Salvage Title ?

First, the rules vary from state to state. Generally, this is the scenario: Car is damaged to an extent that the insurance company calls it a "total loss". The cost of repairs is equal to or more than a percentage of the value of the car, usually between 50 and 100%. The owner is paid by the insurance company and the insurance company sells the car at an auction like Copart. When the next owner repairs and sells the car, the new title states "salvage". Usually the car needs to be inspected after the repair and a sticker is placed on it stating that it has been inspected. From then on, the title will always state that it is a salvage car. I would doubt that minor front end damage without air bag deployment would total a 2017 Prime Advanced. But it wouldn't cause a lot of damage to total an older car. In other words, $5K damage to a 2010 Prius would probably total it, but not a $20K 2017 Prime. Generally a salvage title will decrease the resale value of a car by 30 to 50 per cent even if the repairs are completed perfectly.

 

And I think a salvage title voids all of the Toyota warranty, including emissions/HSD/battery.

 

No matter how few miles there are on a salvage title car it’s never worth more than a 150,000+ mile example with no warranty.

Another word of caution
There are a lot of flood damaged cars being passed off as collision damaged salvage

I wouldn’t buy salvage for a long while

 

Ins. co offers the owner an agreed $$ for a totalled car and takes possession of the car. The owner inquires with the ins.co if they're willing to sell it back. Ins. co.may agree - to them it's saving the hassle of towing from the owner, storage, shipping to an ins. auction, title fees, etc.

Re whether it's worth buying, the answer is as always - it depends. Salvage cars are hard to insure. But you may get a tremendous value: for example, my old X5 was totalled mostly due to high mileage, but I owned it from new, it was meticulously maintained and I knew the damage was purely cosmetic; I decided not to get it back but to this day I still regret not doing it. The only thought that comforts me is likely the ins. co would ask too much as later it was sold at auction for rediculously high $$.

 

If planning on buying a salvage Prius you better be an excellent electronics bench tech with all the tools they use because many salvage Prius have a lot of electronic gremlins and hard to fix. If you are not a bench tech and just a regular guy looking for a “steal” then you are the mercy of the dealer at $150 an hour if any issues arise and boy do they like working on intermittent electronic issues. A full wallet exploration ensues.
You may as well leave your wallet on the passenger seat when you give them the car.

Seen lots of those here.

 

Yes, it's in the actual print (not the fine print) in the official Toyota warranty booklet. No warranties at all on salvage titled vehicles. Period.

 

And yes, if you're not a diy type, skip it.

 

I think @smyles have already answered your question. If the original owner keeps the car after an accident in which the car was declared a "total loss", the insurance proceeding to the owner would be decreased by the amount of the wholesale value of the totaled car. I had an insured car (not a Prius) which was declared total loss after minor accident because of the repair cost exceeding the value of the car. However, it was an old car (10 years old), and the damage was all cosmetic and not a major mechanical or structural. I bought back the totaled car from the insurance company at the whole sale value, my insurance proceed was decreased by that amount. I still ended up receiving a check enough to fix the car to make it drivable. The head light, bumper cover, AC condenser and fender was all needed to be fixed. After paying for the repair, I still had money left from the insurance check. The salvage title on insurance company name had to be re-processed with an affidavit from the body shop to verify that the repair has been made, then the "rebuild salvage" title was issued. If you know the extent of damage caused by the accident and know exact repair that had been performed on the car, salvaged and then repaired car is as good as just repaired car, but as others said, it's resale value is much less.

 

Yeah, knowing what "they" are doing is the hardest part for used car sales, including salvaged car. Only time I would buy a salvaged car is if I am the original owner of the car. I would not trust ANYONE who is selling a salvaged car.

 

At $16000 that's not such great deal. I paid about that same amount for my 2019 Prime after rebates and incentives. Brand new, with full warranty.

 

State law gives the percentage of value where the costs are great enough to total the car. 85% is a common threshold...if a $10k car needs $8500 in repairs according to the insurance adjuster, then the law requires that the insurance company total the car. That threshold amount might be different percentages in different states. If the car isn't scrapped, it is sold with a "branded" title. Savage title is one of several branded titles. All reduce the resale value. In some states a clean title can be restored after state inspection. Salamander makes a good point in that the repair cost may be on cosmetic parts & labor, not parts vital for safety, therefore the car can still be safe after repairs. In other cases the 10 foot pole rule applies (don't touch with....).

 

watch member @Sharnold , he does a lot of salvage repair

 

someone purchased and rebuilt a salvage pip a few years back. it was great for awhile, then started having electrical phantoms, and he wound up dumping it

 

With VIN you can usually google the auction listing with photos of the damage; I think it's the reason the VIN isn't listed in the ad.