Anybody ever buy a truck with a salvage title?

Groover wrote:
I have had a salvage vehicle for 8 years. We have driven it 80,000 miles and still haven't found any evidence of the damage that led to the salvage title. The only problem has been that financing was harder to get but the discount was substantial so we just paid cash. No regrets so far.

Bear in mind also, that a salvage (rebuilt title) vehicle could also be a theft recovery vehicle, hence no physical damage occurred.

I have had a salvage vehicle for 8 years. We have driven it 80,000 miles and still haven't found any evidence of the damage that led to the salvage title. The only problem has been that financing was harder to get but the discount was substantial so we just paid cash. No regrets so far.

Every state has it's own DMV statues, but one thing is universal among the states. The sellers think that a salvage/rebuilt titled vehicle is worth 90% of one with a clean title.
Run Forest run. Are you the exception? Dealer(casino) always wins.

I agree if flood stay away. If not a food damaged vehicle, I would look at current kbb.com private seller price and deduct at least 1/3 or more of current value. Call your insurance broker and make sure they will write coverage and talk to someone at state DMV to see their requirements.

Take to mechanic to check out and a good body shop.

I would with no problem. In my state a rebuilt title is only issued after inspection of the work by a state inspector.

FLOOD- No way no how.

You can have it inspected for sure, and I would recommend it.

Also, as we learned the hard way, there are laws about when an insurance company can write off a vehicle. In my state if the rebuild cost of the wreck is 75% ish of the value of the vehicle or more than they have to write it off.

If it's 74% the existing vehicle gets rebuilt. We ran into that when our nearly new 2013 Kia was hit hard from the rear.

Our car was somewhere around 65% of the value to get rebuilt. The CarFax ended up saying "Minor Rear End Collision" which was false IMHO. The car was twisted like a pretzel and had to be put on a frame rack to be fixed.

What this means is that there are all kinds of vehicles that are put back on the road that were only a few % points away from being totaled. And the CarFax will say "Minor Collision". and the only inspector will be the customer because the title never changed from being "clean" to "salvage" or 'rebuilt".

I have family members who do professional body work and I appreciate their skill sets. But realizing that a salvage title to be put back on the road requires a pretty good inspection process, but just a few value % points away it's just a minor collision on a CarFax and doesn't require that external inspection.

JMHO, based on experience.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

mich800 wrote:

BurbMan wrote:
You guys pretty much confirmed what I was thinking...this is the vehicle I was looking at from Auto Z Inc. who says they specialize in restoring salvage vehicles. The Car Fax says this one had front end damage, obviously enough to total it out, so it had to be pretty bad.

It's true that USAA will insure them, but they won't finance them....

Anyways, I found a couple closer than Utah...

Also, difficult to tell in the pics from Truecar maybe because of lighting. But looks like some weird paint matching on the passenger side, especially looking at the rear door.

Definite paint mismatch, like fingernails on a blackboard! How much more would the same truck cost with a clean title? Remember, some day you'll want to re-sell it too.

Looking at the pictures of that vehicle, I can tell you that it was repaired by someone who took shortcuts. How do I know? Look at the passenger side photo. There is a definite paint color difference between the front and read door. The rebuilder painted the parts he replaced, but did not take the time to blend the paint into the unrepaired area, which would have been more expensive. No way would I ever consider that vehicle. No telling what else what was done half a$$.

BurbMan wrote:
You guys pretty much confirmed what I was thinking...this is the vehicle I was looking at from Auto Z Inc. who says they specialize in restoring salvage vehicles. The Car Fax says this one had front end damage, obviously enough to total it out, so it had to be pretty bad.

It's true that USAA will insure them, but they won't finance them....

Anyways, I found a couple closer than Utah...

Also, difficult to tell in the pics from Truecar maybe because of lighting. But looks like some weird paint matching on the passenger side, especially looking at the rear door.

BurbMan wrote:
You guys pretty much confirmed what I was thinking...this is the vehicle I was looking at from Auto Z Inc. who says they specialize in restoring salvage vehicles. The Car Fax says this one had front end damage, obviously enough to total it out, so it had to be pretty bad.

It's true that USAA will insure them, but they won't finance them....

Anyways, I found a couple closer than Utah...

I have purchased branded title vehicles. Just do your research. Many times you can search the vin to view the actual damage and if they were hiding flood damage.



Here is yours at auction

I wouldn't touch one with a 100' pole. There's far too many unknowns that could cause issue to crop up later, like drivability issues, tracking down the road straight, who knows what else.
Dealing with those possible issues down the road is not worth getting a bargain price for up front.