Salvage title vehicles how is it handled in your state???

Seems to be big around me car gets totaled, gets all re done = salvage title. Not worth much to sell or trade in, some issues in insuring and registration. The old buy it back from insurance company and Billy Bob and Bubba makes one out of three!!!! There is a movement a foot to send them to scrap and cannot be put on the road again. (I kind of support this) Worst part is they try register in another state and hide the salvage job!! We have another that was wrecked and insurance paid for it: got re done and wrecked again now awaiting insurance man for full coverage claim. What are your thoughts and how is it handled in your state????

My sister in law is the tax collector for our county. According to her. In Texas the title is stamped Salvage Title or it can say Repaired Salvage. If entered into the system properly.The warning will stay with the title. Not illegal to buy a salvage vehicle. But the buyer must be aware that it is a salvage vehicle.If you buy a car from anyone and you think there may be a problem. You can have a full title search done.Rules may change by state so check with your local tax office or DMV.

If someone else damages or destroys your salvage titled vehicle here in CA, you may not get anything from their insurance, as they can claim it has already been paid off. I think I could sucessfully fight that.
Getting a salvage vehicle on the road involves many inspections and DMV shenanigans, and may require higher insurance premiums.
Some vehicles are totalled afyer relatively minor but expensive damage, that a skilled guy can fix cheaply. Merely firing an airbag is cause for totalling many. Some go too far, welding two separate car halves together, and I don't trust that kind of sheet metal weld to protect my family in a crash.

here is the illinois nutshell. as a body shop ower i have a repairer license and also a rebuilder license. there are a few different vehicle title classifications. clean title, salvage (a vehicle deemed a total loss for whatever reason) the salvage can be converted to a rebuilt and put back in service, a junk title, this can only be sold as parts and never rebuilt. there is also a flood vehicle title. the flood stamp can never be removed. in our state a vehicle is deemed a total loss if the cost to repair plus the salvage value is greater than the acv. so, if you have a 10k vehicle with 8k in damage and the salvage value is 2k, its a total loss by the insurance company. does not matter what the damage is. simple hail damage can total out an otherwise perfectly operational vehicle. the process to rebuild here, you need the rebuilder licence or dealer license to purchase a salvage title vehicle. then repairs are made, and copies of all repairs along with paqrts invoices are taken with the vehicle to a state licensed inspection facility. they look over the vehicle, verify receipts and give you a form that is sent down state for a rebuilt title. another type of scenario is abandoned vehicles. for what ever reason, an owner abandons the car. its gets towed by police order. tow company does a title search to find the owner then sends registered letters to owner. the vehicle accrues storage charges while the car is in the tow companys possesion. the tow company must hold the vehicle for 90 days if no response from the owner, then the vehicle goes up for sealed bids. if no bids the car is basically sold to the tow company for accrued charges. it is issued a certificate of purchase by the police dept. the c.o.p can then be converted to a salvage title, and then to a rebuilt title, or just converted to a salvage title and sold to a scrapper. sometimes you luck out and there is a loan on the car and the bank has to come get it and pay the charges, but they only have to pay a maximum of 30 days storage.

Ohio you have to repair it and then go to a certain State Patrol office. Like only 2 in the whole state ? Sort of a pain and some costs involved.
There are many times where a vehicle is totaled and it is not that bad of condition. Body shop labor rates and high parts costs don't help much.

In my state they can take the car to an inspection and actually get rid of the salvage title and get back to a regular title. I had to take a bike for something and the special inspection station was filled with guys doing bodywork out of their garages and fixing salvage cars. All high end Mercedeces and luxury models . So in the future the car you buy may have been totaled and fixed by an amatuer or retired auto body guy. But the title is no longer salvage.

The laws regarding what "totals" a car are ambiguous.

For example, my 1993 Ford that I keep on the road as a spare car. A simple parking lot ding could be enough to technically "total" it. Does that make the car unsafe to drive? Or should I say any less safe than it was BEFORE the damage??? The vehicles that I drive have very little retail value, but they are very dependable for day to day use. I would be in bad shape to lose either one of my vehicles. BUT, to deprive me of my basic transportation over a minor fender bender would be totally unfair to me. I should have the option of keeping my vehicle as long as no safety issues arise from a minor collision. In this way, salvage laws are unfair. They need to distinguish between what is a safety issue (like taking halves of different cars and making one from them) and just changing a taillight lens.

Typical government "one size fits all" thinking.

No dealer will take it in on trade. I got insurance, no problem. Had to take it to a good place to get front end alignment. Good luck selling it. A foot not, car rentals are self insured. So they can sell a wreck and no carfax records.

jocco........when I bought my Alzheimered sisters Toyota Solara, sent fer a title transfer to N Mex. They sent me back a "Salvage" title. Which I took into the local DMV. Besides haffin' the State Patrol inspect it fer "safety" issues, (4-new tires, $500) they wanted to charge me Washington State Sales TAX on original Dealers MSP. ($4400) Ain't gonna happen. All because I didn't gitta "sales receipt" from my sister. (who knew?) So rite now its sittin' in my 5-acre sheep pasture. Ittza rite peppy little thang with V-6 compared to my Dodge Diesel pick'em-up. Which reminds me, I gotta gitt my midlife crisis (1976 MGB sportscar) re-tired fer health and welfare visit to Farmington, N Mex. Ittza 2-day drive from Seattle Wash. I haffta enter our brothers ashes in her crypt along with her husbands. That will bee a $700 charge. Its even EXPENSIVE to die (frown) ........Durango Dell

Just more government overreach. I would be really ------ if a crunched fender on my classic '70 Ford F100 caused it to be "totaled" and mandtorily junked. Just of all the used parts that would be removed from the market.As with anything 'used',"buyer beware".I do agree that a rebuilt wreck should be titled as 'salvege' or repaired with a history attatched. I like the Carfax thing these days.

