Would you buy a salvage title vehicle?

Hi there!

Retail cost for parts, and labor rates are very expensive. That means it doesn't take extensive damage to total one, depending on age/value/etc. If you're rebuilding the car yourself, and you have access to the tools, equipment, and parts to do the job right then you can have a quality salvage titled car for good money. Yes, that's a lot of qualifiers.

I've bought, fixed, and sold several salvage title cars. Depending on how it was damaged, it can be a good deal. My mother's '96 Lumina was a salvage title car because of hail damage. Dad and I do paint and bodywork, so it wasn't a big deal to fix. It was never wrecked.

My sister's Olds Alero came out of a Florida car lot from hurricane damage. The story is that the insurance adjuster came onto the car lot, started adding up damage until they hit a threshold, then totaled everything on the lot. Her car was inside for detailing when the storm hit. It had some damage from being hit be debris but not wrecked.

My ex-wife's '07 Malibu was hit lightly in the front. Dad and I fixed the damage with all new parts. I bought it for $4700, and had it on the road, including taxes and fees, for $8200. It listed for close to $11k at the time. That car was originally a rental car, as far as I can tell, and with 24,000 miles on it was due to be replaced by the rental car company anyway so I suspect they just wrote it off.

The most expensive part of fixing that Malibu was replacing the driver's side air bag (passenger air bag did not deploy), both front seat belts (they permanently lock in a collision as a safety feature but afterwards they must be replaced), the airbag controller (it cannot be re-used after a wreck, I assume to preserve black box data?). We did put it on a frame machine to make sure things were in the right place. They pulled the bumper horns at bit for us to get them back in spec. but it was otherwise in good shape.

The common thread here is that all of the salvage cars I've touched, I've been involved in their repair.

Personally I would be very cautious about buying a salvage car that had already been repaired unless I knew a lot about either the shop fixing it, or the extent of the repairs. If it was a light wreck, or something like hail damage, then that's not a big deal. If it was rolled, fire, or flood damaged, I'd walk away.

its what i do
purchased this salvaged here


fixed it and sold it

this was my parents when they bought it, and it has been fixed and DD since

awaiting when the doors were located

And this one is my Dad's, it is NOT salvaged. He bought it like this

and fixed it, again good title

And this was mine i bought salvaged like this with 798 miles, also had some rear damage

and i fixed it and sold it

I bought this last fall, CLEAN title but wrecked

and still work in progress, not done yet

And my brother bought this with CLEAN title

And he finally found the correct color code door and we installed the door last night it is a work in progress too


and there are many more i have done or helped fix. When i was 15 (24 years ago) I bought a '79 Monte Carlo that a tractor pulling a plow hit the back left end. It looked like the disc essentially can opened the whole back side. fixed it and drove it for like 5 years then sold it.

I am not a professional body man, I do this as a amateur, on the side. I spend time to find correct colored replacement panels for the most part.
As you can see by the variety of my pics, some of the ones that got salvaged were less damaged than the ones that titles stayed clean. Remember, when you buy a clean title car, it may have been badly damaged, and vice versa, a salvage may have been almost nothing.

I prefer front wrecked. Can get matching panels and come-along the rails to get stuff to fit. No paint work needed, I do not paint. My brother and parents, have more money and can afford to pay a painter on their cars.

oh and this is one my brother purchased, it has a salvage, he has since fixed it and it is his summer car.


Most of the cars pictured would have been scrapped and taken off the road. I wish more people would try and save them it is not that hard to save them and make them a driver again.
I stay away from stuff that gets into the roof line, or rocker panel, B Pillar.
When i buy these, most are at auction, going off pictures. Look for REAL Clean cars, except the damage, if the picture shows a clean engine compartment, clean carpet, interior, etc, and the car has low miles, go for it.