So I'm looking into an 08 Evo X GSR 60,000miles with authentic wheels, coilovers and just straight clean all around. Owner wants 24K

But.......owner says it's clean title here in Califronia but when I ran the carfax it says salvage title was issued from Iowa. I asked the owner and he didn't even know about it. So he talked to the dealership he bought it from.

When I ran the carfax it shows the car was first sold in Iowa and in 2012 the car was in a front area damage as as the front airbag went off and Iowa DMV issued the car a salvage title. The car was sold acouple years later in Calirfornia and the owner bought it from a dealership that his buddy works at and was told that California DMV issued the car a clean title. The owner told me that the dealership only purchases clean title cars. If this was true wouldn't the carfax say clean title regardless from what state it came from?

Would their be anyway a different state would issue the car a clean title? The car looks really clean and drives straight, doesn't even have signs that it was in an accident.

Any help on answering my question would be greatly appreciated. Sorry I wrote a lot. Thank You

 

This is not possible, I've JUST read up on this topic last week and someone along the line is either lying to you or relaying incorrect information because a car with a salvaged title can NEVER get a clean title again in California. If this car was in an accident and deemed a total loss the best a dealership or anyone can do is get a "Revived Salvage" title after the car is restored to street legal condition but it'll never be "Clean". This law is there to protect people from unknowingly buying a salvaged car, basically in your exact case. If you think you didn't make a typo when looking up the VIN for the car then either the dealership lied to the current owner or that the current owner is lying to you, my advice is to walk away from this and keep looking because even if this car looks clean and drives straight you'll have to hard time reselling it down the line.

Here's the link that had all the information I read last week about salvaged titles in California in case you're interested.

 

Or offer him substantially less and turn it into a race car.

 

Thank you, I really appreciate it. That link helped me alot. Yup I'll just move on, sucks it is salvaged. I informed the owner that his car is a slavage title car, but he won't believe me and just says where he got his car they only sell clean title cars so I must be wrong. I think he got lied to. He posted his car up for sale again and claiming it's clean title car. I think I might just send him the car fax report so he can see for himself he's wrong.

 

He won't take any less, he's still claiming it's a clean title car.

 

Sucks some one else is going to probably be sold this thinking its a clean title

 

No sweat dude this is what the forum is for, glad I can be of help.
Sounds like the owner is taken by the dealership and possibly his buddy too who worked there, either way it's going to be hard for him to unload it. Still though if that's the case I find it hard to believe people would buy an used car these days especially a car like the Evo without checking the Carfax. Good luck on your search for your Evo.

 

If he is listing this on the forums, or facebook pages... anywhere public where people can comment, I would let the public know. I'd hate to potentially hurt someone's future sale, but someone else could fall into this same trap innocently. And we don't know if the seller is "innocent"... he could know everything and this is just his excuse to try to sell for a normal price

 

Stay away. Something's not right.

 

It is definitely a salvaged title. At one point in its life it was in an accident and the insurance deemed it totaled due to it costing more than 75% of what the car was worth at the time in repairs. It's coming up as clean in Cali because their vehicle laws are different so it automatically comes up as clean. Just to give you an example, if I buy salvage title car in the auction from Virginia and I register it in Maryland, it will come up as clean and I won't have to take it to the state police inspection to clear the title. Definitely not worth what he is asking for. Look for another Evo. At that price point you will have plenty of options.

PS it's not uncommon for dealers to buy wrecked cars from insurance auctions and resale them

 

Yeah I'm lucky I even did the carfax before I even decided to buy the car. I don't want to way over pay for a car because then I'll be screwed. Yeah my search continues. It's hard to find an Evo X for 60K miles for my budget of $25K

 

I think he is on the forums here, I probably saw it listed almost a month ago. And I found the car list on SoCal Evo group on Facebook

 

Wow I totally get it now, that's why he is saying its a clean title!!! That's some shady stuff that it can actually be done.

 

go on Facebook and grab the hundreds of other 2010+ evos being sold for same price TASTEFULLY modded

 

I'm looking, my max price is 25K. So it's alil to hard. I found acouple nice Evo X for my price range, but they are out of state like around New York and I'm in Cali. :/