New (Second Hand) Purchase Help

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pg325

Member
I've been to look at a coupe today, 3 owners 60k 57 plate for £10999 (forecourt price).

I've noticed that at the outer edge of the headlights there was a gap between them and the bumper. I started to think perhaps the car has had it's bumper or lights replaced and may have been involved in an accident.

Is it right that there is a a gap between the outside edge of the headlight and wing? You can easily fit a credit card between then and move it about.

It also has a very slight parking ding on the rear arch. It's exactly on the arch crease line about an inch from the bottom of the arch lip. The dealer has stated he cannot get it done and their dent repairer has said there isn't anything he can pry the tool against to remove the dent.

Anyone had a repair in this area?

PG.
 
Watching a few dent removal videos, it would appear the parking dent on the rear arch could be removed easily enough.

One thing that is strange is that the VIN code entered into the web shows a car built in August 2006 but only registered in September 2007, would there normally be that long between build and sale?

The VIN code also shows the options when new, according to the VIN info sites the car was built with pro nav but it doesn't have any nav, just the basis business cd.
 
Has the front bumper been off for repair and it wants realignment?

The dealer sounds right. Paintless dent removal repairs are extremely difficult on any crease line and you will find most won't want to touch it. A smart repairer may have to fill the dent and reshape the filler on the crease.
 
pg325 said:
Watching a few dent removal videos, it would appear the parking dent on the rear arch could be removed easily enough.

One thing that is strange is that the VIN code entered into the web shows a car built in August 2006 but only registered in September 2007, would there normally be that long between build and sale?

The VIN code also shows the options when new, according to the VIN info sites the car was built with pro nav but it doesn't have any nav, just the basis business cd.
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Maybe the dealer's dent remover just doesn't like the look of the job, although dent removal on a crease is pretty challenging.

That seems like an awfully long gap from build until registration, and removing Nav without leaving any signs would surely be more trouble than it is worth - as someone has hinted, I would double check the VIN!

Although probably not definitive, I have read that early E86s had a silver cam cover and no external input for an MP3 player - my 2 seem to bear this out as my current one has a build date of 18/09/06, silver cam cover and no MP3 input whereas my Ruby Black one was built 10/10/06 and had the black cam cover and the MP3 input, even though it was registered on 22/12/06 (exactly 1 week before my current one).

If that is correct and the one you looked at was built in August 2006 I would expect it to have a silver cam cover and no MP3 input on the bottom of the dash.

If you like it otherwise I hope you can make sense of it all. :thumbsup: They are great cars!
 
pg325 said:
NickDE said:
Did you make a mistake in the VIN ?
Have you got the registration number ?
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The VIN number is correct, I took a photo of it whilst the bonnet was up.
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Hmmm. A delay between build and registration is possible. The Z4C wasn't a roaring sales success for BMW and one could have sat at a dealers in the corner waiting for a buyer. Mine has a six months gap, then it got preregistered then sat for another two weeks before finding an owner. A year seems a bit long though. The disappearing Navi worries me more though - that would involve pulling out a load of wiring, wiring in the simpler system, and also replacing the whole dashboard top. Seems a lot of work to downgrade a car. Why ?
 
I smell a rat.
Currently looking for a coupe and these are exactly the sort of hidden details i'm looking out for.
Spotted one that had an engine rebuild and down-played by the seller. Walked away.
 
NickDE said:
[post]1375499[/post] Hmmm. A delay between build and registration is possible. The Z4C wasn't a roaring sales success for BMW and one could have sat at a dealers in the corner waiting for a buyer. Mine has a six months gap, then it got preregistered then sat for another two weeks before finding an owner. A year seems a bit long though. The disappearing Navi worries me more though - that would involve pulling out a load of wiring, wiring in the simpler system, and also replacing the whole dashboard top. Seems a lot of work to downgrade a car. Why ?
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Yes, I got that impression about sales - maybe it was seen as a bit dear considering the relatively spartan basic spec (no cruise, pdc, MFSW, etc. when all that was standard on most E46s years before)!

My Ruby Black Coupe was built 10/10/06, pre-registered on 22/12/06 and didn't find a buyer until April 07 at a much reduced price. I don't have the details for my current one, but wouldn't be surprised if it was a similar scenario, but a year to registration seems like a heck of a delay!
 
I have had several paintless dent repairs done on mine, but the one they couldn't do was one just like yours. As to the Vin question....that concerns me. See if you can pull up any repair history
 
This is Vin WBADU52050LF68369. Definitely states pro nav. The car didn't have it and there were gaping holes behind the seats where I believe additional speakers should be located.
 
My mate's looking for an e89, check out the free MOT history tool on the DVLA site https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history
It shows all the cars MOT's, passes, fails and advisories too.
We just checked a potential purchase and found the 1st MOT mileage showed 16786 then 5 months later and a new MOT showed 10466. He has walked away.
 
Chris_D said:
I smell a rat.
Currently looking for a coupe and these are exactly the sort of hidden details i'm looking out for.
Spotted one that had an engine rebuild and down-played by the seller. Walked away.
Click to expand...

Engine rebuild on a Si :? a rarity in Z world :? did he elaborate or did he maybe not fully understand & somehow got mixed up with sticky lifters or Vanos ?
 
pg325 said:
This is Vin WBADU52050LF68369. Definitely states pro nav. The car didn't have it and there were gaping holes behind the seats where I believe additional speakers should be located.
Click to expand...

:roundel:

That's not a very good walking away smilie, but you get the idea !
 
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