dcdude

My DD '03 Corolla has a salvage title, and I saved about $5,000 up front. When I sell it with 200K on it, I may give up only $1,000 in resale. However, the relatively lower miles on most classic Porsches never allows for the value gap to narrow as much as with high mileage beaters.

Title washing...awesome. There oughtta be a law...

race911

Last I checked in order to put a salvage titled car back on the road here is a "lights and brakes" safety check from an independent garage that for God knows what reason carries such a certification. (We don't have ANY physical inspections of cars here, absent the biannual smog check for gasoline powered vehicles older than five years and stopping with model year 1976.)

But yeah, there have been some weird cars I've seen/heard of that were designated salvage since they came through the insurance pool. Oddly, my 44K mile RSA carcass sitting out in the yard at the shop must have been self-repaired by the previous owner since it's got a clean title.

Worst job I ever took on was a hard, hard front hit on an '86 930 when the car was about 6 months old. Between the body shop and my mechanical labor, we easily had 2/3 of the price of a new one tied up in the repair. But since the turbo was just reintroduced, they were all spoken for, and the dealers all said it would be a year before another one would be available, the owner wanted that car fixed. Ugh.

Salvage car that I wish I had the crystal ball for was a flatnose '94 Turbo I could have picked up that was about a year old for under $20K. I would have kept the clean title, but by my best estimate it was $25-30K from being repaired correctly. I had the cash to buy the car, but no way could I have afforded fixing it. And I just wasn't interested in a repair and flip.

1pcarnut

Boy, that would be a sweet car to have now, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing.

Damien Lewis

One of the most beautiful 993's I have ever seen was on Ebay about 4 years ago...It was a salvage - hit hard on the front left...but only had 4,500 miles on it. The seller provided great photos and the car had a clean title. It sold for $26,800...I think I had a high bid of $25k on the car...probably would have taken another $10K to fix. The winner of the auction was in Germany and shipped it out the way it was.

It was a polar silver cab with a black top and boxster red interior. Turbo Twist wheels, motor sound package and many other options I cant remember right now. I was going to buy it, fix it and drive the hell out of it as a daily driver.....I didnt care about the resale as I'd probably drive it for the next 20 years.

Oh well..I now have a garage queen that I take out 2x per month.

race911

Let's see. How many Speedsters did I pass up when I first got into Porsches? Who'd want one of THOSE???? And all the S's? Eh, everyone wants a 3.0 car these days (spoken in the mid-'80s'). Rinse and repeat. The one car I SHOULD have cashed it all in for (at the time when I was basically broke) was an RS my friend ended up buying for $25K in about '95. Partial lightweight with ~70K KM. But no one touched it because it was a Sepia Brown car that had been color changed white.

1pcarnut

No argument there, would like to just have the chance to drive one of those once.

umfan866

Guys --

I've asked the Pelicans - now time to ask the Rennlisters -- what to make of a red 1995 993 with 55k miles, upgraded stereo, salvaged 11 years ago? I pulled the autocheck report and sure enough it has salvage all over it. Seller is firm at 20k (at least on email) - I could and probably should see this car on the weekend, since I am comparing it to one with odomoter issues (the guy in the thread below who says to buy his car has odo issue on his car and carfax reports the discrepancy- he claims it is documented and after he sends in the docs carfax will fix it) --- and I am comparing it to another car with 3 accident reports on it (but no salvage). Lets say the seller of the salvage car agreed to 16 or 17k - would that be a deal (I figure 15k would be a good deal ) - and 13.8 is what the bank will lend me only for a salvage car....

Thanks MH


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...55k-miles.html

TRINITONY

very true..example; if my E55 were to be hit in the rear with minum damage, but the exhaust had to be replaced, it would be salvaged since the exhaust cost $8k. This happen recently to a guy on mbworld. Back in 01 when new it would of been repaired since car was valued at $75k+.

tonypai

Salvage laws differ by state, so I'd research each state where the car was titled and see what sort of requirements it had to pass to get a Salvage Title. In Illinois, the car has to pass two inspections. An IDOT safety inspection and a Salvage Vehicle Inspection conducted by the police. I'm sure that here in Chicago it involves handing someone an envelope full of $20s.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Salvage title to make a track car but I'd think twice and perform the proper due diligence to buy a nice daily driver. Though, I think I'd buy anything if the price was right. You should see my $150 laptop that works as a great paper weight.

johnsjmc

I bought a 1986 911 cab with 20000 mi on it in 1988. It was a theft recovery. It started out in Maine and was imported into Quebec Can. .It was put back together there and then sold to me in Ont. Que .didn,t brand the title so it was then titled in Ont as a clean title. I drove the car for 15 yrs and sold for 4000 less than I paid. I disclosed it,s history to the small dealer when I sold it BUT I doubt they told the next buyer anything. I would consider a salvage car at a min 1/3 discount from the same car without. I have a 1995 993 now which has a clean carfax with no reported accidents but it has had a small repair to the back left. I bought it at a good price and consider it just another used car now. If the car is a bargain and you are looking for a driver then a salvage title can save you some money. Would you rather buy a clean title car needing expensive repairs like a top end or branded needing nothing?

1pcarnut

I would ask myself two questions before buying a salvage:

1 - If I decide to sell, for whatever reason, is the price attractive enough that I will get my money back.

2- Do I know what happened to cause the salvage. Is there documentation and photos I can see (and show to future buyers) to show how severe or not severe the damage was.

If I was comfortable with those two answers I would buy the car, if not, walk away.

As a little background, I used to do bodywork for a living and spent 5 years buying and rebuilding salvage cars. This was 20 years ago before the Russians and Vietnamese basically took over the auctions here locally. I got out of it because they were bidding the prices so high it wasn't worth it. Up until then I was very selective about what I bought to fix and there were some cars that I came across that had very little damage. California requires a headlight/brake light inspection which is fine but this tells you nothing about how the car was repaired, only that the brakes and lights work. So if a seller touts that the car passed California inspection, doesn't really mean much.