I found a real nice deal on a stang, but the insurance salvaged the car out all because all the interior was stripped out and there is slight damage to the radiator support. My question is does salvage title totally blow the value of the car? And can it be reversed? Like if I fix everything can I get it out of the salvage state? This is a sweet azz deal for a notch for 500 bucks. But I dont want to get a nice looking lump of coal, if it isnt worth piss due to the salvage.
Buying a car with salvage title
- Thread starter webshot
- Start date
notchback
Founding Member
salvage title will make it twice as hard to sell, and 1/2 the value.
for $500 you cant go wrong..but the core support is damaged??? how badly ? you may need to cut off the front end and replace the whole thing.
thats still a deal, i sold my roller for that after it was stolen for $400 that way, and no motor/tranny, rear axle, windshield, brakes, computer
anyway...no can't reverse it...will always be a salvaged title...it's to keep people from fixing them and selling like it was never wrecked...for a race car, you can't go wrong
for $500 you cant go wrong..but the core support is damaged??? how badly ? you may need to cut off the front end and replace the whole thing.
thats still a deal, i sold my roller for that after it was stolen for $400 that way, and no motor/tranny, rear axle, windshield, brakes, computer
anyway...no can't reverse it...will always be a salvaged title...it's to keep people from fixing them and selling like it was never wrecked...for a race car, you can't go wrong
it is not very bad. But I agree it may need to be welded. I hate when people dont want to fix their cars and get greedy and just insurance out. About 4-5 hundred would have fixed this thing.
Anyone ever sold a salvage titled car? Was it really that hard to sell? I am not sure if I would keep this one. My stang collection is starting to pile up. Wife is going to kill me soon.
Anyone ever sold a salvage titled car? Was it really that hard to sell? I am not sure if I would keep this one. My stang collection is starting to pile up. Wife is going to kill me soon.
bubba-dough
Active Member
A title is just a piece of paper, unless its a collectible. And once its salvaged, in Indiana, you can only get a rebuilt title. And if fixed correctly will save you a lot of money. Which in turn, if you ever sell it the savings will be passed down. A rebuilt title usually brings up to 75% of the full value of a car, if it was done properly, and depending on the vehicle model. My cousin does that for a living, he also does financing through local banks. It depends on the model and your price about how hard they are to sell.
bubba
Thanks man, it seems Cali has a similar option where you can "revive" a salvaged titled car. And I contacted the CHP and after inspection it is said that the car can retain 100% of the value depending on the type of damage and the health of the repair. Looks like I will be owning another stang. Sux tho because everytime I am looking to buy a mod I come across a deal too good to pass up. At this rate I'll own 7 stock stangs...lol
Thanks man, it seems Cali has a similar option where you can "revive" a salvaged titled car. And I contacted the CHP and after inspection it is said that the car can retain 100% of the value depending on the type of damage and the health of the repair. Looks like I will be owning another stang. Sux tho because everytime I am looking to buy a mod I come across a deal too good to pass up. At this rate I'll own 7 stock stangs...lol
In Calif it is the kiss of death. For a race/parts car no one really cares. For a street car they are real hard to sell and fetch maybe half value if you are lucky. You will have to sell the car to someone that either knows cars real well or someone who is looking for a real bargain. If you want it for street use and to resell, good luck cause the more you put into the car the harder it will be to sell it and get your money back. My Brother use to buy em salvaged run them till they had no value and sold them for a song when they had little retail value left. No legal way to get rid of salvage titles although a few claim they can get a clean title but it is NOT legal and they do it by same way you launder money and I ythink they go out of state to sell it and then back into Calif.
Well you can revive the car I found this on the Cali dmv website http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr13.htm Then I called the CHP and spoke to a few folks and they told me it does increase the value over a salvaged car and at times can bring the car back to near 100% value if the repairs were minor. Liek this one. It was basically salvaged because all the interior was stolen.
I stand corrected and thanks for the info. It looks like a good process but what type of title to you get? If it is revived not salvaged you may have a problem selling it because it will still raise questions just like the savaged title does. And what is the difference between a salvaged title and revived title (if it exists). It would be great if you could get a clean title.
We had a Blazer that was a salvage title it was reconstructed title actually. Any way it was flooded and my father fixed it and cleaned it out perfect. We drove it around for 8 years. Then when it came time to sell we couldnt get 800 dollars for it because it was an R-title.... Long story short after being parked in front of the house for 2 months with no buyer some kid doing like 80 up our hill hit it and totaled it. His insurance company gave us 2500 for it. They diddnt ask if it was an R-title they just handed the money over.webshot said:
87gtconv said:
Yea its not totally clean. But all the title says is you brought the car back up to code basically. And is near factory condition and does not present a danger to the buyer or others. SO yea it is not the same as a clean title, but it holds water a little better than just a salvage title. Plus if you keep the receipts and stuff.