I'm not sure I understand this; The book value on a 22 year old vehicle must be next to nothing (I know my 1990 Club Wagon is). If you have collision insurance on it what you would be paid, for a total, couldn't be much more than the premium. And if you have no 'collision' then how can it be 'totaled'? Unless it is a "classic" and you name the value on your policy prior to insuring.

You missed my point. I did not say that I carried collision insurance. What I meant was that if somebody damages my car in a parking lot (just as an example), and basically dents a fender, his/her insurance would then be obligated to pay for my damages. They would then appraise my car, pay me a little pocket change, and then want to take my car. I would then need to buy back the salvage rights, and in order to get it retitled and re-registered, I would have to go through the whole procedure of having to have the car re-certified as roadworthy - OVER A DENTED FENDER!!!!! Doesn't seem right to me.

I would NEVER carry collision insurance on a car over 10 years old. You are right in that respect - the value of the car would be less than the insurance premium.

I think that would be only if you made a claim. If you do nothing I don't see how they are entitled to do anything with YOUR car.

In Minnesota it is salvage titled if the insurance company decides not to fix it. Some years ago I saw a $10,000 car with a $11,000 body shop bill and it was not branded because the insurance company paid to have it fixed. I bought a $5,000 car that cost $500 to fix and since the insurance company didn't fix it, it got a branded title. They don't fix then because they can get so much salvage value for a damaged vehicle and they don't have any customer complaints after the repair. Another reason is that in winter in Minnesota the body shops can be flooded with work so they recommend a total for anything that doesn't look as profitable. It is not based on the extent of the damage as many would think. I have fixed and driven many rebuilt title cars. My brother has always driven rebuilt cars. You want to buy them cheap and get them fixed yourself so that you know it is done right. Right now the damaged cars are not cheap enough to make it work out so I don't do it anymore.

Back in the '80,s I used to make a living building salvage (and any and all collision work). The salvage law had just came out. It only applied to vehicles 6 model yrs old or newer by law. Ins companies ignored that and just filed for salvage title on everything they totaled no matter how old.You don't think they are getting payoffs from the big 3 for every one they potentially get off the road?? Between that and the liability, they don't like to fix anything anymore. Here in Mi I have a pristine low mile '99 Suburban and my company just had me go get it appraised and pics and it is insured on a value of $ 9000 so they aren't going to "total" it for a minor fender bender. If stolen I get $ 9000, period,end of story. Book value not relevant. Auto company lobbyists have been trying to get every wrecked car off the roads for the last 25 yrs without success. I believe that damage should be documented just like miles but I also believe that any new car that requires ANY amount of paint/body repair should also be documented and disclosed at time of sale as a new car. Lot of "new" cars go to the body shop before ever being sold / delivered and NOTHING disclosed to new owner paying payments for next 7 yrs. Even appliances are discounted for "scratch/dent" damage. One Chevy dealer where I live had a brand new (in 86) Monte Carlo SS that when being test driven got broadsided by a motorcycle and they run it through their body shop and sold it as brand new . I knew it had been wrecked so called salesman one day and busted him . Tried to pretend he didn't know of it. It was silver and their shop run by idiots didn't know how to blend in paint or too lazy to do it so lt door didn't match and I asked him if that was normal and he got very perturbed and hung up on me. Lot of crap goes on in the auto business,customer gets screwed every time.

Many times there is nothing really wrong other then the car is old and hit a deer or other such thing so the guy buys it back from the insurance company and so a salvage title. The car I drive most of the time has a salvage title and was that way before I got it and it has for the most part nothing wrong with it. As for them saying they need to go to the wrecking yard that is just another way to make people buy newer cars and the Gov stepping in where they do not belong. Pretty much the same as the cash for clunkers that was done 7 or so years ago and many cars with nothing wrong with them getting trashed just because the Gov said people need to drive new cars. Many people can not afford to buy a car for say $25,000 plus and me I would not even if I could afford to

When I redid one of my show cars I decided to do the paint myself. I don't have a dedicated booth so I did my work weekends at the Chevy dealership a friend worked at. A Honda Accord came in with less than 500 miles on it. They didn't total it but it ended up being worse than the adjuster thought. They ended up cutting it at the A pillar and replacing the entire back end. When it was done the owner didn't want it - he thought it would be a death trap. The shop manager said the only way around it is if you leave here and go immediately trade it in before I can get the paperwork entered. That's exactly what he did. Watch out for purple Hondas.

Here in nc the dmv man wants to see the records of the damage, what the dealer did to fix it and then he inspects it before you can get a salvage title. Changing an engine gets a salvage title also.

Bought my 93 f150 with a bent fender and bumper several years ago for $150. Replaced the parts, painted the whole truck, and had a new interior put in. Ended up with a grand in it. Bought my 02 Tarus for $300, engine for $150, new Michelins and I was rolling for a grand. BIL was a dealer at that time.

Yes a salvage title hurts resale value so if you're a trader don't buy one. If there's a claim insurance companies go by the blue book even if it's a salvage title.