Just been to a big Ford dealer here in Windsor to look at a Ford Freestyle - whilst looking at it, the guy said it had had the rear quarter painted for a scratch, I asked if it had been in an accident and he said no....

Then, whilst he was discussing with the sales manager about a price reduction, I took a look at what I'd call a HPI check back in the UK - dunno what they're called here, that he'd left on the desk.... it said it had been in a collision! I confronted him and he said that's normal for Canada and even a scratch has to be reported in this way....

I smelt BS and walked away - was that the right thing to do?

Well done, you did the right thing...total BS. The accident repair would show up if an insurance claim was made. A dealer does not have to report a scratch before having it repaired!!

Hell Yeah!

I wouldnt trust a used car saleman any further here than I would in the UK.

Carfax or equivalent is money well spent if you are buying used, but of course its not 100% accurate either.

Could you get a salesman to put in writing that to the best of their knowledge the vehicle had not been in a collision ?
I`m sure that when they buy one they would do a check on it !

The guy was overly pushy and his manager the same - I didn't appreciate the hard sell, the BS about the collision was the icing on the cake - the fact they gave me $3k discount off a $18k car with hardly any haggling also rang alarm bells....

Buying a used car here is harder than I expected, would have had one sorted by now in the UK.... Being so close to the border, there's also loads of US imports, which if what I've read on here is right, are also best to avoid....