Salvage/rebuilt cars Taboo?

Problem in a nutshell is this: " it depends". Where you live, and what the rules are. Georgia used to be bad about having loopholes for title washing, but the laws have changed, and getting a salvage car titled to drive on the street is an expensive and time consuming process.

You have to have the car inspected in stages as its repaired AND show where the parts came from to ensure no stolen parts are used. So buying a car fixed from another State is going to be a huge problem. its really not worth it, 99% of the time.

The rewelded cars and trucks that fell apart in accidents are what caused the changes in the laws in several States. Kit cars and Replicas are now harder to register in GA as well. So it depends on where YOU live as to what you can register and insure for public roads.

 

A salvage title typically means that the vehicle sustained damage that reached a percentage of the total value of the car and the insurance company made an economic decision not to fix the car. A 10K car with 8K worth of damage minimum will typically get paid out.

I'm not opposed to salvage title cars, however it would be important for safety IMO that a buyer would know exactly what damage was sustained and how it was fixed. A car could be totaled for vandalism including scratched paint and shredded interior. That would be an easy decision if it had a quality repaint and a new interior. But I wouldn't take someones word for it. That car could also have been dumped in a lake.

The other element, if you find a car that is great, everything is documented and you are sure it is safe then you have to keep in mind that in the vast majority of cases the car will never have a full market value. If you are the end user, no issues. If you are going to sell some day it will be harder to sell when there are equivalent non salvage cars available.

 

I think the more rare the car, the less a factor it is as there is less choice. If there are a lot available, it's easy to find one without a salvage title so the value takes a hit as everyone will buy the 'unbranded' cars before the salvage car (given same condition). If the car is really rare, it's less of an issue as there are less options. There are tons of rare race cars that are worth millions and have been wrecked and rebuilt multiple times. On a v8 Ferrari, the opposite is true as there are so many of even the 'limited production' models, that there is almost always another similar car for sale without the 'branded' title so it is worth less. Keep in mind, some owners try to get the car totalled out for anything just so they can collect the insurance money as it will often pay out more than they could buy an equivalent car for. I understand the practice but find it despicable.

 

In my opinion there is absolutely nothing wrong with rebuilt/salvage cars as long as (like mentioned above) you know the damage and you know it was repaired perfectly. I have owned several high end salvage cars (gts viper, lotus elise, bmw x3) And I would have NO problem getting a salvage ferrari, lamborghini, etc AS long as I get it for the right price (at least 30% off Clean title price)

I recently bought a clean title, no paintwork, no accident 360 spider and I am daily driving it. But I searched for months for a salvage one, or salvage lamborghini and wasn't able to find anything for the right price, so ended up buying that one. And for me salvage/rebuilt would be perfect because I dd the car, it gets rock chips, scratches, see's rain, is driven almost 500 miles a week, etc and it kills me doing all that to this mint car

 

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If repaired correctly and the price is right, I would buy one without hesitation ...And at resell if the car is nice enough and the price is good enough it will sell. Everyone wants a deal and no one knows it a salvage until you disclose it


One tip : try and have before repair pictures because many times the damage is minimum but in rare case it has structure damage and stay away from that

 

Let me reiterate: Its very important before you buy the car with a salvage Title to talk to the DMV and make sure you can register it and drive it. Also Hagerty and many "special" insurance companies will not insure a salvage car unless its a very well documented case, and a rare car.

Buying the car to drive off into the sunset cheaply is just the first step.

You aint going anywhere if you cant get tags and insurance.

Just FYI.

 

I used Geico for my lotus, both vipers (clean and salvage), and I use it now on my ferrari. They had no problem insuring them for full value, and when my lotus was ran over I was paid full price for it.

But as far as state inspections go, I work in the car business so I know a few cerified shops that can approve a car from salvage to rebuilt.

 

You need to check the rules with your state Department of Motor Vehicles. Although South Carolina is very loose in some areas, such as vehicle inspections (there are none), it is tough to get a title unless you have spotless paperwork including the title from the previous owner. Salvage titles require tough inspections.

