Even though I am not particularly fond of motorcycles, I’ve been toying with the idea of owning one for a number of years. In their favor: thanks to the wonders of lane splitting, I wouldn’t have to spend hours of my life crawling through traffic. On the other hand, every single rider I’ve ever talked with tells me, “You’re going to fall off at least once.”
But come to think of it, isn’t that the same problem with cars?
One of the recommendations I’ve most often heard about cars is that you should buy a cheap and disposable one to learn (to drive) as it will get scuffed and dented and generally FUBAR’d by the combination of youthful antics and inexperience. Every one of us has had at least one close call with our cars, be it our fault or someone else’s. Every time we go out on the roads, we’re trusting that every single other pedestrian, cyclist, biker or driver knows what they’re doing and will not screw up massively. Most of the time it works. Other times, it doesn’t.
Latin America has always had a proud reputation of taking cars that have been totaled in the U.S and repairing them using ingenuity, cheap labor and a complete disregard for safety. On the upside, you can have a reasonably recent car with all the accouterments at a fraction of what the dealers would want for one. On the downside, like a relative of mine, you can drive around your pride and joy only to have it suffer a complete suspension failure a day down the line. No consumer protection to make whomever sold it to you take it back, either. I’m of the mind that a totaled car can be repaired and made to function as well as when it comes down the line, but you have to be prepared to shell out some serious money and bring someone along to make sure you’re not getting ripped off, Mr. Wormwood style.
So, fair people of the CC Commentariat, would you play with fate and drive around in something that has been crashed before? Or would you just rather wait until depreciation comes along?
I guess it depends on the severity of the damage. If the tires are shredded, the front of the car looks like any of the cars in the pictures, or it can’t be driven safely, then no. I wouldn’t drive the car. A car needs everything working in order to be safe. Without working headlamps, how can you see at night?
In general no but it depends on why it was totaled. I did have a totaled 626 for some time but the reason it was totaled was because someone had broken into it and slashed the seats, and dashboard. I purchased it that way and instead of paying the $150-$300 for each section of upholstery that had been damaged I went to the wrecking yard and spent about $300 for used seats and door panels. I also wouldn’t mind an older car that was totaled because of a very minor collision but the cost of new replacement parts exceeded the value of the car. I’ve watched the insurance auctions and I’ve seen some cars that were totaled that only needed a headlight, marker light and maybe a grill.
My mother in law’s Ranger was totaled because of a hit in the door. By the time they included blending the paint on the bed which they wanted to remove the tool box and bed liner to do the estimate was quite high. Something like $2500. She bought it back and I spent an hour putting a $75 door from a wrecking yard on it. She pocketed the difference and drives around with a green door on her blue truck. She wanted it back on the road now or I would have tried harder to find one in the right color. On the plus side the pin stripe on the replacement door matches.
I repaired and still drive a totaled car. I wouldn’t do it again.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/my-curbside-classic/curbside-catharsis-travels-with-dad-and-brigitte/
Anytime an enthusiast invests more money in a car than it is worth, he is rolling the dice whenever he drives it. Doesn’t matter whose insurance is responsible none is going to pay more than a car is worth (to them).
Not really replacing my Minx would cost 5k to find one in similar condition I paid $200 but finding another 59 3a is virtually impossible in this country some exist in Europe and the UK I’m told by google. So best not to run into it
Been there, done that. I’ve had three cars the were originally insurance write-offs and had zero issues. My first car, a ’74 Pinto, was total even though it was drivable. Another was a ’78 Concord that was also a drivable total. My ’88 T-Bird ex-rental should have been a total but was also purchased as a rebuildable. Got a lot of good use out of that car.
That’s a good question. It best is answered with: it depends.
Some cars get totaled when only minor damage has occurred. I would not shy away from driving one of those. However, when the body structure has been damaged including the shock towers and back, I would not want this car. I definitely want to see the car prior to repair so I can guess how bad the damage to the structure was.
The Honda Element in your picture looks repairable.
A car with HID lights can easily declared a total loss because the HID lights are so expensive. Nothing would keep me to put Halogen lights to replace the HID units.
“It depends” is spot-on. A newer car that had been in a serious accident and then rebuilt? I’d be leery. Rather go a couple years older or a little higher mileage and save myself some headaches. An older car? Well they can get totaled for all sorts of little things. My ’79 Malibu has had a salvage title since the late 90’s, when it was hit broadside at very low speed. Required some panel work on the front fender and door, no other damage, but that was enough to be above the ludicrously low “book value” so it was technically a total. A few hundred dollars and one salvage title later, it was back on the road with no problems.
At a certain point in my life, absolutely. As noted it gets back to how comfortable you are in assessing the damage, how much it will cost to fix, how much money you have, and how you want the car to look. My son front-end crashed our 98 Civic, looked horrible, definitely totaled by insurance standards. However, a radiator, AC condenser and compressor, oxygen sensor, grill, non-matching hood, and front clip (<$500 total from salvage yard) and its back on the road. Of course no frame damage allowed and in this case I knew exactly what caused the damage. For him, and for me at that age, it's fine (and a good reminder as well to drive safely)
I would think that the best “totaled” cars to buy would be the older vehicles since it usually takes a lot less to total them out. You can probably pick up an 8-12 year old car with a salvage title for peanuts that has suffered mostly cosmetic damage.
