Buying a repaired salvage vehicle

Insurance companies are irrational when they Total things.

Case in point-local yard had a 2006 Acura TL, 50,000 miles, cream puff...

Tree limb fell on it in a recent storm, busted out the back window, small dent in the roof and the decklid, that was it...a total loss.

Friend of mine, Greg, 2007 Saturn, book value 5600, got rear ended by a Honda...frame damage, trunk floor buckled, suspension damage, 8 or 9 grand in repairs, insurance company fixes the thing.

Friend owns a body shop, an insurance company is fixing a 1992 Camry with 5K in damage...stupid.

Same insurance company just totaled a 2002 Pontiac, probably $1500 in damage, 25,000 miles on the Pontiac...and it's a write off.

I'd want to know how the car I was buying was hit.

Klayfish wrote: And look it over real carefully. Insurance companies won't total an '07 Monte Carlo SS for just cosmetic damage. There was definitely unibody damage, and I'd bet it was significant. Not a problem if fixed right, but just be sure it was.

I don't know about all that. For the insurance company, it's strictly a financial matter. If the cost of repairs exceeds the value of the car, it's totaled. Stuff like airbags and front fascia gets expensive pretty quick.

My brother struck a deer with a Malibu a little while back. One headlight, small dent in fender, small dent in hood. Airbags put the cost of repair over the car's value and they totaled it.

Not saying the OP shouldn't look it over carefully, just saying the car doesn't need to be really messed up to be totaled.

Dunno about the titling/registration/etc issues, but it doesn't take much to total a car nowadays. I have seen plenty of 'totaled' cars which are perfectly repairable/driveable, in fact I drive one myself. It's just another symptom of our 'throwaway' society... if it gets a boo boo that means it's time for the latest/greatest bell n' whistlemobile so we can make the neighbors jealous...

1988RedT2 wrote:

Klayfish wrote: And look it over real carefully. Insurance companies won't total an '07 Monte Carlo SS for just cosmetic damage. There was definitely unibody damage, and I'd bet it was significant. Not a problem if fixed right, but just be sure it was.

I don't know about all that. For the insurance company, it's strictly a financial matter. If the cost of repairs exceeds the value of the car, it's totaled. Stuff like airbags and front fascia gets expensive pretty quick.

Looks like this thread was resurrected by a human powered water going vessel. It's almost a year old.

Anywhoodles, this is what I do for a living. There are exceptions to every rule of course, but as a general rule of thumb a newer car wouldn't get totalled for mostly cosmetic front end damage. Yes, airbags can be expensive and they definitely play a role. But usually a front end impact with little/no structural damage and only 2 airbag deployments is not going to total a car.

And yes, I've totalled cars at 30% of their cash value, and fixed cars at 100% of their cash value, but those are exceptions and typically driven by the desires of the customer.

Klayfish wrote: Looks like this thread was resurrected by a human powered water going vessel. It's almost a year old.

A year?! When you get as old as I am, a year is like a single flap of a hummingbird's wing. I would argue that any thread that was relevant a year ago, is still relevant today.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go put a fresh roll of thermal paper in my fax machine.

Insurance companies follow rules. That means a totaled car might be a waste, or it could be just fine.

A couple examples that I've had:

My wife had a Tercel. Normally when the value of the car drops to a certain point, I drop Collision and Comp and just do Liability so I'm not wasting money. This one I let go a bit too long. The car got some mild dents from a hail storm so I turned in a claim. Since the damage affected every panel and put a small crack in the windshield, they said that it was totaled. I had three choices: 1) let them take the car and write me a check for $3500, 2) cancel the claim, or 3) keep the car and they would write me a check for $3500 minus the salvage value... which was $500.

I chose #3. They wrote me a check for $3000, I re-titled it as salvage, and dropped the coverage to bare minimum. I could have sold it for $3000, so they basically bought my car but let me keep it. Years later when my wife hit a concrete wall at 60 mph, I tried to not laugh as I handed the title to the tow truck driver and pulled the Clarion out of the dash. (don't worry... the wife was perfectly fine)

I also bought an 03 Sonoma with a salvage title. It had been sideswiped on the driver's side. KBB for the truck was $8000-9000, but I bought it for $4300. The body shop that had grabbed it at the auction showed me photos, let me put it on my own frame machine to check... it was a genuine straight truck that just cost more than 85% of its value to fix. The body shop replaced the door, fender, and found a complete bed. It was a fantastic truck and I thought I got the deal of the century

...... until I tried to sell it. I only had it for a little over a year, then we decided to move. It was for sale for 5 months and I still only got $3900 for it. Probably 30 people came to look at it and (despite finding the truck to be perfect in every way) they walked because of the salvage title.

For that reason alone, I won't buy a salvage title vehicle again unless its a $500 beater.

I can inspect a salvage vehicle and determine that its great before I buy it. 93.2496% of the public doesn't have that ability and they therefore run away like it has herpes or lice.

I have bought one salvage/rebuilt vehicle and I was super careful about it. I made sure the owner had complete documentation and pictures of the damage and the rebuilding process, receipts, and had a body shop inspect it for me. It proved to be a great car!

I have had many friends who were not as careful and ended up with complete piles of E36 M3.

One thing I would NEVER berkeley with is a car with past flood damage. That can be a real pain in the ass!