Anyone buy or have a Salvage Title car?

[tvguy]

What motivated you to buy it or keep it?
I was always told to avoid them because of safety concerns, yet I know some people who prefer to buy salvage cars. All them, however work in the auto sales or repair industry, so they sure have access to knowledge that I don't.

 

[crisi]

I have a friend who buys them. He buys them from a reputable lot where they only deal in salvage titles - and are dependent on word of mouth and repeat business. They primarily have hail or flood damaged cars - flood damage can leave flaky electricals and hail is cosmetic. But they are mechanics, so they work them over, fix electrical systems, etc.

My friend is a package delivery driver. He drives every day all day. He drives these cars into the dirt - and doesn't make a ton of money. They've been perfect. They last two or three years - he never needs to resell them because by the time he's done with them, they are ready to be crushed (though the last one went to his sixteen year old daughter)

 

[wenrob]

Any more insurance companies will total a vehicle if the repairs are over a certain amount, let you "buy" them back for the price of a salvage tile and then give you a check for the balance of what the vehicle was worth. So a salvage title doesn't necessarily mean major damage was done.

Two years ago, DH had a bunch of cardboard boxes in the back of his truck for recycle. He stopped for gas and then got on the freeway to head to work. A couple miles down the road he looks in his mirror for a lane change and his truck bed was on fire! It blew his back window out, melted the liner and seared the paint on the outside. The damage was cosmetic only. They totaled the truck. Since it had long been paid for, was in otherwise good condition we opted to buy the salvage title, spent $500 to replace the window and put the rest in the bank. While I was depositing the check there was another woman there depositing her check, they had totaled her vehicle for some rear end damage.

 

[Thing 1]

My parents bought DS a salvage title Honda Accord when he turned 16. It has been the best car ever. It was bought from a dealer we trusted that only deals with salvage title Honda cars. It served him through high school, collage and he is still driving it as he finishes his last year of grad school. He will be buying a new car once he gets his first REAL job but that first car was great!

 

[bjscheel]

DD17's pickup has a salvage title. DH had been shying away from the Craigslist ads that said salvage title, but this one had such low miles, it was worth looking into for the price. It doesn't look damaged. DH and the guy talked and he decided in this instance it was fine. He's fairly knowledgeable about that stuff, though, whereas I wouldn't know what is okay and what is not.

 

[MomToOne]

One thing to check is whether or not your insurance company will cover a salvage title, or if they limit their coverage in any way. A quick call to your agent should resolve that question.

It can also be challenging to register a salvaged vehicle in some states - extra inspections and/or paperwork may be required by the DMV, etc. If you go forward with looking at salvaged cars, I would suggest you only look at ones that have already been successfully registered in your state. Or at least familiarize yourself with your state's requirements so you know what you are getting yourself in for.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

One thing to check is whether or not your insurance company will cover a salvage title, or if they limit their coverage in any way. A quick call to your agent should resolve that question.

This. We had to switch from esurance to GEICO because esurance would not cover a salvage title car.

We bought a salvage title 1996 Honda Accord for our daughter in 2014, put a small amount of money into it (brakes, radiator, belts, etc), and it's still going strong. It's been the perfect first car for her and we don't have to worry about all the dings and scratches she's accumulated on it over time.

 

[wenrob]

One thing to check is whether or not your insurance company will cover a salvage title, or if they limit their coverage in any way. A quick call to your agent should resolve that question.

It can also be challenging to register a salvaged vehicle in some states - extra inspections and/or paperwork may be required by the DMV, etc. If you go forward with looking at salvaged cars, I would suggest you only look at ones that have already been successfully registered in your state. Or at least familiarize yourself with your state's requirements so you know what you are getting yourself in for.

Good advice.

The first thing we did was make sure we'd still be covered before we got the salvage title. When DH took it to the DMV to be inspected they then reissued the title as "rebuilt."

 

[tvguy]

This. We had to switch from esurance to GEICO because esurance would not cover a salvage title car.

We bought a salvage title 1996 Honda Accord for our daughter in 2014, put a small amount of money into it (brakes, radiator, belts, etc), and it's still going strong. It's been the perfect first car for her and we don't have to worry about all the dings and scratches she's accumulated on it over time.

Usually the only limitation insurance companies put on salvage title cars is you can't get collision coverage, but you wouldn't want collision coverage on a 1996 model year car anyway. High blue book, no matter how many repairs you put in the Honda, is only $1,056, and of course insurance companies use Actual Cash Value, which is lower..

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Usually the only limitation insurance companies put on salvage title cars is you can't get collision coverage, but you wouldn't want collision coverage on a 1996 model year car anyway. High blue book, no matter how many repairs you put in the Honda, is only $1,056, and of course insurance companies use Actual Cash Value, which is lower..

We only wanted liability coverage so I was surprised when esurance wouldn't cover it, but we switched to GEICO and have been with them ever since. Definitely no collision coverage on the car. It's ugly as all heck, but still runs like a champ.

 

[MomToOne]

Usually the only limitation insurance companies put on salvage title cars is you can't get collision coverage, but you wouldn't want collision coverage on a 1996 model year car anyway. High blue book, no matter how many repairs you put in the Honda, is only $1,056, and of course insurance companies use Actual Cash Value, which is lower..

