You found that it has been accident repaired?
First you should check the basic structure of the car, engine mounts, chassis, etc.
It COULD be that it was stolen and recovered because sometimes the insurance pays out then it goes through a salvage auction also. When I have been to salvage auctions approximately 30% of cars have been of this status. Most of the rest, value 1-6k maybe usually have significant body damage and significant mechcanical damage such as twist struts. Have you any receipts to accident repair?
In my opinion and from my experience from these auctions - which were a hobby of my grandfathers! - is that attention was away from ones with serious structural damage and the repairable ones were the ones that sold. I would say that if your car looks ok, has no obvious damage that you can see and most importantly, probably, is that it drives ok. E.g. Straight, a good way of telling structural damage is whether it drives straight.
People don't want to buy accident damaged cars if they have significant structural damage, especially low value cars because there is too much effort (hence money) involved in repair.
Maybe you could go for a RAC inspection to reassure you/scare you to death?
I also believe there are difference levels of accident damage recorded on HPI but I am sure someone knows better than me on that?
Paul
