Damage on Title?
 

Looking at a car and the dealer ran the carfax and showed me. It had 'damage reported' or something like that on the title. What does that generally mean? I'm new to buying in the USA so I don't really follow all the differences. I'm using finance and it stipulates 'must be clean title'. The car isn't a rebuilt or salvage title...but what does 'damage' mean, and can I find out more about what that was? More importantly, is that the sort of thing that is going to make it hard to sell again?

Does it have damage on the title or damage on Carfax? big difference

Yes it could and likely would affect re-sale as it minimally is a speed bump to get over and maximally its an indication that the car could have had something serious happen to it and perhaps it wasn’t repaired properly

It was on the carfax. I take it that is different from the title? Where does Carfax get the damage report from? Is that from an insurance company?

Yes that’s totally different from the state title. Carfax is a private company. They get the majority of their info from police and highway accident reports beyond that they get a small amount here and there from unverified sources(aka no one really knows exactly who provided the info and no one admits to it)likely the insurance companies or a database connected to the insurance companies

where is the car from and where is it now? it's about time for the flooded cars of the Houston area hurricane earlier this year to start making it to market. saw a story about the sheer number of cars flooded, the madness post storm many cars are rehabbed without getting a tainted title.

Yeah because the insurance companies are too lazy to process all of the paperwork and I imagine this hurried “mistake” coincidentally yields them a lot more money per vehicle from the auction houses

The car was actually from Texas and for sale in Washington, which is why I was concerned. I only briefly saw the carfax in the dealer and it didn't give me the time to work out the dates.

Anyway the decision is academic now, someone else bought the car. Thanks for the input anyway.

winning!

^^^ Ha! I breifly eyeballed a sweet GT3 in the flood auctions thinking "My dads a T.V. repair technition. I can fix it!"

certain opportunities might be advantageous. a car such as a mid 2000 GT3 with 100k or so mileage that was only "slightly" flooded might be a decent proposition. if the motor was not completely submerged the interior could be collateral damage along with low hanging wiring harnesses and other below the flood line mounted components. the right, "lightly" flooded car could be a could be a good buy for the right project manager. there are plenty of wrecked mid 2000's GT3 so harnesses and other moisture sensitive bits might be had.

if the dash & motor were under water all bets are off.

Be careful with 'lightly flooded' cars. Its not uncommon for someone to buy a flood car from an insurance auction, clean the car up some and then create a simulated flood line on the body making it look like the water went much lower than it actually did. Same goes for accident damage.

Best to purchase only from the insurance companies directly when using auction houses like co-part etc.

David

Even then it can be risky, fresh water or salt water, you don't know?
I know people with flood cars that spend years chasing electric problems, corrosion everywhere. The only way I would buy a flood car is if I planned to race it, then you're stripping out a lot of the bad stuff like power windows, heat, AC. If not you may have a beautiful car that is nothing but headaches.

---Adam