EDIT: this car I originally bought in late 2017 is now again for sale in early 2019
If you have been following along, I have recently been buying some lightly damaged cars out of the local Salvage Auction. These have all been car that have been "financially totaled" meaning that the insurance company would rather just pay off the customer than fix the car.
Samples:
Montero and Avalon which were both "totals" and I put each back on the road with zero dollars spent. I kept both these cars putting the Avalon into the business and the Montero as a personal car.
2 Subaru Legacy. One needed nothing to be approved and just a few dollars in general maint. The other, dark green, needed a headlight. Both of these Subarus were sold to GRM'ers at super bargains.
The most recent acquisition is a 2007 Ford Focus ZX5. Moderately equipped with auto trans, power windows and locks with clicker. Cruise control and AC. Height adjustable cloth seat. 128k miles.
State Farm said the car was worth $3,774 before the accident. The accident is that the car was rear ended. This seems to have left a plastic rear bumper that is scratched. Also in the accident the rear-most muffler hanger was broken. In the auction pictures you can see that the previous owner had wired the tailpipe up to keep it in place. Should be noted that everything from the cat back is non-factory mufflers but this is a good sign or in other words, the muffler system does not have 128k miles on it. I have since replaced the rear muffler hanger. The bumper is scratched and will remain scratched.
The insurance company estimated that a new bumper with paint matched exterior and replaced structural bar underneath, along with muffler work was needed. Add to this the probability of price over runs and rental car for the owner while it is in the shop and State Farm was just happier to pay the customer the $3,774 rather than fix it.
Here is what I have in the car:
- $803 total purchase price from auction
- $48 for tow dolly rental
- $18.50 for temp tag
- $53.50 State inspection
- $46 for oil change and muffler fab
- $18 for new hatch support struts (just maint, not accident damage)
- $100 more in sales tax and title fees since I am not a dealer
$1087 in the whole car.
If I put the car up on CL I'll ask $2,500 with $2k being my bottom number.
Research:
The car has what appear to be recent floor mats from Auto Nation Ford in Westlake, OH. The oil change sticker was still within the mile range and was also from this dealership. The title gives me both State Farm who I bought it from but also the previous owner's name. This was a sort of unique name from North Ridgeville, OH and FB takes me to...
I then called Auto Nation Ford, asked for service dept and then explained I just bought a car that I know was serviced there and if I gave them the VIN could they tell me the services performed.
Came into the dealership in Aug of 2016 with 121k miles. At that time they put on:
- 4 tires (Nice Goodyears with build dates of 11th week of '16 {1116})
- New battery which I can clearly see the sticker of 8-16
- New right top engine mount which are known to be prone to failure on these and this one has a sticker on it that says Genuine Ford Replacement Part
- New Front pads and rotors
Car was sold in Sept of 2016 to this previous owner with 121k miles. Since the sale, it had an oil change back at the dealership. The auction website pictures are date stamped 11-14-17 and these pictures are usually taken right when the car arrives. Before arriving at auction the car was likely still being driven by the PO while estimates were done and payout checks were exchanged, etc. That was probably a couple of weeks so my guess is that the accident happened in late Oct '17.
Bought in Sept '16 and hit in Oct '17 or 13 months later. In this 13 months the recent highschool grad who is attending Community College put a whopping 7k miles on the car. I'll bet this nice suburban family paid about $5k-$7k to put their princess in a safe car. I'll also bet the dealership gave oil change coupons in an attempt to keep the customer coming back and to keep the ability to gain more dollars out of them for future work. Now the car gets some scratches and I'll bet the $3,774 they got paid was just enough (or not enough) to pay off the remainder of their outstanding loan.
New tires, new brakes, new battery, more recent muffler and generally neat and clean car (with a scratched bumper.) What I like most about the "salvage" cars is that these are not cars like you find on CL. On CL a cheap car is usually someone trying to unload a car with a ton of problems. These "salvage" cars have an easily defined problem that took them off the road (in this cas some rear bumper damage) but they seem to be regular, well running cars otherwise. I am also seeking out cars that seem to have been tended to or cared for.
Here's a photo dump with lots attention given to the rear bumper where you will notice that it is cosmetic only and only slightly cosmetic at that.
Screenshots from auction website:
From when I brought the car home. Notice muffler is "wired-up". Scratches seems extreme in this pic but some of that is just dirt.
Current muffler with hanger replaced. Scratches remain but now clean. The bumper is sort of 3-ribbed. The top rib has no scratches. The middle rib most notably has two vertical scratches. The 3rd rib which curves to really be somewhat under the car has the most scratches. My guess is that the recently replaced front pads and rotors did a good job of stopping quickly but as the nose dove down and the rear end lifted up, the car from behind didn't have as good of brakes and slid right under the Focus giving those scratches to that lowest rib of the bumper which was the elevated pretty high.
Battery sticker of 8-16
Top engine mount with fresh Ford Sticker.
According to this tripometer, I had driven the car 69 miles so far as of yesterday. The car totally drives exactly like a well maintained Ford Focus. Everything works as should. No lights, no shakes, no shutters.
Don't count on PM to work. I can be reached directly at jwelsh02...yahoo...