I personally would avoid anything with frame damage or airbag deployment since you’d be trusting your life to the shady repairshop that bought it at auction and bolted on the front clip (or whatever) from another wreck.
I would also avoid “flood cars”. With all the electronic/computer crap on today’s vehicles, there’s just too many “ifs” that could creep up and haunt you later on.
Of course, if it were me who totaled it and I knew everything about the accident (and I could ensure the work was done up to standard) I probably wouldn’t hesitate. I know that salvage cars are a “cheap” way to get into a newer vehicle, but I would avoid anything less than 8 years old for all the reasons mentioned above.
I’ve never purchased a totaled or wrecked vehicle, and would probably only do so (at this stage in my life) as a parts car.
Years ago, my brother rear-ended an Expedition in our former ’90 Civic hatch (pic). I’m not sure he even had insurance on it at the time, but it probably would have been totaled anyway – it had 180K on it… We pulled the front sheet metal out with a come-along, flattened the hood where it would latch again, and replaced the headlights with units from a junkyard S-10. A junkyard radiator completed the repair work, and he drove it another 40K before selling it for exactly what he paid us.
More recently, I hit a large raccoon with my New Beetle in 2003 or thereabouts – hard enough to bend the radiator back into the engine. The initial repair estimate was around $3,500, so the insurance company initiated the work. Once into it, the estimate and final bill rose to $6,500 (which they covered). I suspect had the initial estimate been that high, it would have been totaled. The repair shop did a good job on the exterior (there were a number of missing bolts under the hood that required a return trip). Never had any problems with it, and sold it at a premium with 219K on the odo.
Depends/I have.
As I explained in the comments to Paul’s post on my old FIAT Coupe, here in the UK we have four grades of “totalled” the lower two of which are deemed by our (fairly strict) vehicle safety/roadworthiness authorities, as safe to repair and return to the road.
The AA have a good page explaining the four categories of UK Insurance write-off:
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/legal-advice/code-of-practice-vehicle-salvage.html
I’ve owned one repaired Category D (the aforementioned Coupe) and disposed of one Category C which went on to be returned to the road.
So long as the safety of the vehicle has been checked out according to a stringent set of rules like this, I’d be perfectly happy owning and driving another “totalled” car at some point.
In more “liberal” motoring markets however (like the US) I wouldn’t touch one with a barge pole.
I did purchase a totalled 2001 Lesabre five years ago and still own it. I repaired it myself. The previous owner had lightly rear-ended a truck, and the hitch receiver on the truck punched through the bumper cover and grazed the top of the aluminum bumper. This impact was sufficient to cause both front airbags to deploy (possibly causing injury to the occupants, but this is a whole ‘nuther topic for a different time).
If the car didn’t have airbags, the car would have been repaired as the repair cost was approximately 25-30% of the vehicle’s value at the time. I replaced the grille, the radiator, and both headlamps. Heated up the bumper cover and straightened it out (looks OK from 10 ft. away). No damage to hood or underlying structure.
The cost to repair the deployed airbags, however, was around $4K retail, and this is why the car was totalled. I replaced both airbags, the windshield, and heated up the passenger-side dash and formed back to its original shape. Then you have to replace the EDR (event data recorder AKA airbag module as it is a one-time-use device that much be replaced in the event of airbag deployment) for about $500 and then pay a GM dealer another $xxx in order to program the vehicle’s VIN into the module in order for it to talk to the vehicle (no way around this, and you can’t use a junkyard module either, see above).
Would I do it again? No. Too much of a pain dealing with the state paperwork and having to transfer the title twice (once from original owner to non-profit, then from non-profit to me), not to mention dealing with our state police and the inspection necessary in order to get it back on the road (have to show receipts for all the parts replaced to prove that they weren’t stolen, etc etc). Then of course there is the emissions inspection which it easily passed, but required another trip and $20.
The insurance company had reported to the state that the vehicle was destroyed (car was actually donated to a non-profit organization which then sold it to me for $300). I found this hilarious as the vehicle was drivable, and had current license plates and tabs on it. Turns out that this is all meaningless to the state, as when they run that plate, that car is not supposed to exist (a ‘ghost’ car, if you will).
So I somehow drove a non-existent car to the state patrol inspection station (fortunately, a clean Buick sedan flies well under the radar) where I was informed that I needed a vehicle trip permit in order to be driving it (no ticket, they were nice) which they had told me over the phone previously that I didn’t need (stupidly didn’t get the name of the person on the phone).
IMO our governmental bureaucracy is taking all of the joy out of vehicle ownership. You should see the mountain of siezed motorcycle frames and aftermarket wheels at the state patrol inspection station (from people who couldn’t prove that they had purchased them legally)!
The state paperwork and the requirements you spoke of is but one reason why rebuilding a wrecked car is not a good idea.
Years ago I was the repo manager at a fairly big regional bank. I has sold a Geo Tracker at auction only to have the deal negated as it had a Salvage Title. Since we were the lienholder and I had the original (non-salvage) title, I didn’t know the vehicle had been wrecked and rebuilt. But it was, and since the bank now owned the vehicle by repossession, I had to get a Salvage Title. And since I couldn’t produce invoices for the replaced parts, I almost didn’t get it titled at all. But the State did an exhaustive top to bottom check of every part on that Tracker and finally issued us a Salvage Title.
