Ok, heres the question, I was wondering if anyone here bought a car with a salvage title, There is a car for sale that I am looking at and it does have a salvage title. If everything is good with the car is it worth getting it?

 

What's the salvage for?

 

I have very limited knowledge of this but I do believe that the criteria for what constitutes a salvage title varies widely from state to state.
In some states it could be a relatively minor accident that requires replacement of a bumper or fender.
In other states it requires a car be almost totalled.
As mentioned above, find out what the damage was.

 

I notice you are from NY so I don't know how much this will apply to you but down here (Georgia) there have been cars showing up on the market with salvage titles from the Gulf Coast. I imagine that being completely covered with flood water (from Katrina) might do some long term damage to electical systems that might not show up in a regular inspection before you buy the car. Check carfax and find out why it was salvaged. Hope this helps.

 

Save yourself future headaches and get yourself a car with a clean title

 

My brother works for one of the largest auto auctions in the country and he tells me cars usually have a branded title because the expense to repair was deemed too high by the insurance company. Many of those cars aren't really ever supposed to be on the road again. A couple things to consider:
Your insurance company may refuse to insure it.
You will probably have a much more difficult time re-selling it.
Problems may appear in the future due to the damage/repair.
I've looked at a couple of cars with salvage title that were thousands less than they would have been if they had a clean title, but I had zero confidence in the owners repair skills.
If you're still going to consider one, I'd ask for a copy of the repair work from the bodyshop, preferably with photos. I wouldn't buy anything that some guy pieced together in his garage.

The exception: Car is stolen and stripped. It's missing all the glass and the seats. No structural or mechanical damage. You'd still have to be able to buy it for thousands less than market price.
Good Luck

 

I just talked to the guy and he said it has the salvage title because in texas(where the car was purchased) It was stolen and found here in NY, the car had nothing wrong with it and he said that it seemed like an insurance fraud, Im going to take a look at it this week.

 

okay here is the deal... my Z was salvaged... it came from Cali where it had water damage... then the insurance sold it to a dealer in conneticut where they repair salvaged vechiles... (thats all they do)...
i saw it online where it didnt mention it was salvaged so when i called to find out about the car thats when they told me... the guy reassured me that they've been doing this for years and thourghly clean the car... they basically took out the entire interior checked all the wiring to see if there was anything rotting or rusting... and replaced what needed to be replaced..
they showed me there shop and i was watching their people do work on other cars... when i was there they were working on a masarati... pretty cool...
they reasured me about the whole process... by law in the state of conneticut they have to provide you with a car fax and have to show you the before pictures... you can also purchase a warranty from the actual dealer... kinda expensive...
then they did me a favor to save me having to pay for a tow delivery from conneticut to NJ by allowing me to borrow a dealer plate with the temp. insurance from the dealer... i drove the car home that day and sent the plates back to them over night...
the thing that sucks about buying a salvaged car is that in the state on NJ in order to register it you have to set up an appointment to take your car to a special inspection... there are only 3 places in the state of NJ that do it... and its a 2 month + waiting period... for your appointment they issue you a temporary paper work that allows you to drive to them on that givin day without plates... its like $300 for the inspection... if you miss your appointment you lose your $300 and you have to reschdule... it takes about a little over an hour to do the inspection..
*after the inspection your title will still and always read salvaged but the insurance and the state will okay it now to be insured and declare it safe to drive...
after that inspection you have to take your car to a regular inspection place because in jersey these special salvaged inspection places only concentrate on salvaged cars...
the other problem is insurance... i have NJ manufactorers and they don't fully insure salvaged titles... so i had to find another insurance company that does... they exist i just havent had the time to do switch over yet... for now i only have liability on the Z... liability alone isnt too expensive... i gotta see what full coverage looks like...
but in the end the whole experience was worth it... im happy with my Z.. i had it for a little over 2 years with no problems... thankfully...

make sure you get a car fax... before pictures because u need that for the inspection and insurance purposes... take after pictures if u buy it for insurance purposes... test drive it and other Z's that aren't salvaged... and ask them to show you the process they use to fix the car and prepare it for sale... if you feel comfortable go for it...

let me know if u have any questions...

 

I bought my car for $16,000 with a salvage tittle on it. It was just sheet metal damage and the engine was never damaged. My car runs like new and I've never had a problem with it. Every salvage car is different though because you don't know what kind of damage the car really took. See for your self though.

 

I've had a salvage title car before (2000 Civic Si) I never had any major problems with it, other than the one's i caused myself. As was stated by the other users, each car is different, with different points of impact and different previous owners. If you were looking at a camry or something like that, then as long as it wasn't anything major (ie anything causing the Airbags to be deployed) get it looked at by a trusted mechanic before buying it, but if it was a sports car (such as a Z) remember, people like to drive them hard and that could've been the cause of the accident. There could also be other damage that can't be noticed by the eye. Remember anytime there is not a clean title on the car you can pretty much kiss your warranty goodbye also. Hope this helps, just do your homework and you should be ok, and as for selling the civic, i was able to move it in a week (in order to get my Z) and for full asking price, it does help though that i modded the hell out of it complete with a JDM b16a...but that's another story....good luck