I can recall at least three instances of totaled cars being cut in half and the "good" halves welded back together, followed by the titles being washed in Georgia. I am glad to hear it is tougher to do that now. In one case, I was taking a welding class at a local community college about 20 years ago. The instructor brought in two Nissan 300 ZXs. They were both red. One was smashed in the front and the other in the back. He cut the two cars in half and welded them back together. He "squared the car up" with a tape measure. I asked him if he would get the suspension alignment right and he stated "close enough". Using two cars of the same color would make it harder for the buyer to realize what had happened.

The other two cases were a year or two ago. One was a black Nissan Altima that began life as two cars at a salvage yard. The other was a car a co-worker bought for his son. A year or so after they bought the car, he noticed the tires were not wearing evenly. He took it in for an alignment and the shop told him it was two cars welded together. It had a clean title from Georgia.

I would not put it past someone to do this with a Ferrari (or two Ferraris in this case). A careful inspection is an absolute must.

I personally wouldn't mind buying a modern ferrari, such as an F360, with previous accident damage as long as the "tainted history" was reflected in the price. I would feel more free to drive the car and not worry about dings and scratches. I would however avoid a car with a salvage title unless it was dirt cheap, had good four wheel alignment and there would be no issues titling it in my name.

 

I know many people that have had salvaged/rebuilt cars and most of them have had zero issues. It's all good as long as you know what your getting.

 

That's not always the case.

I'm an insurance appraiser and there are many many reasons for totaling a vehicle. Most states have a % of the value that once its reached the vehicle is deemed a total by the state, some states do not have a % at all.

Every insurance policy I have seen has a clause in it that pretty much says the insurance company has the right to deem a vehicle a total loss or any reason and there are circumstances where this is used.

There can be constructive total losses meaning cost of repairs + rental + diminished value + salvage value or any other cost to make the insured whole is greater than the value of the vehicle.

Total floods are another thing, such as the water being just enough that it reach safety systems winning harnesses or components (like on the bottom of some seats ect) . The insurance company can't take that chance that one wire got corroded and the air bags not ploy and someone gets killed because of it.

There are cases when I look at a car and it is repairable but I have to ask myself if I would want it back.

Now in the case of exotics things get a bit different. Due to the high costs the mfgs charge for parts this causes the salvage value of them to be very large, and the cost of repairs to be very high. Think of it this way you have a car that's worth 100k there's 25k worth of damage in a normal car 25% of the value the car would most definitely get repaired unless the damages we very strange. Now the say this car is a 360 that fits pretty close to that price range. Now this 360 has very low mileage. This car has pretty light front end damage so the 25k repair estimate isn't far fetched because we know how much the parts cost. Now how much is say the windshield back worth salvage value with low mileage mechanicals? Let's say 77k parted out which isn't far fetched because the engine alone used with low mileage is worth a good bit. We would total this car as we would pay the owner the value of the car which makes them whole, we would get the salve value which decreases our exposure because we would save 2k vs repairing + diminished value + rental ect....

Now another scenario I worked the Tuscaloosa tornado claims last year. Most of the cars I totalled were very repairable but they needed all over paint jobs due to debris damage, light interior water damage from a window being busted out ect and we went through totalling them all because most people would not want there cars back.

What I'm getting at is just because a vehicle was totalled doesn't mean there was significant damage.

Now having said that if I were buying a salvage vehicle that wasn't going to be just a beater I would find everything out about its history, want to see pictures from the salvage company copart and IAA take numerous pictures of all the vehicles they get, and make sure it was repaired correctly before buying it. There are many many "salvage" vehicles I would like to have.

Now remember that some insurance companies do not insure salvage vehicles because there is an unknown exposure as they do not know what was repaired or how it was repaired and who knows if it gets in one wreck it won't fold up and kill everyone inside it exposing the insurance company... at least if it was never in a wreck and it was a manufacturing flaw they may be able to recoup some money from the mfg but a rebuilt vehicle they are on there own.

Sorry if thers some horrible spelling or grammar I've only got my iPad right now and it sucks to type on.

 

YEP What he said!

 

Thx Doctor7474. That was very informative, interesting, and helpful.

 

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