VW Up Corrosion Around Rear Quarter

[MattS5]

I'm currently looking for a small car, under £4k for my sons fist car.
Found a great little Up with decent history, reasonable miles and pretty good condition inside and out.
But,it's got some bubbling around the rear quarter, near the fuel cap.
A bit of googling suggests that is a common issue on the early cars.

My question is, it's obviously corroding from the inside out due to VW not fitting arch liners in the early models, but it's it likely to be a death knell for the car in the next 12 months?
Is it worth getting repaired in some way, what's the likelihood of it being an MOT failure as it could be structural I'm guessing, near the rear suspension top mount?

It's very small currently, but obviously it's only going to get bigger.

Any thoughts?

[Chris32345]

Definitely not going to be a major issue in the next 12 month but will certainly be a issue in the next few years unless treated

[steveo3002]

will be several years until its an issue

thing is you dont need to buy rotten cars these days , find one thats clean or an aygo etc

[HustleRussell]

Is it just me or is 'to last more than 12 months' a ridiculously low bar for a £4k budget?

[MattS5]

HustleRussell said:

Is it just me or is 'to last more than 12 months' a ridiculously low bar for a £4k budget?

I agree, I've written it, it's absolutely ridiculous, but having been looking for the last 3 months, the amount of stuff available (of reasonable quality) is absolutely shocking.

I live in a part of the country generally not associated with dubious quality of cars, and I (stupidly) thought getting a car for £1,500 would be relatively simple task.
It would seem the £1k disposable car, is now a £3k disposable car.

Very little for sale privately, and the stuff at the dealers is woeful.
Obviously they are buying cars at a higher cost, and by the time they've got a profit across them (they're a business) the stuff that was a snotter, is still a snotter, but just now more expensive.

Larger engines seem to be available, but the insurance for a first time driver excludes anything over a certain size.

140k mile Polos, with 6+ previous owners, 1 service invoice, with multiple painted panels, and 12 months MOT is available, but at £3.5k

Crazy

[Belle427]

It will gradually get worse, difficult to say how long though.
Can be a tricky area to repair if it spreads though.

[TwinKam]

Have you looked at anything else but VW? IMHO they are hugely overrated, but good marketing keeps their perceived value high.
The perfect first car is the Aygo/107/C1 (they're all Toyotas) and there's loads out there to choose from, to the extent that you can almost go out looking for a specific colour!

[James6112]

I’d say it would go on for years like that..
Get a body shop to take a look & price up a proper repair?. £500 should make that immaculate again!