Salvage Titles

[chrisj]

Before I bought my Yaris, I was look, look, looking all around eBay at different cars. I almost (almost) bought a Honda Fit that had a salvage title.

I called the court house here and asked them what the heck that meant. They just told me that meant it had been wrecked/repaired and would have a salvage title until it died and would never be a clear title.

I didn't think there was a big problem with the salvage title, especially if I planned on keeping the car anyway. That deal never went through for other reasons, but of course I am glad things happened the way they did.

Any thoughts on the salvage title thing? You can get some ridiculous prices on vehicles with that type of title, I have found.

[RedRide]

Basically it means that the vehicle had been totaled at one point for any reason including flood damage etc.
Pesonally, I would run swiftly away from a salvage title vehicle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_title

[chrisj]

^ Ouch! So even if the body looks good, there could be a bent frame or anything that's hiding under that new paint job... :/

[tomato]

Yeah, I would run, too.

[chrisj]

It's scary how close I was to getting that Fit. The good man above watches over idiots like me I guess. :)

[wooverstone8]

Fifth Gear had a segment on this topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjxM9chAe1k

[coheed]

Eh... Ive owned 2 salave title cars. My 88 toyo pickup and a 73 vw. Vw was a peice o' crap but the truck was the strongest running vehicle Ive owned thus far. Had it over 2 years never broke down and went over and through any thing I pointed it at. Heck I wrecked it myself 3 times and it never quit. Blew 2 head gaskets and only burnt 1 valve putting more then 8k miles on the blown hg. Salvaged cars are usually no where near as bad as people think they would be. Dont discredit those cars. I say atleast take a look at them first and check for true damage. If everything seems ok, it usually is.

Edit: forgot to say, just because its a salvage title doesnt mean it was totaled. just means it had damage done to it and was repaired

[kimona]

In some States, when damage exceeds 50% of current market value, the car is deemed salvage. Considering the high cost of repairs these days, it doesn't take too much to issue a car a salvage title.

[yarisitis]

I bought my salvaged 2008 Yaris in 2009. I had been in the market for a used Yaris for a couple of months and everything I found had either way too many miles or was too expensive for me and I just couldn't bring myself to buy new and spend around $14,000 give or take.

I had been following an Ebay seller that sells salvaged cars with really high positive feedback and one day I saw that he put up an auction for a salvaged 2008 Yaris liftback with 5,000 miles. It was an automatic with the power package, I was intrigued to tell you the least. At the time, I happened to be in northern California with my girlfriend and the location of the seller and the car was in Sacramento, 40 miles away from where I was so I thought to myself it was meant to be.

So I did all my research, I read reviews of the seller dating years back and they were all great so I felt some confidence that this seller was legitimate. I ordered the CarFax to get the details on everything and saw that the car was purchased in early 2008 by its first owner and was crashed in January of 2009 and declared a total loss. The owner had only put 4,000 and some miles on it, so this was practically a brand new car, well up until it was crashed lol.

I decided to see the car in person. The person who showed it to me was the mechanic who fixed it and the seller was a small dealership who apparently also bought salvaged cars from insurance companies and had them repaired by the mechanic's shop. Since the Yaris was like new when it was crashed, it was in great condition and had 5,000 miles by the time I saw it. The mechanic explained to me how it was crashed and what was replaced and how it was fixed. I looked in the engine bay and under the car and saw nothing alarming. I took it out for a drive and checked everything I needed to check. The car drove straight when I took my hands off the wheel, it didn't jump when I changed the gears, I didn't hear any strange noises, the doors closed smoothly when just letting them go instead of closing them shut, checked the oil and transmission fluid and smelled them because I'm the paranoid type lol. I was very thorough, I saw no indications of any problems. What I didn't do was take it to a mechanic to have it looked at, which should always be done no matter what, especially when buying a salvaged car. However I was reassured that these people knew what they were doing and did good work based on all of the great reviews on their sales of salvaged cars on Ebay.

I decided I wanted the car and instead of risking losing it to someone else on Ebay I offered to buy it outside of Ebay, which you shouldn't really do, but I knew I wanted it. They were asking for $8,000 and I offered $7,000 and we met at $7,300 which was a really good deal to me since it was practically new with 5,000 miles on it. In my eyes I was buying a new car for half the price and I knew I was going to keep it. I wasn't going to try and sell it a few years later and get another better car. I was keeping this car forever.

I bought it in mid 2009 and I'm at 18,000 miles right now and the car so far has been great. I did have an issue with the cooling fan not working which I realized a few weeks after I bought it, turned out to be a blown fuse which I replaced and it's been working fine ever since. Other than that I've had no issues with my Yaris at all. I get great MPG, 42 MPG on average, and it also came with the AFE intake mod when I bought it which was a plus. I like to consider myself one of the success stories and hopefully it stays that way *knocks on wood.*


Buying a salvaged car is risky business and you should probably shy away from it, but when you do your research and find the right one, it can be a really great deal.

[severous01]

they're really hard to insure. they may come with special inspections before you can insure them...like a frame-out inspection or the insurance company may require you to send it to a body shop to make sure noone cut the frame and welded it back together...like putting a car hit in front mixed with a car hit in rear to make one solid car...

any way, unless you're partin it out... i'd stay away.

[chrisj]

^ Never even entered my mind about insurance, although I would have been getting only liability and maybe comprehensive. Still...

[yarisitis]

I'm insured by AAA under my parent's policy. My car doesn't have full coverage but I have gotten a quote for it, ridiculously high since I'm only 23 and haven't been driving too long.

Anyway, they told me in order to get full coverage on it it needs to be inspected by them first. In California, salvaged cars are required to be inspected by the California High Patrol in order to be deemed safe before being registered with the DMV. My car obviously passed the inspection so I'm pretty sure it would pass inspection by the insurance company for full coverage.

[chrisj]

I wonder how many states have inspections? I know many do, but Kentucky sure doesn't. Also, you can go to your local grocer and buy a gun and you don't have to register it! Yeehaw! LOL!

[yarisitis]

Hahaha, see. It all depends on the insurance company and the state regulations. But like I said before, if you make sure you buy the right car from the right people, you shouldn't have much trouble getting it insured.

[chrisj]

Yeah, just about everything is fast and loose here in Kintukky, but I think insurance rates in our area are higher. Probably because of drugs and moonshine. Also, people driving without shoes (more wrecks). LOL!

[.Kevin.]

New , used, rebuild, salvage is my rankings from best to worst

[chrisj]

One big sticking point to me getting that salvage vehicle (that I didn't get) was that to get the car titled in Kentucky I had to have all original receipts from labor and parts showing everything done to the car. The dude could not produce it. Well, actually, when I told him I needed receipts, the asshole deleted my bid. Obviously he didn't have them, so that just proved it was probably shady anyway.

I guess they want receipts because of chop shops, stolen cars, etc.

[coheed]

Originally Posted by chrisj

I wonder how many states have inspections? I know many do, but Kentucky sure doesn't. Also, you can go to your local grocer and buy a gun and you don't have to register it! Yeehaw! LOL!

Damn, seriously? We have to have a seperate permit for ammo alone. And its NC wtf?!?!