I went to look at cars today and I found a 2002 OZ for 5800 at a rebuilt cars lot. After looking at it for a while and talking to the guy he told me in the accident he blew a head gasket which the dealership already fixed. As for the body the only damage i could see was that the front end was cracked in on one side, and there was lil scratches near the fender. Everything else looked good and clean, the car only has 1200 miles on it so is this a good deal. Any advice you can give me would be helpul thank you

 

Try to knock down the prices more because of the scratches (it costs money to repaint you know!)

 

ask if you can have your own mechanic see it first, so you have somebody thats looking out for your interests makng sure there arent any surprises tahtll screw you.

 

Technically, a salvage title reduces the car's market value by half. Whatever you would pay for that car normally, reduce that by at least 40%. You never know why it's salvage title. Could have been totalled and rebuilt in someone's garage, or it could have just been an impounded drug car.

 

my bro bought a salvage from teh russian mafia and it crumpled up jsut by hitting a curb to hard. something was structurally messed up with it. careful with it all.

 

ya, ask your trusty mechanic to have a full check on the car, and pay a bit to see the car's records. You never know if they use that car as "bumper cars" in the playground. LoL

 

Only takes a month for me to put 1200 miles on my car, how'd they manage to keep the mileage so low? Sounds strange to me.

 

Did you make sure it had an engine? And not jsut a picture of an engine? lol. I wouldn't trust the salvaged cars, just my $.02... I like to know what I'm getting 100% for sure.

 

do you notice how when everyone is selling a salvaged car (besides on ebay) they will always say something good about it and it sounds like theyre leaving something out. I always hear, "i drive it all the time" and "it works great". so i would second that idea to have your mechanic look at it because you're gonna have a hell of a time trying to resell that car.

 

fixed blown head gasket..... damaged front.... and scratched fenders and they want how much? screw that. definately not worth it. tell them to knock a couple grand off, and then you'll talk. too much money for the condition bro. you're probably better off looking somewhere else.

 

if you buy it you will never be able to sell it...

second, buddy of mine has a dealer's license, he buys damaged cars for nothing, but they are never salvaged, drops 1-5k in it, sells em and makes like 7k all the time


he bought an audi, 03, with like 200 miles on it and he bought it for 4.5k, the guy had destroyed the front right drive axel, plus the airbags deployed, guy hit a curb real hard. he sold it for 13k

 

If the car was totaled the dealership would have voided the warrenty, therfore they would not fix the head gasket for free. Now ask yourself why someone would get a totaled cars headgasket fixed at the dealership when they charge 3x more than most other places would. I say pay the extra 3-4k and get one with aboout 15-20k miles thats never had any problems and is still under warrenty. I also find it hard to believe that an '02 would only have 1200 miles on it. If it's true, that means it's been sitting damaged and undriven for a long time. Make sure it even starts and then yeah, take it to your mechanic or even (God forbid) a Mits. dealership

 

uhhhh, if Im not mistaken, when a car is salvaged it has been totaled (more damage to the car than it's worth) and been rebuilt/ repaired. First off, it's a ***** to insure. Here in California my Lancer insurance wouls have costed almost 150% more with AAA if it was salvaged. Secondly there are MANY things that you cannot see that could be wrong with it ranging from drivetrain to body. If the frame of the car has been "returned to a normal state" it means the car's been crashed, the frame's been jacked and someone bent it back into position (making the integrity of the frame substantially weaker than if it was intact).

Bottom line. The uncertainty of what happened to the car to give it a salvaged title makes it not worth it.

(whoa, 5 in the morning! sorry if that didn't make sense. All the stuff I learned when my grandfather the 1337 mechanic was helping me find my car.)

 

Not to mention that if you ever total that car, the insurance company would only give you half of the blue book value because it's a salvage title.