Would you buy a car with a salvage title?

[Rot 911]

My daughter needs a new car. Unfortunately, she doesn’t take very good care of whatever car she has. The one she has now is on its last legs. I am seeing more and more cars with salvage titles. They all look pretty good in the pictures, but if I get one for her, she lives 350 miles from us and I won’t be there to fix any problems. It would have to go to a garage. I would only get liability insurance on the car. I’m mostly looking at Hondas and Toyotas as I figured that at least the engine should be OK. I’m trying to keep the price down around $10,000.What says the group?

[Scott Douglas]

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/ctd/d/westminster-2010-honda-accord-lx-low/7893074843.html

Clean the driver's arm rest and headlights and this looks pretty nice IMO.

Personally I stay away from salvage titles even though our CR-V may have one now since it got hit about 9 months after we bought it new. That was back in 2014 though and the car has been flawless since then.

I don't know what the market is like back there in Lincoln NE, but Honda's are pretty prevalent out here in CA.

[Tishabet]

Hassle to resell, finance, insure. For a "it just has to work" daily driver I would probably take a car with some giant dents and peeling clear coat before I took a nicer looking branded title car, all other factors being equal.

$10k buys a lot of car, around here you can buy a five or six year old Subaru Impreza with under 100k on the odometer for $8-9k.

[Scott Douglas]

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/d/brea-2007-toyota-camry-124k-miles/7893008253.html

You could fly out and drive it back at that price.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

with a $10K budget I don't see why you would consider a salvage title car. $10K buys a pretty nice Honda Civic.

[Scott Douglas]

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/d/anaheim-2014-honda-accord-clean-title/7892957519.html

Still under budget.

[Scott Douglas]

Or if you prefer Toyota....

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/d/costa-mesa-2010-toyota-camry-le/7892850232.html

[911 Rod]

I bought a BMW E36 M3 with a salvage title. Shop used the cheapest parts available and I had lots of problems with it. First one was the headlights were pointed down because the cheap headlight brackets had already broken. Had a really hard time selling it and lost lots of money.

Don't do it.

[greglepore]

Depends. Got a very nice A8L cheap as it was salvage. But the reason was a hydrolock that bent one rod. Car was great.
Wreck cars? No. Flood? Want to see waterline.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/d/anaheim-2014-honda-accord-clean-title/7892957519.html

Still under budget.

Both key fobs... If the current owner had it for some time and they're not a flipper, that would be a hard one to pass up.

As for the OP's question. It would depend. I would want to see what the car looked like before. Flood on a newer car would have to be steeply discounted... All of the different modules are coded to the car and if one fails, IMMO hits.

[rockfan4]

Yes.

I just bought my second salvage title car. The key is, it wasn't new, it was 13 years old when it was totaled. That brought the value of the car way down, and minimal damage totaled it. Here's the before and after of the damage. As you can see, the only non bolt on part that was damaged was a little bit around the edge of the trunk lid, and that's all hidden when the trunk is closed, so you can't tell it was hit. The guy who bought it probably payed less than $3000 for the car even after all the Copart fees, and I bought it for $5000.

FWIW, Copart is starting to have a lot more repos and hail damaged cars that are going for dirt cheap. Low to no damage.




Apparently it is big business to buy American salvage title cars and ship them to eastern Europe. With this comes lots of websites who will copy the Copart or IAA photos and leave them online long after the auction is over. It wasn't hard to find the pre-repair photos of my car just by googling the vin, or going to a site like en.bidfax.info and entering the vin there. My car went through a Copart auction over a year ago and the photos are still online. It's an easy way to look up the car before repair if the seller won't share the photos with you.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

with a $10K budget I don't see why you would consider a salvage title car. $10K buys a pretty nice Honda Civic.

This, all day.

$10k is plenty to buy a nice car.

Neighbor has 400k+ miles now on his '04 Civic.

[Scott Douglas]

With a lot of the 'kids' I've come into contact with during my lifetime, the ones who have some 'sweat equity' involved in the purchase of their cars usually take care of them better than the ones that don't.

I agree with Greg on knowing the reason(s) for the salvage title.

[Steve Carlton]

I'd say get a non-salvage Toyota (first), Honda (second). Lots of risks with salvage and you're not there to deal with it. Harder to sell them later and you get less, of course. What I see you accomplishing with a salvaged car is getting something that looks like more than it's worth, but from what you're saying, your daughter will trash it, anyway.

[Alan A]

forget about selling it - can you (or she) insure it without donating a kidney?

up here it's getting harder and harder to insure older (non classic) cars, let alone salvage ones.

[onewhippedpuppy]

The “you can’t insure them” is largely a myth. I had a salvaged Silverado and didn’t even get asked about it having a salvage title. Actually made a claim when another driver hit me, no issues there either.

I have and would consider salvage title if I could see the before and know how it was fixed. For my truck it was a cheap old truck and I bought it from the mechanic that fixed it. In this case it was a rear end hit with a bend frame, he was able to pull the frame straight and replaced the bed with a matching used one. Had alignment results that showed it was good enough, it was a great truck.

[varmint]

It takes very little total a modern vehicle. I’ve rebuilt a few salvage title bikes and had good luck. As long as it hasn’t been underwater I’d take a chance.

[Scott Douglas]

That Toyota that I linked to is the kind of car I'd be willing to buy if I needed 'cheap' transportation.
I have neighbors with cars like it that have a lot more miles on them. They keep running no matter what they do to them.

[WMichelsen]

I have purchase 2 salvage cars: 2001 4Runner, 2009 Civic. Both have worked out excellently.

I think there are a couple key points:
1. Pics and/or knowledge of salvage reason. Where/how extensive was the damage? Was it repaired well? Is that OK for your situation.
2. Never accept water or fire damage. Except in -very- rare instances. Refer to #1

[Zeke]

I drove a branded title truck that I had bought new, it got totalled well into its life, bought it back and repaired it. A couple of points to make, I knew the vehicle and knew the extent of the repairs and the quality of same. That's a game changer that won't occur often.

Secondly, I never had any problems with insurance but the ins co won't write collision. So if the value at the time is such that you can walk away from any at fault accident, you save that money in addition to the lower cost invested. There are pros an cons. With older vehicles that get totalled over a badly damaged door, I see some benefit.

I'd b leery of just any salvage title so this question boils down to a case by case decision.