Look for another one?

Seems like it's been in an accident. Have you seen the car?

It's 18 years old. With a tempting history, you should examine the car carefully before making any offer, or if you are looking for a cosmetically 'new' car, look elsewhere. But if the MoT tester has passed it I don't think you need expect the worst.

Wouldn't worry me. If "structural integrity is not significantly reduced", then it isn't, and isn't likely to suddenly become so, so shouldn't lead to MOT failures in the future.

OTOH it might be prudent to continue to get it tested at the same place, since "testers discretion" can put the lotteree in MOT.

Dents can rust quickly because the paint is damaged and people don't do anything about it. If one does, then dents don't.

Doing more than rust prevention, though (ié bodywork) would be expensive, disproportionately to the value of the vehicle.

As most of the comments have shown, with this damage the vehicle will be hard to sell so should be very cheap.

If it is, AND IF your wife doesn't mind it (the biggest potential obstacle) then sounds like a keeper.

But you knew that, of course.

This happened to my old 2001 Octavia when a well known tyre vendor jacked up the car on the sill ridge not in the prescribed area and bent it somewhat. Only spotted it a week or so later. That was at about 5 years old - structure was still sound when we still had the car in the family when it was 19 years old.

Edited by Big John on 06/09/2021 at 17:14