most of the cheaper imports are light wrecks with frontals,rear hits and light side hits. before the gov't started cleaning up the markets that was the only real way to make money quickly. buy a car for 100kyen get it here , fix it , mod it then sell it.
the 32 that I own went throuugh that exact process.. (you are none the wiser.)
most of the light damage cars in pickles,manheim et al are bought by people that do back yard jobs on them. I have been privy to 4-5 myself where they had electrical problems during fixup.
point being here, if you think something is up - get an external inspection. in my case if the car is an auto the first thing I pull on it when looking is the trans fluid stick. if that is a dark brown I walk off.