AI DamageA car repaired after an accident is not necessarily a bad car. The problem is when the repair is hidden and you pay as if the car were undamaged. Most repair traces are visible without tools: you need to know where to look and go round the car in the same order every time.
1. Body from a distance and up close
- Stand 3–4 metres away and look along the sides at an angle. Waves on a panel and a different reflection reveal filler and repaint.
- Gaps between hood and fenders, doors and pillars, trunk lid and taillights should be even on both sides. Compare left with right: it is the simplest and most reliable test.
- Colour of adjacent panels: bumpers can differ slightly even from the factory, metal fenders and doors should not.
- Overspray on seals, plastics and bolts, dust in the clear coat, orange peel of a different texture.
2. Paint thickness gauge
Factory paint on most cars is roughly 80–160 µm thick. A repaint gives 200–300 µm, body filler 300–500 µm and more. What matters is not one number but the difference between panels and within one panel. A magnetic gauge does not measure plastic bumpers, and aluminium panels need an eddy-current probe.
- Measure each panel at 4–5 points.
- Pillars and sills are repainted less often; a high reading there signals a serious impact.
- Uniformly high thickness over the whole car may be a full respray rather than an accident: ask why.
3. Bolts, brackets, sealer
- Bolts on fenders, hood and door hinges: chipped paint on the bolt heads means they were undone. That alone is not an accident, but it deserves an answer.
- Under the hood: radiator support and headlight brackets. New parts in a different colour, welding marks and fresh sealer are easy to see.
- In the trunk, lift the floor mat: ripples in the floor, fresh seam sealer and uneven paint in the spare-wheel well point to a rear impact.
- Dates on glass and seat belts: a window with a different year from the rest has been replaced.
4. Airbags and interior
The SRS light should come on when the ignition is switched on and go out after a few seconds. If it never lights up, it may have been disabled. Uneven seams on the passenger dashboard, a different texture of the steering-wheel airbag cover and new belts in an old interior are signs of deployment. What gets replaced after airbags deploy is described in Airbags and SRS.
5. Test drive and diagnostics
- On a straight road the car should not pull to one side and the steering wheel should be centred. An off-centre wheel means suspension or body geometry issues.
- Uneven tyre wear on one axle: alignment, a bent control arm or knuckle.
- Full scan of all modules: stored faults remain even after a repair. On cars with radar and cameras, check that the assistants work.
- At a workshop with a lift, inspect the frame rails, subframe and its mounting points. After a serious repair a body geometry measurement is worth it (see Body geometry).
6. Documents and history
Check the VIN on the body and in the documents, the VIN history and photos of earlier sales if the car was imported from an auction. How to do it is covered in VIN and damage history and VIN decoding. If you find the auction photos, compare the impact zones with what you see in person: the repair should be exactly there.