It then went back to auction and sold under a Salvage Title disclaimer. For much less money of course.
Well my old Matador got totalled twice while we owned it, both times rear ended & bought it back from the insurance company & smacked on a new rear bumper.
So cosmetic writeoff of a cheap car that I already own that’s not worth fixing, maybe. Newish car with extensive damage, or one that I don’t already own, not worth it.
They totalled it when it just needed a bumper? Our insurance probably wouldn’t do anything for that.
And, because it’s customary, “What’s a Matador?”
It was a beater car not worth the $500 for a professional shop to install the bumper and clean up the paint.
But for a kid to get a $50 bumper from the junkyard and ignore the scratches & dents it worked just fine..
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1972-amc-matador-i-saved-it-and-it-saved-me/
No wonder you kept the Matador.
A car is more than a bunch of parts. Take care of one like a friend, and they will take care of you. That car took very good care of you. Hopefully the man in the Taurus was punished for his utter stupidity.
I own a truck with a rebuilt salvage title. It’s had a branded title for the last three owners. It’s a solid truck, and does the job.
I’d own another if it was in good shape. It would depend on the vehicle, though.
If I know why it was totaled, sure, great deal. I saw an early ’80s Renault totaled for bad paint. It was going to cost $2K for a repaint on a $1500 car. Something where they welded a complete clip on, no thanks.
OP, ride a dirt bike for 200 or so hours; you get really good at knowing what to do when it’s sliding around under you. It’s instinctive, you don’t think about it. Just that when the rear end is hung out to that side, do this. I’ve been riding for over 50 years, only hit the pavement once in that time; on somebody else’s bike. I muscled the bars into a downhill, off camber turn and lost the front end. My bike had little Euro bars, almost clip ons, and I was used to giving those a real tug to get it to turn.
It depends what you mean by totaled. We are talking about what the insurance company values our old car at. For most all of the cars we like to see on CC it wouldn’t take much body damage to exceed the value of the vehicle. On most late model cars a front end collision that activates both airbags will total the car. I see lots of 5-10 year old cars offered on the street and Craigslist that have a salvage title. I bought one recently. If you own and drive an interesting old car you can carry liability coverage only. This way if the car sustains some “appreciable” damage you can decide if you want to fix it or not. I had a 97 Acura CL that was wrecked, front bumper, hood grille,rt.headlamp,and fender. However the airbags had not deployed. It still ran fine but it had only been worth only a couple of grand before it was damaged. I’m sure the insurance company would have totaled it but it only cost me around 400 bucks to fix it and have it painted. You have to be fareful with 2-3 year old cars. Since their value is still so high that if the insurance company won’t have them fixed they would have sustained an extreme amount of structure damage. I wouldn’t take a chance on a car like that. There really isn’t a reason to have the car fixed. The owner or finance company has recovered their loss. For the rebuilder the only way to make a profit is to cut costs on the reconstruction by making one car out of two Frankenstein style. In California the laws concerning salvage cars was recently made stricter, with touhrt indpections because unscrupulous rebuilders were welding cars together in the middle. With 50-60s cars there are still cars out there that were totalled when they 10-15 years old. Some were stripped and scrapped. Some were put away in barns and garages or left to rust in driveways and fields. If they now have increased in value many are being rescued and fixed. Just look at the Goodmark ads in the hot rod mags. In my own situation my 70 Mustang had been hit in the rear in the past, salvaged, then repaired somewhat crudely. I crawled under that car and checked the framerails, floors, wheel houses, front structure and trunk floor. I determined that if I later decided to do a better repair I would only have to replace three tailight and trunk end panels that would cost a couple of hundred bucks (minus labor of course).
Wrong picture.
I wondered how your Mustang had been hit hard enough to turn into a Fox-body T-Bird! 😀
Every car anyone bought in my family, and relatives all fix cars for a living. we’ve all been driving ONLY salvage title cars since the early 90’s. All 8 of mine have been salvage title and were perfect. never a problem. THe family’s 2002 Escalade we’ve had for 10 years and 200k miles. not a hiccup- and that car hit a bear on the highway doing 80 when it was totaled. Fix it well and it’s good. Depends on the owner, if it’s some shady (individual) selling you a dirty car, then no. If it’s cleaned up and taken care of like my cars are-then yes.
I guess I won’t be selling Richard any cars. But I know what he means.
Do you clean your cars? Take quality photos? don’t modify them un-tastefully?
That’s what I meant.
I would if it was this one…
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/rowan-atkinson-mclaren-f1-repair-bill-2013-02-08
But ones for mere mortals, not so much.
A year ago there was an ice storm and a tree branch fell on my truck, resulting in some small dents to the hood and roof, and a crack in the windshield on the passenger side. I filed a claim under the comprehensive portion of my insurance to get it fixed and they tried to declare it a write-off! I told them that there was no chance they were taking my truck over this cosmetic damage. They relented and agreed to pay for the repairs.
There are probably lots of older vehicles whose owners don’t know any better (or don’t care) which get written-off for relatively minor issues.