I am buying the car after work so i fpush comes to shove then I can always part it out. But I never had a CHP model 5.0 so this could be fun. Although it will sit in the garage with my 67 because I am working on a 92 and a 88 right now.
crazypete
All my crevices are greased.
Dude, my 91 is worth like 1200 bucks at 140k.
What are you worried about resale for?
Chances are you will resell it to some other fellow enthusiast for whatever you feel like charging and the other side feels like paying.
We're not talking about a camry here. We're talking about almost 15 year old american cars here. They wouldnt have much book value in perfect condition as it is.
My car with all the mods listed plus a cam and afr165's ready to go in had the nose sheared off in 93 and the tail pushed in per carfax and my visual analysis, someone pulled it back out and welded a new nose on, I refreshed the welds last year for fun while putting in the tubey k-memeber and she's solid as a rock.
So dont worry about resale. Any complete fox in good running condition can fetch 3-3.5k easy to an enthusiast and $300-500 to a sleazy car dealer. And damage doesnt matter as long as it's minor and the cabin isnt all twisted and if it is, you need but pull it back out on a pulling machine and replace some sheetmetal. Looks like my radiator support was bent back too.
What are you worried about resale for?
Chances are you will resell it to some other fellow enthusiast for whatever you feel like charging and the other side feels like paying.
We're not talking about a camry here. We're talking about almost 15 year old american cars here. They wouldnt have much book value in perfect condition as it is.
My car with all the mods listed plus a cam and afr165's ready to go in had the nose sheared off in 93 and the tail pushed in per carfax and my visual analysis, someone pulled it back out and welded a new nose on, I refreshed the welds last year for fun while putting in the tubey k-memeber and she's solid as a rock.
So dont worry about resale. Any complete fox in good running condition can fetch 3-3.5k easy to an enthusiast and $300-500 to a sleazy car dealer. And damage doesnt matter as long as it's minor and the cabin isnt all twisted and if it is, you need but pull it back out on a pulling machine and replace some sheetmetal. Looks like my radiator support was bent back too.
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
The thing I'd be most concerned about is the fundamental condition of the car. If it has a salvage title it's because at some point, enough damage was done to 'financially' total the car. So I'd take a REAL CLOSE look before I plunked my money down. There may be more damage - correctly or incorrectly repaired - than meets the eye. I'd only buy a salvage title car if I could get it up on a rack somewhere with the eye of an experienced body-repair person looking over it with me. The only thing worse than it being hard to re-sell, is finding out you've bought a turd wrapped in a salvage title. You want to get rid of it, but it just stays around - stinking.
Michael Yount
Mustang Master
The thing I'd be most concerned about is the fundamental condition of the car. If it has a salvage title it's because at some point, enough damage was done to 'financially' total the car. So I'd take a REAL CLOSE look before I plunked my money down. There may be more damage - correctly or incorrectly repaired - than meets the eye. I'd only buy a salvage title car if I could get it up on a rack somewhere with the eye of an experienced body-repair person looking over it with me. The only thing worse than it being hard to re-sell, is finding out you've bought a turd wrapped in a salvage title. You want to get rid of it, but it just stays around - stinking.
Yea I am taking a friend with me who know his stuff (he is a welder). I talked to the owner and he said basically the cost to fix the car is more than half the value of the car so they got the salvage option from their insurance. In this case to put in all the interior was estimated at like 2.5k (all new stuff). So they were like screw it.
here's my 1987 gt , it now has a salvage title because a lady decided to cross in front of me and i hit her ... all her fault and her insurance comapny totalled the car and it didn't look that bad to me so i bought the car back for 300 dollars and took the 4600 dollars the insurance company gave me for the car to fix it back up ... u would never realize it was wrecked http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2043867
dont hessitate to buy it. just make it a life long keeper. this is what i have done w/ my salvaged/recovered theft mustang. this was an originally a 4 cyl mustang w/ an automatic & red interior. this has been a great project for the last couple of years & goes to show anything can happen. i converted the car to a 5.0 w/ 5 speed & 8.8 rear. swapped out the red interior for gray & threw nearly every Saleen part i could come across at it. i built a 1990 Saleen Sc repo. hey, go crazy!
