rebuilt/ Salvage titles (what does it mean?)

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I've come across deals that seem "too good to be true" the in my car buying quest and just thought I'd see what exactly a salvage title is?

The latest car I saw was a 2008 Subaru Impreza with 55,000 miles for $7500. The car looked almost new and it drove well too. What should prevent me from purchasing a car with a rebuilt or salvage title?
 
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The reason why it was rebuilt or salvaged at one point. There are a variety of reasons like:

It got hailed on and the insurance company totaled it out but it was fixable/salvagable, so the person saved it.

It was in a flood - stay away electrical nightmare

Was in a major accident and damage was over 50% of the cars value.

They are also more expensive to insurance due to the higher risk of things going wrong.

I'd walk away from salvage or rebuilt titles if I did not know the person who previously owned it.
 
Main reason its so cheap is resale value. Could be good today, good for a year then have all kinds of problems from water. My biggest scare is a rebuilt total, they dont fare well in a repeat accident. No strength, fold right up on you. Get the carfax if you want to find out, should tell you why.
 
The laws vary from state to state - call your state's DMV and ask them exactly what their rules are.

Personally, I'd walk away from it, too many other deals out there.
 
I know a lot of people that have purchased rebuilt/salvage title vehicles with good luck. There are companies that specialize in rebuilding/reselling vehicles and they usually do a good job (or they wouldn't stay in business). My brother bought a rebuilt vehicle several years ago and it's been great...he saved thousands on the deal. The shop he bought it from provided pictures before the repair plus the repair details (it was a side hit with no frame damage). Amazingly, the paint has even held up well...no peeling or chipping. It can be a [censored] shoot though and hard to know who's reputable and who's not.
 
If you are considering buying a salvage you really need to find out what caused it to be totalled out in the first place. If it was just expensive body/paint work and it was repaired properly then it might be fine. If it was in a very bad accident or had flood damage or something then I would stay away no matter how good it may seem.

Some states don't allow you to register a salvage title car unless you jump through a bunch of hoops to get the title marked "clean." I assume this has been already done if required? Dumb questions, I know, but you want to make sure. Also, you really need to be careful about insurance with salvage cars. Some insurance companies won't insure them, and the ones that do pretty much take a flat percentage off the book value. So even if you get the car for a good price you may still end up taking a loss on it if it gets in a wreck.

I would not consider a salvage car unless I saw good documentation of what happened to it, and it better come at a very very good price. Actually, I personally wouldn't buy one at all.
 
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One of the best cars weve ever owned was salvaged and rebuilt - at about 65K miles - but we took the total loss and walked away. <y wife was rear ended by a box truck and our car was crushed (almost) up to the rear seatback. If they did a good job in the body shop i'm sure the second owner is loving the car. IIRC, The car was a 96 subaru Impreza wagon 5MT - green with tan interior. With no reliable provenance and at least 20-40% below wholesale, Id walk away from a salvage. Never take a flood.
 
Buy one and never plan on selling it.Take it to the crusher yourself.Nobody will want it unless you give it away.I know one guy that bought a "salesman's" Taurus with a salvage title,the whole rear end had been slammed and repaired with jacks and bondo.The trunk filled with water and the bondo started popping off.The thing needed a Y pipe converter for $1400 and that was the end of that car....
 
if you buy one, just know you will have a very difficult time reselling it, not to mention huge depreiation. i would also expect a hassle from a car insurance company but i think they would still insure it. i would only consider a salvage vehicle is it was in the sub $2k range, or needed a parts car.
 
In March, I purchased a 97 Accord wagon with a rebuilt title. When I found out about the title situation, my first inclination was to walk away. Something about the car -- and its low price -- intrigued me and I ended up buying it. I've only had it for 4 months now, but so far it has run like a champ. Obviously we'll see what happens in the long run but for now, I am glad I bought it.

I would definitely not automatically rule out a car with a rebuilt title, but I would take extra care before you take the plunge. An insurance company will "total" a car with a moderate amount of exterior body damage while the engine and drivetrain are still solid.

