as I dont want to keep taking the mick here asking for advice, and giving nothing in return)

Buying a car here, I couldn't make this sh1t up if I wanted to.....
OHH OHH did I tell you about the bank employee who gives the loan to buy new cars started to insult OH calling her stupid etc.......in middle of bank because she didnt have a piece of paper that the **** clerk was supposed to have cleared 2 weeks ago.
Fcukin eijit. We told her to stick the loan up her arse(Well OH said it more nicely)

Went to the Suzuki swift dealer and told him we cancelled the loan and are looking for a second hand one instead.
And in fairness to him he was the most professional courteous rep we had met in our quest for a new car(all the others were atrocious),
and he took it like a good salesman should, and if we should scrape the price of a new 1.2 Swift (beautiful car btw to drive a lot better than Kia Rio I was thinking of doing a comparison for people here on the budget cars), I will definitely be back to him.

We left on good terms, and got a phone call 20 mins later from **** clerk asking was everything ok!!! I wonder what that conversation was about?

~OH in near tears remembering the abuse she got the day before from the **** clerk,
~An Opel Mivera timing belt nearly wrapped around somebodys head
~A 2004 Modus you could only test drive on a forecourt
~a fcuking group of wild Boars nearly getting milled by a 1991 Fiat Panda, and the only thing as I was thinking as I was sliding towards them with my feet planted on the brakes was fcuk the car, at least I'll have a sh1tload of rashers for the year.
Just another normal Balkan weekend.
normal service resumes tomorrow

colm_mcm

Surely it'd be a vauxhall if it was uk?

Edit, just saw your location

Tea drinker

whereabouts in the Balkans are ya? I've spent a good bit of time in Serbia.

kupus

In an island in the middle of the Adriatic, crazy long summers, followed by an even longer winters, ok it doesnt rain much here and we dont get the amount of snow the inland gets and I can go without a rain jacket for days on end, but my god its boring...... plus the fact that the nearest town about the size of Waterford is 4 hours away. only villages in between.

Which is why the car we want to buy was initially a brand new one, but after oh got insulted by a **** clerk whose fault it was for the paper anyway we decided to fcuk the bank, we were giving them 15,000 on a 10,000 loan to be insulted, fcuk em......

so now we are just looking for a good 2nd hand, which is hard to find here as Balkan people generally drive till the car falls apart and then sell it on preferring to sell the problem on without acknowledging that fact and charging top price on top of that.

EG A guy we know was selling his Citroen C3 for €7000 it didnt matter the going rate was 5000, he wanted 7000. He didnt get it, so he took it off the market, now he has a car worth E5000 just sitting there and he will leave it there till the end of days to come, unless he gets 7000. Its a matter of pride that he has to get that 7000.

As you have traveled Serbia, Im sure you know what I am talking about