Salvaged title cost reduction

[woodysmom]

Hey guys,

How much does salvaged title reduce the value of a car? I was looking at a g35 04 going for 24k but i think i can get it for 20 or 22k out the door. It has a salvaged title and from what i know, it was in a front end collision and repaired in the front by a pro body shop. I looks brand spanking new and has only 4000 miles on it. It is not a the touring edition (brembo brakes). Is this a good deal? How much should i take off blue book for salvaged cars?

Thanks

[drift freaq]

salvage titles are tricky and this is not Mexico. I.E. a lot of insurance companies will refuse to give you full coverage on a salvage title. Plus a Salvage title is worth around 1/3 of the real value of the car. If you do get full coverage on a Salvage title they will only pay you coverage based on a high mileage version of your car regardless of your mileage or visible condition.
I would never pay 20k for a salvage title car these days its an albatross. It used to be back around 10 years ago you could pick a Salvage title professionally rebuilt Porsche here in Hollywood for like 20-30k we are talking 60k cars that were like one or two years old and they held a decent value but that changed around 4 years ago. Mostly the only people you see sportin Salvage title newer cars are Armenians ( this is not meant as a slight its a common fact here in Los Angeles).
The other place is Mexico . I know Nissan Yards that would pick up totalled late model Infiniti's rebuild them and sell them in Mexico. Yes the Yards were armenian owned. Basically in Mexico things are a little different and people don't care.

[hkspeed]

buying a salvaged car that was rebuilt right is cool, but consider the amount of damage it took for the insurance company put a $35K+ car as a total loss.

another thing to consider is if you plan to sell it later on. expect to give a discount as significant as the one you'll be receiving to purchase the car.

[woodysmom]

it's only worth 1/3 because of the popular thought that salvaged cars equates to crap right? But some cars are salvaged for theft, others flood and most likely collision. Shouldn't the history of the car be looked at in order to judge it's value, not it's label? I dunno just trying to figure out whether to buy this car or not! grrrrrrrr

[drift freaq]

it's only worth 1/3 because of the popular thought that salvaged cars equates to crap right? But some cars are salvaged for theft, others flood and most likely collision. Shouldn't the history of the car be looked at in order to judge it's value, not it's label? I dunno just trying to figure out whether to buy this car or not! grrrrrrrr
well I already gave you several very good reasons to not buy it. If it was a salvage title 240 and it was only 2k then it might be a different story but your going to drop 20k on a salvage title car? Unless your rich and have cash to just piss away I think it would be a big mistake. IMHO !
Of course if you were rich and just had cash to piss away you would not bother buying a salvage title to begin with.
Also 20k is not chump change. 20k could buy you or get you awfully close to purchasing a clean title 350z either a low mileage 2004 or a new one(don't bother with 2003 models of either the G35 or the 350z) .

[SirWarrior]

Want to hear something funny, there is a way to get a regular title for your car, but you got to sell it to a dealer in certain state (that shall rename nameless) and buy it back from him.
It will come back as a clean title.
I've done it with 4 cars now.:D

[michael1284]

I hope you tell whoever your selling the car to that the car was once salvaged before...because that's just DAMN SHADY if you didn't. I don't think theft salvage would be that bad...but anything big enough to salvage a car from a collision i would want to stay away from. 20k? Go get yourself a BRAND new car, just because it LOOKS fine doesn't mean it IS fine.

[ZK]

It really depends why it was salvaged... and that means that the car was damaged enough that the insurance company considered it a loss and not worth it to repair. That's quite a bit of damage if they consider a 30K car totalled and not worth it to repair!

[SirWarrior]

it really depends on the insurance company as to what they consider salvage car.
Simple side swipe on an MBZ S600 and I got it salvaged. 2yr old with 15K miles.
Fender, frnot and rear doors and some repair on the bumper/rear quarter and a repaint. But ALL of the airbags were blown. Hehehe.
Not a bad buy for 18K if you ask me.

[91CRXsiR]

i would get it.. cuz i crash all my cars every 2-3 years anyways.. why not just get a salvaged one to begin w/...

but if u plan to keep it.. get a clean title

[Kouki]

i would get it.. cuz i crash all my cars every 2-3 years anyways.. why not just get a salvaged one to begin w/...

but if u plan to keep it.. get a clean title

I'm gonna disagree with this. If you are planning on keeping it a few years, go for it. The salvage title mostly hurts resale. If you plan on driving it for 2-3 months and then selling it, probably don't do it. If you are gonna keep it a while, you are getting a good deal, and when you resell it, people are less scared of the salvage title cuz you have put some miles on it with no problems, some people think just because a car has a salvage title it is junk, and will have engine/tranny problems. NOT TRUE. I'm in the car business, me and my dad have a shop and all we do is buy salvage cars, fix them, and resell them. Every car I have had in the past 6 years has had a salvage title, and guess what, NO problems getting full coverage, I even went through several different insurance companies, no one had a problem with it. You will always find someone looking for a car at a good price, so resell isn't really that bad. When people call on cars we have for sale, we don't tell them it is a salvage title, we only tell them after they have driven the car, otherwise they have it set in their mind that there is gonna be something wrong with it. If we tell them after they drive it, they know what the car really drives and runs like without a distorted view on it. Sorry for the long post, but just posting the facts from 6+ years of experience.

[Bone]

If its a specialty car such as a "sports car" Salvage will not hurt resale as badly as if it was a pick up truck or mini van. Look at most of the muscle cars and hot rods running around most have them have been considered totaled at one time or another does it make any of them worth any less once they have been completely redone. I personally dont give a rats butt about a salvage title myself but if you plan on reselling it to johnny public keep in mind he might care depending on the rarity of the car and such is what will make the most difference with a salavage title. Quality of repair however will always matter most!

[s14 blacktop]

first of all get a carfax on it, most of the time the insurance companies mislabel what is supposed to be sqalvage and what is not, remember they are in it to make money.(this does not make any sense to me) They will sometimes mark, a car or truck whichever it is, clear title if it is burnt to the ground and mark a car that is new with the bumper cover ripped off, salvage title!... I think its just the insurance companies employees getting lazy...
so you might be ok if you do your research, oh and another thing inspect it, drive it( if it has handling problems dont bother with it), look under the hood etc.... check everyway you can.... if you find just one thing thats not right do not get it!!!