Would I buy one? Not likely.
I’ve come close to owning a totaled vehicle. In 2011 my 2002 Durango got caught at the rear passenger wheel by a flying Honda Accord. The 2006 or so Accord gave its life for its reckless owner.
The Durango’s wheel was broken off, and it spun around and went up over a curb. The body damage at the rear quarter was minimal, but the under carriage was pretty messed up, everything from the rear axle to the suspension to the rear AC refrigerant lines. From most views, the car looked barely damaged, all doors opened and closed like the bank vault I’ve known for its entire life, and I knew the car would be back on the road with somebody. The damage was about $7,000 and the retail value of the low mileage vehicle was about $9,000. I was surprised, but insurance authorized repairs.
The Durango went on to tow my boat for three years and is still serving us well as a third vehicle. I have no regrets.
A lower-value car that is not in demand can be totaled for a scrape on the door and rear quarter, yet be totally driveable…and safely.
A higher-value car that is in hot demand because it is trendy could be patched together out of several wrecks and put on the lot with a salvage title.
Guess which one is no better than scrap metal?
Big fan of disposeable dungas here Ive owned dozens just buy em cheap and run em till the next inspection failure 6 months in this country 12 months in some parts of OZ make and model irrelevant to the buying procedure runs good is all I’d look for buying as much registration for the dollar as possible, Remember written off is only beyond economic repair by a proffesional paqnel shop often a car can be rebuilt for cheap from junkyard parts this green EH was in that category replacement front guards are impossible to source the NRMA spent 3 weeks trying I beat it back into shape and ran the car 8 years
The finished product
The date on the photo shows 2014, but it looks like an old Polaroid from the 1970s – great shot!
Reshot of old print photos actually about 95/6
Bryce, it looks great. You did a fantastic job.
Loved that car kept it forever and only sold it due to immigration to NZ, awful cars on twisty roads so I no longer miss it I have my Hillman as a toy now
Just a little sadness in this pic the lady standing behind the Holden is my Aunt Peggy this pic was shot by my mother while they holidayed together Peggy and her husband were the couple that owned the Wolseley 6/110 and she died today aged 90.
Well it really does depend and my answer is (probably) no unless the vehicle has sentimental value and the damage is not too bad.
My mother’s 70 Dart was totalled twice in the 90s by minor fender benders and I assume the insurance was too lazy finding parts for it. After I totaled my Voyager I would drive it a mile or so to the convience store or pizza parlor during the day even though the radiator was punctured and I had to use hand signals. Once the brake lights stopped working I just stopped driving it on public streets. A few years earlier (2010) I headbutted a Deer with the Voyager causing less damage and my mechanic said the insurance rather throw money at the vehicle than total it. Not sure how true that statement was
I’ve been driving my totaled (to me/by me) 95 Explorer with 340,000 miles. I crunched the front end just hard enough to shred the radiator and destroy the drivers side head light, both fenders and the hood, along with the drivers door. In the summer, with the A/C blasting, so it instantly overheated once the coolant ran out. I drove it for a bit to get it home (stupid on my part). put a shorter belt on it, and replaced the radiator, it was blowing bubbles into the coolant, so its got a blown head or gasket, doesn’t leak too badly as long as the cap is loose to allow it to burp. Coupled with the 4R55E that has worn out servo bores and starts to not like getting along with shifting between 2-3 and 3-2 when warmish, its destined for the junkyard soon.
Time to let that old warhorse go to a new life, after 15 years of my stewardship, and 240,000 of its 340,000 total miles, I’ve used it completely up.
The short answer is ‘no way’. Much like others have said, if its a relatively new vehicle, it takes pretty extreme damage to total out a $30K plus car. And anything made with a unibody is particularly suspect. Those crumple zones that everyone lauds so much do just that: crumple, and not unlike a beer can. I only have a small smidge of familiarity with metallurgy but what I do know is that once metal is deformed from its original shape, its VERY tough to get it to return to its original dimensions. A full frame vehicle is a bit less suspect, since if damage to a ladder frame is isolated to a section, it COULD be possible to safely splice in a replacement piece. That process was outlined on Fast N Loud when they rebuilt that F-40.
But as some have said, youd better know exactly what damage the vehicle took. I knew a guy a few years back with a ’77 Chevy LUV that he bought ‘totalled’ for next to nothing. It had a cracked windshield, no other damage.
OTOH, my ’00 Wrangler took some damage when I hit black ice on a sharp curve and kissed a concrete barrier doing about 45 mph. The jeep didn’t look bad at all…in fact, the only real tell was the deployed airbags, which conspired with the dash to account for $3500 of the total $6K of damage. I skragged a tie rod, dinged my front bumper (aftermarket pre-runner style with winch cage. Stock piece would’ve been annihilated.) and bent up the ‘horns’ on the front of the frame where the bumper mounts. The last 6 or 7 inches of a Wranglers frame is just for the bumper, from the engine back its all beef…no damage there at all.
