What are the drawbacks, if any, to buying a car that has been salvaged?

Question

I found a great offer but the only problem I see is that the car has been salvaged. Should I still make the purchase?

Answer 1

structural integrity. may not hold up well in another crash, may have been put back together poorly by chop shop, body alignment may be off, wears down tires fast, difficult to resell, may have extra difficultity to register or insure. you may want to see before pictures if any, why it was salvaged. Could have been flooded, rust, mold, electrical gremlins etc...

Answer 2

If it runs and drives good I don't see why not I know people who have bought cars from salvage yards and have never had any problems. The only drawbacks I see are:
1 what has happened to the car to cause it to be salvaged. (not all reasons are bad but some are)
2 No matter how much you put into it if you were to sell it you would not get a good price because it will have a salvage title Good Luck

Answer 3

There is the draw back that you usually can't trade a salvaged title in at the car lot in California anyways. My cousin has bought wrecked cars for years and we all buy them even his wife has one. We all have had good experiences with them. They all look like they have never been wrecked to the untrained eye and rarely to the trained eye. I have a 95 ford Taurus and I have had it for over a year. My Aunt had a 94 Pontiac Grand Am in 95 From him and she had it til 2002 at least and it ran good just ended having problems with coolant system which is common in Grand Ams anyway. If you get one make sure you have it inspected by a mechanic and body shop since you don't know the person who fixed it. Also you won't get anymore value if you add too it yourself. It will always have less value then a used because it's salvaged. We have always got are monies worth even after we sale them it depends on how good of a deal you are paying for it. It should be exceptionally lower then blue book value on a used car.

Answer 4

Reconstructed vehicles are OK to buy as long as you can get them registered in the state where you reside. Depending on the age of the vehicle and the nature of the damage, it might not take a lot of damage to consider a vehicle to be a total loss. Compare the value minus salvage to the cost of repairs. If the cost of repairs is 80% or more of the vehicle value, less salvage, insurance companies consider the vehicles to be a constructive total loss.
Reconstructed vehicles should sell for less than undamaged used vehicles. You can check values at www.edmunds.com. If you are going to save 20% or more on the reconstructed vehicle, the next step is to have it inspected by a mechanic and a body shop. They may be able to find hidden problems.

Answer 5

Wow good answers so far,
*I want to add that depending on the year of the car as little as a broken headlamp can total it. At one point this vechicle would have had to cost more to fix than what the insurance company felt it was worth.
*Also I have read that cars that were down in New Orleans during hurricane' Katrina are now being resold all over the country. Flood damage is something I would not be comfortable with.
*Good Luck

Answer 6

the car will always just have "salvage" value. even if it's fixed up as good as new. it'll have a title that says it's salvage, so if you ever want to sell it, or even trade it in, the potential buyer will see that and not want to pay what it's really worth.

Answer 7

what kind of damage was done to the car is what you ask yourself? if it was hit in the rear i dont really like those kinds.. but if its hit in the front make sure none of the motor mounts are broke or the trans..

Answer 8

i dont know of any