Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
^This is true. Most don't even want to mess with it. Aside from no money being in it they are potential liabilities....
Years back I had a truck that was a theft recovery that was rebuilt....probably better than new actually. Mechanically it was in awesome shape but it will forever have the salvage title stigma. I drove it for a little over 5 years and then it was time to say goodbye. Still nothing wrong with it mechanically or asthetically mind you.
I went to talk to a 'big box' dealer about a trade when the time came for a new vehicle. The salesman offered me $500 for it. LOL He could have just told me that he wouldn't take it as a trade. LOL
Well I ended up trading elsewhere at a smaller dealership and got $6000 for it on the trade. The dealer later sold it for ~$7000. This is with full disclosure. It was perfectly clear to all parties that it was a salvaged titled vehicle.
So...if you have a vehicle with a salvaged title that you are looking to trade, for grins you may ask what one of the big boys will give you for it but don't expect much more than what it would be worth crushed if anything at all. You are far better off going to a small used car dealer or selling it yourself.
Will a new car dealer buy a vehicle with a salvage title? Someone told me once the vehicle has been wrecked a used or new dealer will not buy or even trade it.
Salvage, or Rebuilt/Reconstructed Salvage? Salvage titles can be a headache because of the inspections required, and some dealers may not want to cross that bridge. The reconstructed disclosure indicates that the car passed inspection and can be sold normally.
If they don't have a market for it, they'll send it to the auction or wholesale it to a dealer who does. This kind of thing goes on all the time.
The price that you would be offered, is another question.
I know a number of dealers that routinely handle S title vehicles when they are available from insurance company sources of theft recovery vehicles.
If a vehicle is stolen and the insurance company pays off a comprehensive claim to the owner, then if the vehicle is recovered it will get an S title after the paid total loss.
I watched an 850 BMW go through this process a few years ago ... the owner stopped at a C-Store "to get some smokes ..." and left the car running in the parking lot just outside the front entry. A couple of kids saw him leave the car, and jumped in it for a joyride. The car was missing for months, and the insurance was paid. Shortly after, the car was found in a garage where some other theft merchandise was recovered. The car had less than a couple hundred miles put on it from when it was stolen, and was in perfect condition except for the beer cans and cig butts on the carpet. Sent to an auction, it went for pennies on the wholesale value of the car due to the S title. But the dealer who bought it recognized that the car was straight and got almost full retail for it ... and the end buyer still got quite a deal.
Again, this is a case of buying the car for what it is and not buying the paperwork that comes with it.
The biggest value obstacle in some states to an S title vehicle comes from vehicle inspection requirements or getting insurance on the car. You've got to know what you're buying and pay accordingly. But don't assume that an S title was issued because a car was seriously damaged and not properly repaired. By the same token, there are cars that don't have S titles that have serious defects in them ....
For the most part, I don't see new car dealerships wanting to get involved with this type of merchandise on the lot. But that doesn't mean that they won't take one in trade and wholesale it out.
I watched an 850 BMW go through this process a few years ago ... the owner stopped at a C-Store "to get some smokes ..." and left the car running in the parking lot just outside the front entry. A couple of kids saw him leave the car, and jumped in it for a joyride. The car was missing for months, and the insurance was paid. Shortly after, the car was found in a garage where some other theft merchandise was recovered. The car had less than a couple hundred miles put on it from when it was stolen, and was in perfect condition except for the beer cans and cig butts on the carpet. Sent to an auction, it went for pennies on the wholesale value of the car due to the S title. But the dealer who bought it recognized that the car was straight and got almost full retail for it ... and the end buyer still got quite a deal.
The end buyer actually got ripped off. Back in the early 90's, I got in with a bad crowd. I did not steal cars, but my friends did. I would ride with them, and the things these kids would do to the cars was incomprehensible. Redlining the engine while laughing about it. Redlining the engine, and then slamming it into drive. Driving down the street, and throwing the car into reverse. Going over speed bumps going 50 MPH. I could go on and on. These cars looked and ran ok when they deserted them, but they surely had severe problems down the road. I would even go so far to say that a theft recovery is worse than a car that has been wrecked and deemed a total loss.