The scary thing is when I finally picked it up, I went over it with my hairy eyeball. I quickly found out that my transfer case linkage was dangling loose. The Leif’s rep offered to re-check it in but I just crawled under and re-attached it in about 5 mins. 6 months later, I had a 02 sensor crap out….I figured what they hey, throw a Magnaflow on it while your under there. They dropped the skidplate and as it turns out, the impact caused the transfer case to rip the mount right in half. That mount was a solid block of hard rubber about the size of a square soft ball…’cracked’ right in half! The driveline had to have done a helluva jump in order to do that! A urethane replacement dropped in and it never felt better. Owned that jeep for 5 more years with no further problems.
I did unwittingly.
My 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham sedan (307, 4 speed auto, posi-trac) was a “reconstructed” titled vehicle. It had been owned by an old lady who drove it approximately 50000 miles before having an accident which resulted in her giving up driving completely. Reportedly she had pulled out in front of someone and was hit in the passenger front fender hard enough to have the insurance company write it off.
A local body shop fixed it up and it was purchased by my father in the 90s. It was our family car until 97 when Dad generously gave it to me. I had no issues other than the typical GM TH200 transmission woes when it was stolen in 2001 in Detroit, MI during the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Funny, my Grandfather almost had to sue Ammco over the same issue in his Cutlass that sounds identical. Ammco’s lifetime warranty was not lifetime after two rebuilds. Yet, he was such an Olds man, he insisted on getting a 3100 Cierra, yah? He proclaimed the Cierra his COAL. I had to agree it was surprisingly good. 95? If I recall, it was the truest sleeper. I surprised the heck out of Miami drivers.
Totaled car? Depends on the circumstances. I don’t bother with full coverage on the SC300, she is one air bag deployment from being totaled. I would do everything to keep her. She’s been up Pike’s Peak, La Paz Baja California Sur, Telegraph Hill, Golden Gate, Key West. I would go broke to keep her with me. I’ve had her since ’03, it’s a desease some of have. So yes, if she was totaled- I would keep her.
Absolutely not, unless it was a classic car I was totally in love with, and I’d have to have the whole thing professionally restored. It’s the same reason why I’d probably never buy a house that needed to be gutted down to the studs. Too much stress and aggravation, as well as uncertainty.
Write offs are often repaired my sisters Vectra got rearended by a Honda Accord the Accord was trashed to the windscreen the Vectra looked ok exterior wise but was badly buckled underneath totalled out she took cash and the wreck,my BIL being a panel supply rep for Ford had contacts in the panel game and sold the wreck to a panel beater who repaired it and added it to his fleet of loaners lots of people have subsequently racked up over 200k on that car since it was repaired never knowing it was once scrap.
I mentioned our Honda and my New Beetle above, but forgot about my ’71 Vega (first car). I got hit by a drunk driver (my DL was still wet – about two weeks after getting it), and he took out the driver’s side door and rear quarter panel. Dad was VP at my high school and ran the Voc Ed wing, so he had it repaired as a class project, which included a reskin of the door and quarter plus a respray.
When I had the car in college, I got in an accident that again took out the driver’s side of the car – all three panels this time. A junkyard run scored a new fender and door, and a slide hammer and liberal application of Bondo fixed the rear.
Either one of those would likely have totaled the car from an insurance perspective, I suppose, but we kept the car on the road, and it had 220K on it when I used it as a trade-in on my first Samurai.
Impressive!
Buy one? no. Drive one? Maybe. Fix one? absolutely.
I actually did for about two months in late`2009 until early 2010. My 2004 Saturn Ion sedan got rear ended on the Staten Island Expressway by someone in a rental Buick La Crosse who hit me at about 30 MPH. No personal injuries other than being “all shook up”, but the Buick took out its entire front end.I thouight I only had minor damage until the insurance adjuster looked under the rear and said “holy crap” before totalling it. The frame buckled, the rear undercarriage had a large V shaped hit, the trunk mounted battery was dislocated,the frame was compromised and there was front end damage. I drove it until after the New Year when I got my insurance check, but the car never handled the same,especially on the highway or in the rain. I couldn`t even give it away, so I donated it “Kars For Kids” and got a vacation voucher for a hotel that I never got to use. In a way, the Buick driver did me a favor. Since it was impossible to start on cold days, I was looking to get rid of it anyway.
Well this one speaks to me. I drove my “totaled” Toyota Tacoma for at least 40k miles.
I was returning home in a rush one evening, and in my haste to exit the truck forgot to put on the parking brake. From inside my house, I heard an enormous “bang!” I instantly knew. My truck had rolled down my steep 100′ 3:1 grade driveway, across the street, down a steep ~50 foot embankment, and off a 6′ retaining wall, at which point the tailgate got wedged beneath a Jeep Liberty’s rear end. The Jeep went through a garage door, and the garage door dinged a ’57 Chevy Bel Air inside.
The car had to be pulled out with a winch, and the tow truck driver declared it “totaled” before towing it to his yard. The tailgate was destroyed, the bed was warped, and there was some degree of damage to every other panel. Given it’s roughly $3k value, it was definitely “totaled” by the insurance definition. However, I only had liability insurance.
After a series of calls to the tow yard the next week (including threats to take them to small claims court for the storage charges), they released the truck into my possession. I took it to the body shop to have the tailgate removed, bought a new tail light from the dealership, and continued driving it for several more years. Honestly, apart from it’s appearance, the truck was just as good as the day I received it. I sold it with 178k miles for $1,800.
