salvaged title ? worth it ?

after seeing my daughters 04 get hit by a deer at 60mph, hood, grill, headlite, windshield, right front door, right rear door and only 5K to fix by toyota dealer, that's gotta be some kind of cosmetic damage for a total.

 

I would vote with the others here that say only go for this car if (1) you are prepared to do the work yourself, or have someone you can trust to do the work; (2) you are prepared for it to be a lot of work that you will pay for yourself; (3) you are prepared to drive it until the wheels fall off because your chances of selling it for a decent price are slim to none.

Another couple of things to consider: Airbags typically deploy only in front end collisions. If this car was hit from the driver's side, having the airbags not deploy doesn't necessarily mean that this was a "small" accident. Is the seller the original owner? If not, where did he get the car? Who did the repairs?

I'm not sure what, if any, the insurance regulations in CA say regarding what percent of the value of the vehicle the repairs must equal for the car to be totaled. It might be interesting to find that out. Then search online for comparable non-salvage cars, see what they're going for, and consider what the repairs must have cost for this particular car to be totaled.

 

I bought a 2007 Corolla with a salvaged title last year. It was stolen & not recovered until after the owner had been paid off. It had some damage to the left front fender & driver door. I saw pictures taken from the police when it was recovered. The door was repaired & the fender replaced. It booked out at $11k without damage & I got it for $6200. It's been a solid car for almost a year now & will be driven by my daughters.

I think it just depends on the damage & where it was. This one sounds like it would be okay to me if it was checked as you say. The biggest thing for me is that I wasn't really worried about selling the Corolla I bought so I didn't care about resell value.

 

you can buy a mor reliable high mileage 2010 for the same price

 

Not exactly a prius, but we salvaged her car after she had some bad luck -- within 2 weeks she had two different people hit her while they were "unparking" (one from a parallel parking spot, one from a driveway). Both accidents were very low speed, and only damaged the sheet metal. Car wasn't worth much, so it was easy for the ins. company to total it. If we had had time to fix the first one, they wouldn't have. We went ahead and fixed it.

Of course, in this case we knew the history of the car, and that all the damage was to the passenger side sheet metal.

For a car the price of a prius, I'd agree that you should really be careful.

Jim.

 

I am looking for a low priced 2010-2013 totalled and rebuilt. It is a gamble, but sometimes it is worth it. I use a 95 Neon as a delivery vehicle for U-Ship (Shipping Wars on A & E) and would make more $$$ with a Prius. There is a place in Indiana that rebuild them and their batteries...some were even rebuilt with a small pick up truck bed! I'd kill for a van version!

 

I've always wondered on vehicles with "salvage" title; will an insurance company provide collision insurance or just liability?; I assume there is absolutely no warranty provided by the manufacturer, so what is a rule of thumb to pay for a "salvage" title vehicle vs a comparable one with good title to make it a worthwhile risk?

 

My 07 Corolla is out of warranty any way so I wasn't worried. My insurance company treats it like any of my other cars since the car was salvaged means it was repaired & road worthy after being totaled. I've seen a salvaged car that was repaired so well I couldn't tell at all. All the work was done to perfection. You just need to find the good ones & you will be in good shape.