Seriously?

[Laird Scooby]

I'm glad you picked up on the windscreen surround Alan and suggested it could be rubbed down and filled - that's exactly what a dodgy dealer is likely to do!

Of course, it will be back in 6 months, maybe less but almost certainly won't be covered by any form of warranty as all the dealer needs to say is he bought the car like it.

To do the job properly, as you say the rear screen needs to come out. Unless i'm mistaken, it's not a bonded screen so the chances are it will come out intact, a delicate bit of welding, grinding and sanding, skim of filler to smooth it out, prime and paint then a decent T-Cut and polish with a machine polisher (aka mopping) and it will look bright and shiny despite the fact the front of the roof is pink now. That said, there is some mottling on that rear corner of the roof, difficult to see in the pics if that is rust or just paint but a vinyl roof kit would cover a multitude of sins!

A dodgy dealer could almost certainly do all that himself fairly cheaply and do the rest of the preparation that would give him a £5000 "forecourt" car so if he bought it at say £1800, allow £500 for "prep", he then has £2700 profit. Assuming it sells for £5k obviously but he has plenty of wiggle room, even to allow a p/x for a few hundred over the real trade-in value of whatever was put against it.

As we all know, buyers tend to suffer "magpie syndrome" where anything bright and shiny catches their eye and makes them do silly things with their bank accounts.