Some insurers don't cover them at all. Some cover them only in some states. Some cover them in all states, but limit the coverage to liability (and may charge higher rates). In CA, whether or not a company will cover them can even come down to whether you qualify for a good driver discount or not (don't ask me why). So anyone considering buying a salvage really needs to check with their agent, who will be familiar with their specific situation and insurance company requirements.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Coming from having worked in the insurance industry for 4 1/2 years but surrounded by it my entire life as parents work in insurance industry....the company I worked for would insure and for full coverage Salvage titles provided 1) It was properly rebuilt and recertified with the state 2) the VIN cleared the system.

The VIN was usually the problem. Some states will assign a completely different VIN for a car that has been Salvaged. If the system couldn't pull up the vehicle with the VIN it was unable to be insured. That rule was something that had gotten more enforced as the years went on.

From my experience due to rising labor costs, rising parts costs and availability of those parts more cars are totalled out and not necessarily due to mechanical issues. Hail damage, as others have mentioned, doesn't impact the mechanical function of the car and I can't really see how it could make the car any less stable but 1 good hail storm and your car is totalled out because the cost to fix all those dings becomes too expensive in comparison to the value of the car.

Also as others have mentioned an insurance company (the one I worked for did) can offer to let you keep the car but they would give you the ACV (actual cash value) for it..though there was a constant debate on whether the company would/should automatically remove full coverage off the vehicle if the customer chose to keep rather than sell the car.

Personally I would require a CARFAX report from the car I was interested in buying if it was salvaged (though that is a good thing to get anyways regardless of salvage or not) and would want to know exactly what caused it to become salvaged.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

Not exactly, but DD did get in an accident with her 2001 Honda Civic, which we only had liability on. Insurance wasn't going to cover it anyway, but they do know about it because there is a claim due to another car being involved. We had it towed to a shop who said they could fix it for under $2k, which was about our MAX that we felt the car was still worth. We paid out of pocket to fix it, and at least were able to maintain the same insurance coverage. It's been almost 2 years, and that car is still running great, so it was a good decision. Definitely cheaper than having to buy her something else.

I'm assuming since we didn't receive any money from the insurance, we don't have a salvage title? But if we had full coverage, it would have been a salvage title? I suppose I could try to look it up, but I'm not sure it matters. We will never sell it anyway.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

We have bought a few of them. We know a guy who buys BMW's that are salvage titles. He fixes them up and we've bought them. We go to him if there are issues and usually there aren't. We get a reliable car at a low price and it works out perfect. My son just rolled over 300,000 miles on a 99 Bmw from him. We only put PL/PD on the cars, not full coverage, since they are older.

 

[threeboysmom]

I bought a beautiful BMW with a salvage title 4 years ago at a super low price (less than $5k). All it needed was a $50 part and it's been running great ever since. Best investment ever.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Not exactly, but DD did get in an accident with her 2001 Honda Civic, which we only had liability on. Insurance wasn't going to cover it anyway, but they do know about it because there is a claim due to another car being involved. We had it towed to a shop who said they could fix it for under $2k, which was about our MAX that we felt the car was still worth. We paid out of pocket to fix it, and at least were able to maintain the same insurance coverage. It's been almost 2 years, and that car is still running great, so it was a good decision. Definitely cheaper than having to buy her something else.

I'm assuming since we didn't receive any money from the insurance, we don't have a salvage title? But if we had full coverage, it would have been a salvage title? I suppose I could try to look it up, but I'm not sure it matters. We will never sell it anyway.

In your exact situation your insurance company wouldn't consider it a Salvage title at least from an insurance standpoint because your insurance company wasn't covering the car as you only had liability coverage.

When companies look at totalling out a car they look for things like the value of the vehicle in comparison to what it will cost to fix it which doesn't always agree with what the insured thinks/feels their car is worth. For this purpose you couldn't just look at the Kelly Blue Book value and that's it. Insurance companies will consider the approved mechanic shops they want to go through and their labor costs as well as parts cost and even availability of those parts through the vendors they use.

 

[Stephanator]

I have a 99 Dodge Ram that has a salvage title I purchased from a friend-of-a-friend in 2008 and it's still running great! It was in a pretty minor accident, but seeing as truck parts are expensive, the insurance company "totaled" it. I had my dad (who is a pretty good everyday mechanic) check it out before purchasing and he gave it his seal of approval. There's good advice here to check with your insurance company to see that they will cover it. Or do some shopping online with your vehicle's VIN and see what sort of coverage is available with other insurance companies.

 

[tvguy]

I'm assuming since we didn't receive any money from the insurance, we don't have a salvage title? .

This is why an inspection by a mechanic you trust is so important even if a car has a clean CARFAX report. If an incident with a car is never reported to the sources CARFAX, they won't know it happened.

 

[tinatark]

I will enter the VIN for a google search - salvage cars are often sold via online auctions. You would be shocked to see the "before" pic of that car that was "salvaged due to minor damage" (as most ads state!).

A salvage title is as good as the person/company who repaired it.

 

[danygirl]

we had our truck stolen and it was totalled for cosmetic body damage. IN order to put it back on the road with a salvage title we had to take it for a full inspection