Let's talk salvage titles if we may Options

[Tdskip]

First off let me say that I know they'll be lots of room for personal opinions here, with some people holding the opinion that with cars of our vintage a salvage title isn't that big of a deal if it comes from a non-critical issue back when the cars weren't worth much.

I just looked at exactly such a car that was totaled by the insurance company over what today we would look at as a minor bump. Back when it happened, close to 15 years ago, I'm sure a $1500 repair was probably enough of a threshold to total the car so the insurance company wrote it off and the previous owner bought it back and then never restored it like he thought he was going to when he bought it back.

So all that brings us to today - otherwise clean car that had some rust repair done to a solid but not cosmetically attractive level, just needs an engine to be back on the road. 17's that are ready to Bolton can be readily had for not a whole lot money and you can see where the rest of this thought process goes. Except, except, except the shell has a salvage title.

I was thinking I would just throw this thing together and then drive it for six months and sell it, which I do in a heartbeat if I didn't have a salvage title but I'm worried that even at driver pricing ($4000?) i'll get stuck with it because other people will get the heebie-jeebies about the salvage title just like me.

What do you all think?

[Unobtanium-inc]

Ok a couple of things that are getting crossed here if you aren't familiar with salvage.
There are essentially three kinds of situations when someone says a car has a salvage title.
1. The car has a re-built salvage title. Meaning it was in a wreck or flood, fixed and then inspected by the state salvage people and issued a re-built or reconstructed title. The car can be registered and driven on the roads like any other car, but the end value will always be affected by the salvage, usually by at least 30%. And if you try and get the title washed by crossing states or backdoor registrations, it will probably still be on the Carfax and you are commiting fraud. Unless you like the possibility of jail, don't do it.
2. The car has a current salvage title, meaning if it is fixed it will need to be inspected by the state and issued a re-built title. This car cannot be driven on the roads or registered. Also, you have to have all receipts for parts bought to fix it, so people don't use stolen parts, so if you buy a car with a salvage title that has already been fixed by someone else and you have no paper trail, the state may fail you, so then you have a useless car. The salvage inspection is not the usual state inspection you get but an appointment only inspection with the salvage people, who can take the whole car apart if they feel like it, and fail you, and seize the car if they think anything is fishy.
3. The last is a salvage Parts Only title, the kiss of death. It can never be driven ever again, no passing go, no $200, straight to the track or the junkyard. I know lots of guys who buy one of these cars only to find out they can do nothing with the car.

Bottom line, know exactly what you're buying and do it with your eyes wide open. My 993 has a re-built title, it was wrecked in 2002, salvaged and re-built. I can't find evidence of a wreck, and Carfax that old is very scant on info, not like today where they are pretty detailed. Here is the biggest trap guys fall into with buying a car like this one. They buy it at a 30-40% discount and are jumping up and down, "I'm the smartest guy in the world!!!" But then when they go to sell it a couple of years later they forget they have to pass the same savings onto the next guy. Except they've convinced themselves the car is worth full market value and they get real angry when the market corrects them. It's also a limited market for selling a car with a branded title, you can't get a loan on such a car, and any and all Factory warranties are null and void.
So if you buy a car with any of these issues, know exactly what you're buying and be ready to jump through lots of hoops before you ever see the road. And be ready if you go to sell it to get lots of people commit to buy, and then back out of the car when they can't get a loan, or their insurance company gives them pushback.
Driving a branded title car can be great, it's a helluva deal, but it can be a lot of work. For example, my 993 was salvaged back in 2002, but it was in Ohio, so when I went to register it in NY with a re-built title, since it as out of state I had to go through a NY salvage inspection, I passed, but it was pretty nerve-wracking.

[DickSteinkamp]

Ok a couple of things that are getting crossed here if you aren't familiar with salvage.
There are essentially three kinds of situations when someone says a car has a salvage title....

That may be true for NY, but if you check 50 states for their "salvage" laws and definitions, you'll probably get 53 different answers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[Unobtanium-inc]

Ok a couple of things that are getting crossed here if you aren't familiar with salvage.
There are essentially three kinds of situations when someone says a car has a salvage title....

That may be true for NY, but if you check 50 states for their "salvage" laws and definitions, you'll probably get 53 different answers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

All the more reason to know exactly what you're buying and what your state will make you do to put it on the road. For example, KY is known as the "wash your title" state. If you can sell a salvage title car to someone there and have them sell it back, the title will be a clean title, they have no provision for salvage, at least they didn't 10 years ago, I knew a guy who did this all the time. Life is too short for me to cut such corners, but this guy and his cousin in KY had no such qualms.