Things I would advise for someone considering a rebuilt car:

- get a car history -- CarFax or the like -- to find out as much info as you can on the car and the circumstances which led to the salvage/rebuilt title.

- definitely get a mechanic to evaluate the car before you purchase it.

- find out the process involved in your state to turn a salvage vehicle to a rebuilt one. My state (Georgia) requires an inspection before a title can be changed. Knowing what has/hasn't been inspected may give you peace of mind.

- realize that the resale value of this car will be impacted if you try to sell it later.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for all the help guys! I have been looking for a different car for about a year now and nothing seems to catch my eye. I don tend to keep my cars a long time so keep a salvage title shouldn't be a problem.
 
A good move is to have an experienced, trusted body shop check over what has been repaired on it. I owned an Escort years ago that had been salvaged due to a head on collision, with the whole front end replaced, and it was a decent car-but I kept it forever until it wasn't worth much-with Carfax and similar these days, it would be nearly impossible to get anything on trade or resale on a salvage.
 
If an insurance company totals a car, it doesn't necessarily mean it's "unfixable," it simply means it's cheaper for the insurance company to total it than to fix it. A brand new car with $10k worth of damage would almost definitely get fixed and be back on the road with a clear title. If that same car got the same amount of damage when it's already 12 years old, it would get totaled.

Salvage vehicles that have/had perfectly fixable damage but simply were not "cost effective" to fix can be a good buy, you just need to be sure it was fixed properly. Flood or fire damaged vehicles and/or vehicles that weren't fixed properly should be avoided.
 
It's kinda a tossup here.

Have a friend who picked up a 2004 Cavalier pretty cheap for a pretty good price (it only had 38k on it) Guy had the carfax, pictures before and after, and even a list of parts that were replaced. Cav has no issues at all in the 8 months she has owned it. Car never had frame damage, a good thing...

I've also looked a a few local lots here, and be horrified as well. Looked at a Jeep Liberty which looked good from the top, but when I looked under the jeep, you could see the bad welds. I did not want to picture what would happen if it got rear ended again..

Like others have said, the more you know about the car the better, or walk away....
 
It really is a tossup.

I know a little about the issue because my Father-in-law owns a body shop and used to buy and rebuild cars with dinged titles. I looked at many of the cars that he had coming in (he was very selective) and they weren't hurt bad at all. What they had in common was that the air bags were blown. On many less expensive cars, that is reason enough to total them ( He told me once on a car he was rebuilding that his cost on the bags was $3100.)

I saw the quality of the work that he did and it was excellent. The cars that I saw was as good as new. He would then ask loan value when done. He sold many cars to family, friends and the public this way and he was always honest and had pictures of the entire rebuild process. He got out of it because of the general bad reputation of salvage titles, and since the advent of car fax, they became harder to sell.

I was tempted a couple of times to bite on some of his cars (and in several cases, my in-laws are still PO'd that I didn't) but my big issue was with the resale and being able to unload them at time of trade. If one knows the person who is doing the rebuilding and they can buy them right, they may be a good buy.

He now only buys and rebuilds clean title cars. He just finished a 2012 Nissan Altima. Looks inside and out like it should be on a showroom floor.
 
The good: it is cheap.

The bad:

If you lose it again it will be paid a much lower price than blue book or nada, not a big deal if it is a lower price to begin with. The insurance co may also decide to total your car much easier in an accident because the cost is lower than repair.

There may be a potential bad repair. Walk away if it is a flood total or serious accident total. It could be a good deal if it is a stolen recovery or hail damage.
 
The risk isn't worth the savings, especially considering that if it turns out to be junk you'll never be able to get rid of it.
 
Lots of good advice here. BUT, here's another problem. Car dealers will take a car with a salvage title and re-register it in a state that doesn't mark titles as salvage, rebuilt, etc. They pass it off as a first quality car. So, do your homework on any car, no matter how good it looks or what the title says.
 
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