[Kaiminani]

Does Nevada discount the tax rate for salvage titles? Otherwise it is calculated purely on original MSRP and model year, seems unfair to pay the tax on the full "value" of the car when it isn't really that valuable.

[vtvette]

There are so many factors when buying a salvage car. I've been around many of them and have friends in the industry. They can be a good deal or a complete horror story.

The first consideration is why was the vehicle totaled? The current owner may know or, they might not. Carfax may state why the car was totaled in their report or they may not. You can also enter the VIN number of the car in google and a search may turn up into or pictures of the car when it was at the insurance auction. This works amazingly well.

As mentioned above when the cost to repair the vehicle exceeds the amount to repair the vehicle the insurance company will elect to buy the car from the owner resulting in a salvage vehicle. One very important consideration here is

A) Age of the vehicle and

B) Cost of parts to repair the vehicle.

Let's say you have a 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix with 100,000 miles and someone hits you light in the front right. The value of the car before you were hit was $1500. The accident damaged the bumper cover, headlight and front fender (all small dents/superficial damage). The car still runs and drives and you drive home from the accident no problem. The insurance company is going to look at the age, miles and value of the car and likely "total" it. Why? They are not going to mess around with repairing a 18 year old Pontiac with 100,000 miles. They rip a check and that's it. They may well offer to sell the car back to you for, say, $800. You buy the car back from the insurance company and they issue you a salvage title. You now have your car and $700 for your trouble. However, you now own a "salvage" vehicle.

I have a friend with a 1993 Porache 928. Not a particularly valuable car today but it was very expensive when new. Parts are still very expensive and can be hard to find. The car is in excellent condition. His bumper cover and the reinforcement beam underneath were damaged. Absolutely no frame damage, no damage to the hood, fenders or headlight, radiator - nothing. Car still ran and drove fine. He called to make a claim and the adjuster told him they would likely total the vehicle to pay out. He elected to pay out of pocket for the repairs so, there will likely never be any knowledge of this accident anywhere (carfax, etc).

Wife and I bought a salvage Audi out of CA when we lived in VT back in the early 2000's. It was a very rare model only 1400 sold in the country. It had a damaged fender, cracked bumper cover and slight damage to the door. We picked it up and drove it home 3,000 miles. I know exactly why it was totaled - Audi stopped importing the body panels for this car years before the accident. That is a rare situation but will result in an automatic salvage title - the parts to repair are simply not available. We did end up finding body panels for it after a bit of searching but no insurance company is going to pay to have a body shop search the country for body parts for a 10 year old car. We bought that car for a song.

The above examples are with older or unique vehicles. Newer vehicles with higher value will require more extensive/expensive damage before the insurance company will "total" (issue a salvage title) for the car. Note that many sellers of salvage cars will have the story "it was a recovered theft" or "the bumper cover was changed". If the car is a $45,000 2009 Mercedes and has a salvage title it was a lot more than a bumper cover to total it. It may well have been a recovered theft but, you can't take the sellers word for it.

Always stay away from flood vehicles. I knew a girl who bought a flood Honda and it was great for about 5 years. Then it started having all sorts of gremlins show up - stereo, HVAC issues, etc. The corrosive damage of water can take a long time to rear it's ugly head and when it does the diagnostic time involved to effect repairs can be extremely expensive.

Another factor of a salvage car is that it can be difficult to resell. If you find one you like and it checks out by a reputable shop (it was repaired correctly) you may be able to buy more car for your money. The downside is that when you go to sell it you will likely get less (sometimes substantially less) money as the Savage Title will always bring the value down. Not so bad if you plan to drive it into the ground but if you bore of cars every year or two and plan to sell it off in the near(ish) future you may end up actually saving money in the long run with a clean title car.

Look at a carfax report and see how long the current owner has been driving the salvage car. If the car was salvaged at, say, 25,000 miles and it now has 55,000 miles and it's with the same owner there is a fairly good chance the car has not given the current owner too many issues or they would likely have sold it off long ago.

Bottom line salvage cars CAN be a good deal IF you know EXACTLY what you are buying. It is not a field for the novice or un-knowledgeable and salvage cars do require their own brand of unique due diligence.

[vtvette]

Originally Posted by Kaiminani

Does Nevada discount the tax rate for salvage titles? Otherwise it is calculated purely on original MSRP and model year, seems unfair to pay the tax on the full "value" of the car when it isn't really that valuable.

That is a great question. I bet they base on MSRP regardless.

Back in VT we used to pay sales tax on all sales (public and private) at current MSRP of the vehicle. It was terrible as you could buy a 2003 Subaru in excellent condition for, say, close to book value and that's one thing but many cars (especially older subaru's and toyota's) rust terribly so you could buy a rusty 2003 Subaru for half book value but when you go to the DMV they look in the book and that's the value you paid tax for regardless. You could have a dealer do an appraisal buy most did not like this as too many appraisals under book value would likely flag you for an audit.

[aggrofish]

Good information vtvette. I've never purchased a salvaged title car, but would have no problems doing so if it were fixed correctly. I've bought/sold salvaged title sport bikes. If a Ducati falls over and scratches the fairing...salvage.

The way I figure it at least you know what you're getting with a salvage title. I've totaled a couple bikes, fixed them myself and sold them with an untainted title. Yes, I disclosed that they'd been down.

[Exaday]

What about buying a car with out of state title and tags?

What does this entail?

[BBMW]

Scoop,

I gotta ask what this is?

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

I have very (very) small parameters when looking for cars. One make, two models, a five-year window. I look at nearly every car that fits my parameters.

[Exaday]

Carfax is worth the money. I used it and found that a few people were being dishonest. Just this morning i had test drove a car and he showed me a Vehicle history report. He had claimed it was only owned by him and his friend and had 95k miles. I said I was going to run my own carfax and he said he had to go. Car ended up having 100k more on it plus had been owned by 6 different people. He would not answer my calls after that, lol.

Another was said to have only 122k and had 350k miles on it. The odometer lies I guess.

Finally found a 1 owner car with low miles and a very regular service reports.

Get the carfax!!

[vtvette]

Originally Posted by Exaday

Carfax is worth the money. I used it and found that a few people were being dishonest. Just this morning i had test drove a car and he showed me a Vehicle history report. He had claimed it was only owned by him and his friend and had 95k miles. I said I was going to run my own carfax and he said he had to go. Car ended up having 100k more on it plus had been owned by 6 different people. He would not answer my calls after that, lol.

Another was said to have only 122k and had 350k miles on it. The odometer lies I guess.

Finally found a 1 owner car with low miles and a very regular service reports.

Get the carfax!!

I found the same to be true. I went and looked at a car recently with a "clean Carfax". He Emailed me the "Carfax" which was actually an Autocheck report. All reported OK. I ran a true Carfax report and it revealed an accident in 2009. It was fairly obvious to me that the car had an accident at some point but it did not show up on Autocheck, only on carfax. Also, Carfax is much more likely to show service history than any other vehicle report.

I agree a real Carfax is worth the money.

[Exaday]

On that note, I can still check a few vins. If you're looking to buy a car and want a carfax done pm me and I'll send it to you.

[Kaiminani]

Just remember that carfax, et al can only be proof positive of a problem, they can't clear a car of having problems because the reports are only as good as the incomplete data that goes into the system in the first place.