TimYang

I am shopping for a used car for my daughter who is going off to college next month. I am running into a lot of salvage titles which I have generally stayed away from. I did drive one and it seemed fine. I am beginning to wonder if what it takes for a car to become a salvage title varies significantly from state to state. I've had one seller tell me the car was wrecked when new and they have driven it for 80k miles. To me it seems like there would need to be a very significant amount of damage for a brand new car to be deemed salvage but maybe there is something I am missing. Can anyone comment?

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

I believe it's generally a formula-driven amount of damage (like 75% of vehicle's cost to repair). You could get lucky and find one that was hail damaged and fixed mainly with PDR... the thing I would worry about is a flood damaged car that made it's way back to market. They might seem fine now but I've seen too many horror stories of folks tracking down electrical gremlins that appear over time.

If you can find that rare salvaged vehicle and know the full story of what happened and have before/after pictures, might be worth considering.

These are 'brand new' cars with salvage titles?

Byprodrive

iTrader: (1)

My 2015 GS F-sport was totaled with 63 miles on it. (hit a car with right front corner) it's all about the cost to repair it. Every air bag in the car went off & they are not cheap. I bought it in 2015 with 2,500 miles on it & have not had any issues with it, I drove it across the United States & it now has 55,K miles. So you just have to check the vehicle out very carefully.

stasek

Two of our 4 cars have rebuilt titles - the Honda Fit and the LS460. I purchased both from a family member who owns a body shop, so I knew what the damage was. Both cars have been fine, and the things that have broken down on them would would have probably broken down regardless of the physical damage the car sustained. It's really a crap-shoot as to when the insurance company decides to total a car. I recently talked to a friend who occasionally buys and sells cars with rebuilt titles. Currently, he's awaiting a delivery of an almost brand new Altima. The damage? 4-5 bullet holes in the passenger door . Yup - the car has salvage title. As always, though - buyer beware. Any time I look at a car with rebuilt title, I ALWAYS google the vin number. In most cases (especially if the damage was done within past couple years), you'll be able to find the pictures of the damaged car.

Here's a little write-up I did in January after 3 years of the LS ownership:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...les-later.html