Here are a couple of pics: http://imgur.com/a/YibMF
Bought an 85 Ford E150(?) with a salvage title. Assume it had been wrecked or stolen and stripped. The 300 six didn’t last long so had it rebuilt. Turned out to have been a 240. Lot stronger with the new engine.
No regrets but considering everything I was not money ahead for going salvage. I did put over 200k miles before I changed professions. A teacher with a 100 mile daily commute doesn’t need a big service van. It was better than the Honda Accord I replaced it with and I preferred it. It just sucked too much gas.
The word “totaled” is rather loaded. It is so easy to wreck a car that gets repaired and its damage being worse than another that is simply written off.
I have had two vehicles with salvage titles. The most recent was my ’93 Buick Century, although the prior owner was very explicit in what had happened. In essence, it was a 13 year old car at the time of the event and the damage exceeded book value by a few hundred dollars. The damage amounted to a fender, door, and header panel. No big whoopee. The car drove great, tracked as straight as an arrow, and I put nearly 37,000 trouble free miles on it.
I’ve seen worse damage done from cars hitting deer. Nobody thinks twice about a car having had body work (and a blemish free title) after smacking Bambi.
The other was a 1986 Plymouth Gran Fury. It had the A38 police package and the title actually said “wreck-rebuild”. It never tracked quite right and it drooped a little on one side. However, I paid darn little for the car, drove it four years, and sold it for more than I paid.
Recently, my in-laws were in a minor collision with their 2003 Crown Victoria. It had 125,000 miles so it was depreciated out. The insurance company gave them a check, less 10%, he kept the car, and a salvage fender, door, hood, and headlight was installed. I would drive the car anywhere without hesitancy, and would have my family inside while doing so. It was all cosmetic damage.
Bottom line: Is the “total” due to frame / structural damage? Or is it cosmetic on a car that has depreciated? Big difference.
I bought a Honda Z600 on ebay with a salvage title and wouldn’t do it again. It had been repaired by the seller. In NY, there was time spent with paperwork, then the car had to be trailered to an inspection center where they looked it over for stolen parts. Fortunately, when the time came to sell it, it went to another collector. He discovered there had been some funky metal work done on it, where the whole rear quarter was from another car, and had been welded OVER the original damaged quarter….
During the ’80s we lived in a southern city of 80,000 or so. There were local “Auto Trader”-type publications that featured totaled wrecks being sold “as is”. My teen-aged son and I used to roar at the damage descriptions: “hit whole driver’s side”; “hit hard rear”; “hit light all over”; “rolled easy”.
I have noticed that about half the late model cars on Craigslist have salvage or restored titles. That’s a lot of cars. To get such a title in AZ, it had to have been totaled by an insurance company. That means that they determined it would cost more to fix than it is worth. With the way modern cars are built (actually designed to sustain more damage in a crash due to “crumple zones” which older cars didn’t have) that can happen in even a relatively minor accident. Sometimes the damage is all cosmetic (but I wouldn’t count on it) and the car can be patched up with junkyard parts and made to look like new again. But most of the time there is structural damage involved, and that’s where things get bad. Remember, they are rebuilding a car that the insurance company determined was not worth rebuilding, then selling it well below market value because of the title. You have to wonder how they can do that if they do it right, and still make money. The truth is they can’t. I would never buy a restored or salvage car, under any circumstances, even as a daily beater or work car. I figure that the odds are against you with such a car, and there is a good chance that something will fail or break, possibly or even probably causing an accident.
If you want a cheap disposable car, there are plenty of almost used up late model cars out there with clean titles. My 200,000 mile ’01 Malibu is one of them. Properly maintained and not abused, these cars can sometimes last for years. And IMO anyway, are a lot safer than a car that has been totaled.
My 2010 Hyundai Accent SHOULD have been totalled. A glancing hit on driver’s side at 40 mph messed up the entire front unibody. After a month at the shop it came back. It started eating inner front tire tread on both sides to where a tire would last 3000 miles but the alignment showed within specifications. It still tracked straight. The exterior looked perfect. I finally found someone who offered me what I still owed on a trade and off it went.
When I disclosed to the salesman that it had been wrecked and repaired, he noted it on the trade-in form but it didn’t affect my trade offer so some shenanigans were afoot. I watched that dealer’s website and when my car was posted, I looked at the carfax and the wreck repair wasn’t even on there. They wanted full retail for it, too.
No way would I buy a vehicle with a salvage title.
Then, another Hyundai with mysterious problems with no clues appeared.
“It started eating inner front tire tread on both sides to where a tire would last 3000 miles but the alignment showed within specifications.”
I bet they never bothered to measure the camber, not to mention caster.
In the last 4 years I’ve bought 8 cars from one of the insurance auctions. My best deal was a 2002 Town Car Signature Series with 165k miles. The car was titled as a salvage vehicle because of a minor front end collision. I replaced the bumper, grill, left headlight, and the header panel. Other the above mention parts it ran great, the interior looked like new. The previous owner had the car serviced by the dealer, all replaced consumables were Motorcraft. Mobil 1 oil only. The tires were Michelins in great shape. After tax, title, fees, replacement parts, and repainting the bumper my total cost was $2200. This is my wife’s DD and it now has 195k miles and still runs great. But at this very moment it is in the shop having the rear air bags replaced along with rear shocks, front up/low ball joints, and brake pads. While the cost for all this work will come close to $1k I think it is worth it. And my wife really likes the car.