The end buyer actually got ripped off. Back in the early 90's, I got in with a bad crowd. I did not steal cars, but my friends did. I would ride with them, and the things these kids would do to the cars was incomprehensible. Redlining the engine while laughing about it. Redlining the engine, and then slamming it into drive. Driving down the street, and throwing the car into reverse. Going over speed bumps going 50 MPH. I could go on and on. These cars looked and ran ok when they deserted them, but they surely had severe problems down the road. I would even go so far to say that a theft recovery is worse than a car that has been wrecked and deemed a total loss.
The difference here between you and me, if I may be so bold ... is that you have your anecdotal "evidence" that the BMW car I described must have been abused to a state of severe damage ....
While I have over 40 years of professionally servicing BMW and MB cars, along with other high end exotics.
What you don't know is that the type of car I described has computers and designed in controls which prevent it from being damaged by what you think is "abuse" ... say, redlining the motor and slamming it into gear. Or slamming it from forward to reverse. The 12 cylinder motor in that BMW can't get over-rev'ed in neutral due to the computer controls, and it can't get slammed into gear beyond it's limits due to the computer controls.
Very few people can take the type of HP that this car has and put it to use except in a straight line under load ... and the capabilities of the car are far beyond most road situations. Even a teen-age joy rider can get intimidated by a car that can achieve well into the mid 100+ mph range on the road in their neighborhood streets ... paranoia of crashing sets in when it's their own lives/bodies at stake.
Both the first owner of that car and the subsequent owner of the car (that you assert still got "ripped off") were customers of mine. I knew the car pre-theft, and I knew the car for a year post theft-recovery. Other than a good detailing, the car needed nothing but routine maintenance ... perhaps it sustained a little more tire wear than normal during it's time of joy-riding. But it's a high performance luxo-boat and built to go .... outside of a few posters on this forum, I'd bet that very few people here (including your joy-riding friends) could push that car to anywhere close to it's limits, let alone exceed them abusively.
Again, I'd emphasize that when you buy a pre-owned vehicle, you're buying the remaining service life of the car. If a pre-buy inspection by a knowledgeable tech indicates that the car is straight, then all the knowledge that you, LVD, have about joy-riding folks in cars is worthless for that particular car and buying situation. Especially when somebody buys a car booking for $25K (that sold new for well over double that) at about $15K because of an S title due to a theft recovery.
For that matter, I bought my first 1995 Subie wagon from a dealer I knew in Denver who had it on his lot, and had been driving it as his winter daily driver without any issues. My pre-buy inspection revealed that the car had been in a fairly serious left-front crash .... properly repaired by the local Subie dealer with factory OE parts for the suspension, tie rod, disc brake assembly, wheel, hub, front bumper and a few body parts, reasonably well re-painted to match the car. I paid just over half of the "book value" in the Denver area at the time, and he was kind enough to give me $100 trade-in for my Audi 4000CS that had rusted to an unsafe condition in the rear suspension area. I've now owned the car for 200,000 more trouble-free miles in our severe Wyoming service, and recently replaced the front & rear struts and the 2.2 motor with a serviceable used 100,000 mile motor from a '96 (along with a new clutch and timing belt/water pump ... might as well do it with the motor out of the car). My wife has been driving the car for her daily driver for the last several years, and it's been virtually flawless in performing it's transportation service. Still delivers 31-32 mpg and the "new" motor doesn't use but 1 quart of oil per 3,500 miles. With my routine changing of diff and trans fluids, and keeping normal consumables in good condition (tires, belts, hoses, battery) ... the car starts and performs very satisfactorially. OH, and it's only needed two sets of replacement brake friction pads in our ownership. Pretty sturdy little workhorse of a car ... and it hauls our livestock (sheep and goats) to the vet (68 mile roundtrip) when needed, too.
My point is that many cars can sustain damage which is apparent to a trained observer, and that the damaged items can be properly replaced/repaired to very functional and durable service. If purchased for a reasonable price, they can be very fine transportation and a good value. That's what I buy cars for ... transportation and durable peformance, not vanity.
