Originally Posted by SlavaB
Originally Posted by eljefino
So some flipper got his hands on that camry, put minimum effort into rebuilding it, and wants top dollar from you.
I guess you know "the story". Every car has one, the devil you know is better than the one you don't...
As I said, I'm not looking into buying a rebuilt car. I just wanted to find out if it's really possible to have a rebuilt title because of a repaired door. I'm a curious person
I wouldn't buy a car with a salvage title, but if it was your own car, it'd probably be ok to get a salvage title. My car ages ago was rear ended by a drunk driver and the bumper was damaged, had high mileage so the car wasn't worth much to the insurance company after they figured out the cost to replace and repaint the back bumper, also did a little damage to the fender also. Had someone who knew a body guy who did the work on the side and he did a great job and I ended up netting 1k after the insurance payout. Got the car reinspected by the state and they issued a rebuilt title. Drove it for a few more years before the head gasket blew.
One problem with rebuilt titles is that they're not cheap enough. People say that maybe they're worth it at 40% off, but most of the time people just want to knock of 10-20% off market value and that's not enough for the risk you're taking in regards to whether it was fixed right or not. At least when it's your own car, you know what the body shop found and can decided if you can get it fixed for less than what the insurance company thinks. Also with salvage cars, the manufacturer doesn't have to honor any warranty anymore. Usually with a used car, that could be a 15/150k Pzev warranty or federal emissions 8/80k or maybe they have some extended warranty on a particular problem with the car. In my case, I know I have an extended 15 year warranty on the fuel tank which is a 3-4k fix at the dealer. Salvage means they don't have to honor any of that although they still have to do any recalls.