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I am not in the market for a salvage vehicle, but I have been doing a lot of searching on craigslist for cars recently since I am looking at replacing my vehicle which was rear ended and totaled.
Craigslist seems to be filled with salvage vehicles. I remember looking in the past and the prices seem to be much less then a clean title but now it seems that people are asking much higher prices for salvaged cars. Has anybody else noticed this?
Before it seemed salvage title cars that were repaired were being sold for about half of the bluebook price or retail price.
Has the used car market in generally just gone up a lot and brought the prices of salvage vehicles up with it ?
Some cars don't seem like a great value used when brand new isn't much more but the asking price on the salvage vehicles seem like a real bad value
Not too long ago I was considering a relatively "limited production" vehicle with a Salvage Title and what I learned from my research was a little disturbing . . .
Generally speaking, any vehicle with a Salvage / Branded Title is worth from 25% all the way up to 50% LESS than a similar vehicle with a Clean Title.
Also, some insurance companies (I did not research which ones or how many) will not insure a vehicle with a Salvage / Branded Title. A huge concern especially if financing is involved. How painful would it be to pay top price for a vehicle and after a short time have it stolen or totaled only to find out the insurance company will only compensate for about half of that top price . . . VERY PAINFUL?
Hard to tell if they are getting the prices or just asking.
I've heard there could be insurance issues with salvaged too . Hard to insure . Not sure if that's true or not .
Has anyone bought a repaired salvaged and had issues ?
My car was totalled and the insurance company " paid me" like $2400 for it . The repairs from shop were over $10,000 so I don't see how mine could be bought and resold for a profit .
I'm guessing they often just scrap the cars if they are totalled with a lot of damage ?
A while back I bought a classic car off eBay that turned out to be salvaged .
I didn't realize as the seller didn't disclose it .
I was younger and got it cheap so didn't really care
Interestingly A guy left a note saying he used to own the car and I called him and he said the insurance company " bought " it from him so I guess the guy I from must've bought it at an insurance auction.
I guess he must of got it very cheap and repaired it very cheap too .
I think the purchase prices was like $2200 , it was a nice looking car a 62 cadillac sedan Deville.
The problem is that "salvage" can cover such a large numbers of problems and getting the vehicle back on the road varies from state to state. Salvage can be a theft recovery that the insurance company already paid out on, to cosmetic work that costs more than half of the value, to being made out of two vehicles or a flooded vehicle.
I used to attend the local impound/insurance auctions. Some of the vehicles destined for salvage would trade for well into 5 figures, depending on what was intended end use and initial value. I saw a F350 powerstroke that had been immersed in a glacial stream go for over $10K, and a Grand Cherokee SRT with light damage go for over $25K, that was over 50% of the new price before whatever damage they planned to repair. It's big business.
The local Russian mob used to steal cars, strip them to the frame, keep the parts and then show up at the auctions to buy the stripped frame for scrap metal value. They then reassembled the vehicle and sold it, yes with a salvage title, but it looked and ran like new....well, like it had been reassembled by Russian mobsters.
And finally, body shops might tell the insurance company that, at a reatil rate, it's going to be $10K to fix the car, but they can buy it, spend $2K in materials to do the job and get their profit when they sell it. Lots of ways to skin that salvage cat.
My second car was a former total collision as it said on carfax when carfax was first forming. I never noticed if my title stated this but probably did. I had no problem w insurance. I had a huge problem w car. Front axel broke 3xs in 1.5yrs. Finally got another car after I drove it on back roads w a broken axel until I saved the cash. Then I donated it.
I think it may be a combination of factors. More and more insurance companies are totaling cars that in the past they would try to fix and more cars are better built, so a given wreck might not cause any structural damage. Cars that have no frame damage, but might have had suspension damage and/or airbags go off are totaled due to being at or close to the insurance company threshold of 60-75% total value, but there is really not much wrong with them other than having damaged parts removed and replaced. So, instead of having a vehicle that is really still compromised, you have something much better than that.
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