As I spent many years in the business buying MB's and BMW's with problem histories and fixing them up for re-sale ... and capturing a lot of those subsequent owners as my clientele where I got to see those cars put on lots of miles for many years ... I know that automotive repairs can be properly accomplished. Many cars I restored to service went on to deliver 100,000's of miles in the new owner's hands. I saw a lot of MB diesels and 108 and 109 and 107 chassis cars deliver one heck of a lot of high mileage service.
The other mainstay of my business was to perform this type of work for the used car lots that specialized in those brand re-sales. So there was yet even a lot more of these cars out on the roads, at a good price, providing good service for new owners. For a couple of years, my services were valued enough that a franchised MB dealer used my shop for their pre-owned mechanical recons ... which I could perform better and more cost effectively than their own in-house service department could do.
BTW, LVD ... your riding around in a car that you knew your "friends" had stolen makes you part of the program ... not an innocent victim of their activity.
I don't know how true this is that Carmax will take a vehicle with a salvage title.
They do, or they have. The wholesale division moves half as many cars as the retail division does--possibly more than that. Carmax wholesale buys just about anything, from virtually new cars, to push-through shrapnel. I used to go to the Carmax dealer-only sales twice a month, and I'm almost positive that I saw rebuilt cars go through the auction from time to time (unless I'm getting wires crossed with another auction). They were announced like any other noteworthy defect or title issue.
This doesn't imply that every single Carmax store, under every single circumstance, would make the purchase or trade of a vehicle with a branded title. Also Carmax will not retail vehicles with branded titles, but their wholesale volume, and my own experience, suggests that they'll wholesale just about any car.
Finally, all of the above is within the context of reconstructed titles, not vehicles currently titled as "salvage". Vehicles with salvage, export, or junk titles, would usually be moved through the insurance sales like IAA or Copart. It's unlikely that Carmax would acquire salvage/junk/export titled vehicle anyway, but with numbers in the hundreds of thousands of units, who knows.
Will a new car dealer buy a vehicle with a salvage title? Someone told me once the vehicle has been wrecked a used or new dealer will not buy or even trade it.
John
Interesting question, John.
No personal experience here, however, I believe the answer depends on the actual vehicle. My '86 Jeep CJ-7 has a Salvage Title due to an engine fire back in 1990 (insurance company disclosure letter was supplied when I purchased a few years later). Due to the uniqueness and rarity of this vehicle plus the fact all damaged components have been replaced, the title status has little or no bearing on the value if I ever decided to sell it.
In my experience, if there is a deal to be made, dealers will take just about anything short of a burn-out or a wreck. Even if they have no intention of putting it on their own used car lot, they'll take a trade. If anything, the dealership will simply drive the price of the trade down so low that they cannot possibly lose money. If the owner takes the low offer, fine. You would be surprised at what gets traded in. A lot of people don't want to mess with the private sale of a car, especially older cars that might have some problems. Also, dealers have multiple channels with which to dispose of a unit that they do not need/want. The service tech who buys a few a year and sells them out of his driveway, other dealers, auctions, or the guy who buys out of the back doors of all the local places, and sells under the names of his closest ten relatives. There are even internet dealers selling off of other dealers' lots under their own name, having no physical inventory to speak of.
Also, while "net" losses on deals do occur once in a while, trades usually have plenty of room built into them. A dealer might dump a piece in inventory at a loss to avoid flooring it for another two months at a greater loss, but if this was SOP, there wouldn't be any dealers. They cover their bases fairly well. At a lot of the big dealerships, many salespeople are new and have no idea what the heck they are talking about, outside of the four squares they set up when you're working with them. When you get to the more experienced people (usually management), things change rapidly. Most buyers have even less of an idea how the business works, although casual observation suggests that at 9 of 10 people are very savvy buyers and never fail to "get a smokin' deal". I suspect at least half of them were told that the dealership was taking a huge loss on the deal, too.
let me get advice on here i finance a car at the dealership.6 months later my car was stolen i report it too my insurance company to get the car pay off.also i was expecting just enough to put a deal payment on other car.my insurance company came back and told me that they will pay the car off.but the car was not worth value what i pay for it due to it had a salvage title and i was unaware that it had salvage title.so what should i do?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
