The other side is beaten up badly also. Definitely looks like the previous owner drove on some roads with loose gravel or lots of sand. That's a lot of damage. I can't believe he couldn't hear the rocks/gravel/sand beating the car up. Maybe he didn't care, or had no choice.

 

Or maybe the seller made an attempt to "clean-up" the road rash area with something abrasive to eliminate the rough spots, and simply rubbed-away that particular section of compromised paint. Again that area is just too symmetrical to be simply rash alone. If you've ever had a bumper cover (any car) that someone else rubbed against with their own bumper you would see the same black plastic surface exposed. So it is in my opinion caused by some rubbing action of sorts.
At any rate, rash and exposed plastic on the cover is waaaay better situation to have vs a cracked cover surface, or a chunk missing. This can be resprayed very easily.....

 

I would expect factory paint to hold up better...Thanks for your input guys! Maybe a clear shield in this area would be a good idea.

 

Find another car. This one sounds beat up. Many options out there!

 

Looks like it may have been driven in winter with salt and sand or possibly after the winter early driving wit still a lot of crap on the roads. There are quite a lot of great cars out there with low miles and CPO. If price is the driving force then you may have to make some concessions in mileage. But you can still find a car that weathered the miles better.

 

That is most likely the culprit. Lots of small rocks and crap get kicked up, especially if he runs R compounds at the track. My track car's paint is awful all along the bottom edges of the car and front end.