Well, a body on frame sedan after all. Unibody wouldnt be that lucky
Way back in the mid ’70s, I had a part time job at a body shop (to make car payments) We had a nearly new Ford LTD wagon come in with what appeared to be minor front end damage. But on closer inspection it turned out to be much more. Their had been a ripple affect that went almost all the way to the rear of the car. The rear doors and even the tail gate did not line up properly. There was visible damage and misalignment at the body/frame mounts. The car was totaled. One actual benefit of “crumple zones” in newer cars is that they tend to confine minor damage to a small area, where an older car, which is built much stiffer, allows the force of the impact to be transferred much further away from the actual impact.
If you’re going to buy a wrecked car you are better off buying as is before attempted repairs. You can make a much clearer assesment of the degree of damage that way. There’s a dealer in the Bay Area that sells late model cars at fairly low prices. One time I drove by when their back lot gate was open. There was a row of cars with smashed up front ends and quarter panels. Mystery solved.
As you may recall my Outback was totaled. It will most likely be back on the road and I’m sure someone will drive it. However there is no way I would be that driver. I just would not trust it to perform as well as it did the first time if it was involved in the same wreck again.
I`ve driven rebuilt vehicles for years. I used to own a body shop & dealers license and would regularly go to the salvage auctions to buy ‘rebuilders’ to repair. I gave it up when the salvage auctions started selling online because the internet basically let the public bid and the public drove the prices for repairable vehicles up to the point I couldn’t repair them properly anymore without cheating them. Plus all the title history reports sites (think Carfax) caused the retail price of vehicles with ANY title history to drop even further. Since then I have bought a half dozen late model rebuilt title vehicles (already repaired) from people who cant sell them, either because the title history scares people away or the insurance company wouldn’t`t insure it or the bank won`t finance it or in most cases all of the above, which is a growing issue with rebuilt titles that`s only going to get worse. I still like them because rebuilt titles can many times be bought for 50% of retail book from folks who are sick of trying to sell them. I have not paid more than 60% of retail for any of them and that was for 4 year old 2005 Mustang that didn`t even have a rebuilt title, just an accident reported ‘red flag’ on its Carfax report. Same story thou, made it undesirable enough that the owner was just sick of making excuses. I still have the Mustang and rebuilt title late model JEEP Wrangler I bought for half of book at a swap meet. both have been it`s been a great vehicles
IMO, airbags have made the idea of buying a salvage car a dicey proposition. My 2007 FIt was totaled due to a H&R accident. Hard hit on driver’ side front door and wheel. Impact broke the CV joint, control arm, side & seat airbags deployed. The repair shop told me that structurally, the car was intact, but it would be the cost of airbags/controllers, etc. that would be prohibitive. Insurance totalled it, to my dismay. LSS, I subsequently found the car advertised on Craigslist, albeit w/ a salvage title. It looked perfect, but I would always have the unease of wondering whether the airbags had truly been replaced or not!
Here is the picture from the Craigslist ad…
It totally depends on the severity of the damage and who fixes it. My wife’s 1992 Accord was rear-ended twice (hard hits to boot) and was deemed a total both times. We bought it back from the insurance company, had it fixed both times, and it still went well over 250k miles with absolutely no problems. The auto body shop that repaired it was known to be the best in the state at the time so I knew it would be done properly. My wife loved the car and knew the full mechanical history of it so we knew the engine/drivetrain were perfect. It was well worth fixing in the long run.
My 1993 Accord wagon was also rear-ended and deemed a total. It needed a rear hatch and bumper. I bought it back from the insurance company for next to nothing, had it repaired, and drove it for four more years and 60k more miles. The only issue I had was when I traded it in for my CR-V, the dealer said it had a salvage title so they gave me next to nothing for it. Still it was worth fixing. As I said earlier it totally depends on the severity of the damage and the repair shop that does the work.
About 10 years ago I ran into the back of a Chevy van being unlucky enough to be the last car in a chain reaction rain slicked pile up. The front bumper was untouched except for a light scratch on the top of the bumper cover that wasn’t big enough to worry about. My 86 Jetta slipped under the rear bumper of the van taking out the hood, right fender, core support, headlamps, radiator and AC condenser. The driver of the delivery company and the owner were cool, and allowed me to send a new rear bumper to the body shop that was repairing the van and send them a check for the labor to replace. I worked for a dealership chain that also had a Chevy dealership and got the bumper at a good price. No police or insurance had to be involved. I was able to drive to the next off ramp and into a parking lot before the engine got too hot, and had it towed home from there. Next week was 1/2 price weekend for U pull, was not able to find the right color hood and fender so paid $250.00 to have them painted. Bought radiator and grill new, the rest was used and parts totaled $250.00. The frame rails were not touched, and the car paint was good except for the hood portion over the engine from 20 years of heat, and I was going to have the hood resprayed soon anyway (before the accident) so the paint cost was half of what I would have paid to get the hood resprayed anyway. I only had liability and am sure the 86 Jetta in 2005 would have been considered a total. It was worth one weekend to tear it down and hunt up parts, and another weekend to install the repainted hood and fender along with the rest of the pieces. Of course, a month later in another U pull I found a car with a perfect hood and fender the correct color. Murphy’s law. I figured if I could fix it for no more then $500.00 I would, other wise I would just junk it. Glad I fixed it, I still drive it today. All the damage was cosmetic, and the car drives the same as before the accident. No salvage title. No way would I buy a pieced together late model total.
