whats the deal with salvage titles?
 

stay away?...orrr what. i might be looking into a car with one i was just wondering. i searched this site and came up with nothing.

Call the DMV and ask. I think you will find it is not worth the trouble (unless it's a parts car)

What kind of car?

Some members on here (cbrrmike I think) have brought salvage titled cars back from the grave... he could fill you in for sure.

My opinion is this: If it's a car with value attached and the damage wasn't too horrible then you can fix it properly, get it certified in trenton, and get the S taken off of your title. If you buy it and it needs a lot of work, then it will be a lot of $ out of your pocket. Then if you go to sell it with the S on the title, other people will know that it's been wrecked and will not want to pay a lot for it. They will also question any repairs that you have done to it.

my camaro was a salvage car, my mustang was a salvage car, and my ta was a salvage car....if you have the ability to truly look it over, find out where it was hit and really look for lingering damage, they can be good buys.

you can usually get a good deal on the car since the title will lower its value, but on the same token, you can expect to get as much return when you go to sell it

in this day and age of airbags, computers, and unibodys, a LOT of cars are getting totaled out that are NOT bad fixes, its the price of the components that drive it past the insurance companies total mark.

Hey Mike,
What was that title company again that someone mentioned before that does all the paperwork for you to retrieve titles?

JW :D

ok thank you for the info so far. it's a 99 wrangler, says it was damaged in a flood but he drives it alot. it wasn't in an accident. what kind of damage can there be if he drives it alot? rust?

IMO,

That's a decent car to get from a flood. The interior itself can be torn out and replaced easily, and the engine only has basic electronics on it.

Could have been mostly interior damage, and he just ripped it out (maybe replaced the carpet - maybe Herculined the tub instead). Talk to the seller and find out what he says was damaged....ask for a copy of the original insurance paperwork and any paperwork he has from getting items fixed on his own.

- Justin

yeah, wranglers are designed to get pretty wet, and chances are the "flood" was only enough to get the interior wet. find out if the owner will tell you, but since he drives it i doubt anything made it up into the intake...i think depending on the price it would be a decent buy. BUT

even if he says he did it. pull the covers off the rears, make sure they look ok, replace and put in new gear oil. flush and replace all the fluids in the trans and transfer case as well

jw......i dont know, i got all mine from the rebuildables lot at my dads work in pa. part of the sale is that they handle the pa title going to "rebuilt" status. then to get it transfered to jersey you have to jump through a couple hoops, including an inspection at the state pd in sea girt....

ONCE IT IS TITLED IN JERSEY ONCE. any owners after that do not have to do any of that, it will be just like buying any other used car

there is a wrangler at his work now, theft recovery, all that's missing is the top, doors, and some small interior pieces, and the insurance company totaled it

What he said. Mike is lucky, I know where his hookup is, you can pretty much find anything there.

Also, NJ CAN be a real PITA with salvaged cars...so check with DMV like others have said.

yeah, you used to just have walk around pictures of before and after the repair. apparently people were cheating that system, and you now have to take the car to a special inspection before they will give it a nj title

I'm interested in this wrangler. Send me a text/call 60.99.33.55.11.

g

The one thing with flood cars you have to watch is the electrical componets. I had a flood car and all of a sudden things would just stop working, dash, lights, PW's. So just take a good look at the wiring and try to find out more info about the flood.

g-

just checked the site and its not listed anymore.

anyone that wants to know

www.trevoseauto.com

www.als-auto.com both are the same place, seperate lots, no i cant get discounts, and my dad dosent to much side work anymore

broadway titles does your work for you

for a fee....... otherwise its just time consuming

300 bucks to cut the red tape in half.

Oh yeah, was the Wrangler involved in a fresh or salt water flood? I wouldn't touch a salt water flood with a 10 foot pole, I don't care how good it's running right now.

That's VERY important bit of info to find out.

indeeeeeed it is

I dont think broadway titles does salvage cars.

Here .. nope:
http://www.broadwaytitle.com/PDF_Forms/75-93forms.pdf