A lot of years ago my wife was involved in a minor chain-reaction collision caused by someone making an illegal left turn. She was driving the 1966 Rover 2000, and hit a 1964 Plymouth Belvedere 4-door sedan, which hit a Mercedes 190D. There was only minor damage to the Rover – it was driveable, and the biggest problem was waiting for parts to be shipped from Coventry or wherever, which was the standard routine for Rover parts other than cam cover gaskets, which the dealer did stock. The Mercedes similarly only needed a bumper and some sheet metal repair to the deck lid. The Plymouth driver wasn’t so lucky. Although his Belvedere only had minor sheet metal damage on each end, the body buckled about an inch over the rear doors.
Our daughter in her 1997 Accord sedan got run off the road by a couple of kids who were going to the prom in dad’s one-ton dually Ford pickup. She hit a curb and a light standard that kept the car from plunging thirty feet onto a railroad track. Of course the airbags deployed and the brand new front tires tore open against the curb, and you haven’t seen sheet metal damage until you see what truck lug nuts can do to Honda doors and fenders. She was unhurt, and being an emt the first thing she did was to make sure that the kids in the pickup were OK. The Honda was a goner though.
…and another thing about air bags. Some of these newer cars have six or seven air bags; I’m thinking it may not take much actual sheet metal damage to total one of those.
I’d be willing to buy one if it was a an older car, or if it was a theft recovery and i could verify how much damage it had when recovered.
I worked for an insurance claims office for 2 summers, it wasn’t unusual to see a very old car totaled for parking lot scrapes, since the car was only worth a few hundred bucks to begin with.
With theft recoveries, we paid out if the car was unrecovered for 30 days, so sometimes a car would be found after that with little/no damage. Of course, sometimes the car would be found before that with major damage and would be totaled because of that.
Late here, but have, did and do drive a previously totalled car, my current 1997 C35 Nissan Laurel. I’d paid NZ$5,500 for it and had only owned it a couple months when I rear-ended a Subaru Legacy that I’d failed to notice was stopped at traffic lights. My radiators, bumper and bonnet were totalled, and the top radiator cross-member bent. Battery (behind front headlight) pushed back into fuse box, crushing it.
Insurance company said because the radiator cross-member was bent, and welded to the sides rather than bolted, the car was thus structurally damaged and a compulsory write-off. I debated that at length but lost and accepted the payout ($5,000). I then bought the ‘wreck’ back from them for $700 and had the damage repaired, other existing minor dents removed and the whole thing repainted (in the expensive factory pearl paint), all for $4,500.
Because it had been flagged as structurally damaged, it had to go onto an electronic chassis machine and be x-rayed, measured and digitally photographed all over – before, during and post-repair. As expected, the bent radiator cross-member was the only thing out of alignment and the insurance company was deemed hasty and uninformed by all parties in their decision to write an otherwise sound car off… In fact, when it came to re-vin and re-register it, the local transport agency deemed the damage so minor, they didn’t even bother re-vinning it – they just re-activated the original vin, so the car’s not even flagged as damaged-repaired.
Nearly five years and 150,000km later, the Laurel is still looking and running like new. I for one am delighted with my driving-a-totalled-car experience!
I’ve owned several ~
My 1975 914 VW/Porsche was made of two cars welded the good ends to – gether , not the best welding job I’d ever seen but stiff like new and perfect panel/door gaps throughout .
My ’82 (? I forget) VW Rabbit Convertible I bought it from a junkyard with shiny new paint from the cowl forward , it drove just fine but had been totalled three times and the last bit of body work was really dodgy ~ the head lights in A1 VW’s sit in cup shaped stampings in the header and the idiots who’d done the last repair hadn’t bothered to notice this and so made the right side straight across then had to fiddle the whole mess to get the plastic grille & headlights to fit in the opening , _after_ they’d painted it….
I only paid $ 1,800 for it less than 10 years old and ran the living crap out of it so I didn’t much care ~ some crazy b*tch ran a stop sign and bashed the left fender as my Brother was driving it and yelled at him ‘ why the f*ck didn’t you stop when you saw I wasn’t going to stop for that stop sign you @$$hole ?! ” . amazingly her insurance paid to have that fixed .
I’ve rebuilt and sold many salvage cars but not so much wrecks as i don’t really trust those .
-Nate
I may or may not have been foolish to go ahead and repair the Trooper after the deer hit this summer. Both estimates were in the $4000 range (on a 13 year old car with 225k+ miles). If the airbags had gone off, that would have certainly pushed the decision over the edge. OTOH it was in excellent mechanical condition, recently having some minor engine work, new tires, and a number of other things.
The fact that I knew the full history of the vehicle and it’s strong mechanical condition pre-accident, I went ahead with the repair since you never know what you’d be able to buy in that price range.