Car with rebuilt title....pros and cons?

[UDT89]

I just want to hear you input. I saw a really nice newer car in my price range, but its a rebuilt title car. My pops is in the business and he said to stay away just b/c there will likely be problems later on. I'm not looking to buy it and make money off it, i plan to drive it for the next 3-4 years.

 

[Captante]

It depends on what happened to the car that caused it to be written off & also on who did the rebuilding... I wouldn't take the chance of buying one myself because your Dad is right & its likely to have major problems.

 

[RiverDog]

There won't be any warranty availiable, a lot of dealers won't take them on a trade, depending on what was bad, this could be a very good looking nightmare. What kind a damage was done to it?

 

[spidey07]

Bought sums it up...

http://www.mgroves.com/images%5Cdo_not_want.jpg

ps - I bought a salvaged title car. Utter nightmare and cost me 1000s upon 1000s of dollars in major repairs.

 

[smitbret]

A rebuilt title makes a car worth about half of its book. Most major lenders won't lend money on a rebuild or reconstruct title. You can often get a really good car for not a lot of money this way if you are willing to gamble and don't overpay for it. Don't fall for something like, "It has been rebuilt to almost new standards, so if we sell it for just a little bit less than book..... blah, blah, blah." If it books for 12000, then pay 6000.
-Brett

 

[gump47371]

LOL, love the "experts" chiming in.

My father owns a car lot where he has sold only low mileage, rebuilt title cars for 30+ years. He sells 65-70 vehicles per year. It is a small community (~6k people), and he has built a reputation for himself with the public and the banks. He uses the same body shops to have the cars rebuilt that would fix your car if it was an insurance claim.

Parts of almost all previous posts are true. My suggestion would be to 1. know/trust the person that is selling the car, or if this is not possible 2. ask what was wrong with the car, then take the car to a body shop, esp if you have someone you trust in the business, to have the car inspected.

Factory warranties are cancelled when the title is salvaged. Used car dealers sometimes offer their own warranties, or have warranties available for sale. All of them I have ever dealt with do not exclude rebuilt vehicles.

My father receives the same value for his vehicles as if they had never been wrecked. Some problems you may run into with the value of the car is a) if you wreck your car, and the insurance company wants to pay you less because it has a rebuilt title. The best plan for this is to ask them when you purchase the insurance. They never give you a break on insurance because it has a rebuilt title, but seem to want to pay you less when it comes time to settle. b) If you were to trade the car in to a dealership that does not deal with rebuilt title cars, they may not want to give you full value for the car. If, however, as you state, you are looking to drive it until it lost much of its value, this will not make a difference.

There are horror stories of cars that have been rebuilt. Just like any business (construction, landscaping, etc.) there are people that will use inferior supplies, not do the job right, and will try to put a facade on poor work. If you feel this is the case, do not purchase the car. That is the reason I recommend getting it checked out by a professional auto body specialist.

Good luck, PM me if you have any other questions.

 

[waggy]

hmm a car lot that only has low mileage rebuilt cars. yeah..

 

[Demon-Xanth]

It's one of those deals where if you, or someone you know as a friend, can take a look at it and be comfortable with it, then you can get it for very cheap. Just expect to sell it for very cheap, or drive it into the ground. The latter being easier.

Cars which are good candidates for salvage: theft recovery, older ones that took a minor hit and the air bags popped (they can cost $2k to replace).
Cars which are NOT good candidates for salvage: flood damaged cars (often difficult to tell, contains hidden surprizes), cars which are "cut and shut". Meaning they took the front of one car and attached it to the rear of another.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: gump47371
LOL, love the "experts" chiming in.

My father owns a car lot where he has sold only low mileage, rebuilt title cars for 30+ years. He sells 65-70 vehicles per year. It is a small community (~6k people), and he has built a reputation for himself with the public and the banks. He uses the same body shops to have the cars rebuilt that would fix your car if it was an insurance claim.

Parts of almost all previous posts are true. My suggestion would be to 1. know/trust the person that is selling the car, or if this is not possible 2. ask what was wrong with the car, then take the car to a body shop, esp if you have someone you trust in the business, to have the car inspected.

Factory warranties are cancelled when the title is salvaged. Used car dealers sometimes offer their own warranties, or have warranties available for sale. All of them I have ever dealt with do not exclude rebuilt vehicles.

My father receives the same value for his vehicles as if they had never been wrecked. Some problems you may run into with the value of the car is a) if you wreck your car, and the insurance company wants to pay you less because it has a rebuilt title. The best plan for this is to ask them when you purchase the insurance. They never give you a break on insurance because it has a rebuilt title, but seem to want to pay you less when it comes time to settle. b) If you were to trade the car in to a dealership that does not deal with rebuilt title cars, they may not want to give you full value for the car. If, however, as you state, you are looking to drive it until it lost much of its value, this will not make a difference.

There are horror stories of cars that have been rebuilt. Just like any business (construction, landscaping, etc.) there are people that will use inferior supplies, not do the job right, and will try to put a facade on poor work. If you feel this is the case, do not purchase the car. That is the reason I recommend getting it checked out by a professional auto body specialist.

Good luck, PM me if you have any other questions.

Very well said, my only beef with rebuilt (I owned 5-6 when i was with a girl whose dad owned a salvage yard) was the insurance bit, I only got half of the blue book due to the rebuilt on the title. I didnt know this before hand and got screwed. Other than that, the cars ran great (like all normal used cars) and I saved alot of money driving nicer cars.

 

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: waggy
hmm a car lot that only has low mileage rebuilt cars. yeah..

What do you think happens to a car that gets totaled? You think they just ended up in the car crusher? Any car that is totaled and is less then 10 years old will either be repaired or used as parts to repair other totaled cars.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: smack Down

Originally posted by: waggy
hmm a car lot that only has low mileage rebuilt cars. yeah..

What do you think happens to a car that gets totaled? You think they just ended up in the car crusher? Any car that is totaled and is less then 10 years old will either be repaired or used as parts to repair other totaled cars.

most of the small car lots we have had (my family has owned them for years.} they stay away from rebuilts. it does have a possiblity of problem sdown the road.

At the last auction we were at (where we would get the majority of oure cars) they had a rule about not having rebuilt cars.

but that is around here. i guess around where you guys live they do it all the time. i just know not many around here will touch a rebuilt or salvaged title.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: smack Down

Originally posted by: waggy
hmm a car lot that only has low mileage rebuilt cars. yeah..

What do you think happens to a car that gets totaled? You think they just ended up in the car crusher? Any car that is totaled and is less then 10 years old will either be repaired or used as parts to repair other totaled cars.

most of the small car lots we have had (my family has owned them for years.} they stay away from rebuilts. it does have a possiblity of problem sdown the road.

At the last auction we were at (where we would get the majority of oure cars) they had a rule about not having rebuilt cars.

but that is around here. i guess around where you guys live they do it all the time. i just know not many around here will touch a rebuilt or salvaged title.

I have seen plenty sneak through with clean titles even thought they are rebuilt. The DMV people aren't the sharpest folks.....
BTW, this was in a suburb of Cinci OH.

 

[gump47371]

Originally posted by: waggy
hmm a car lot that only has low mileage rebuilt cars. yeah..

Good ol' ignorance.

Originally posted by: waggy

most of the small car lots we have had (my family has owned them for years.} they stay away from rebuilts. it does have a possiblity of problem sdown the road.

At the last auction we were at (where we would get the majority of oure cars) they had a rule about not having rebuilt cars.

but that is around here. i guess around where you guys live they do it all the time. i just know not many around here will touch a rebuilt or salvaged title.

All of the vehicles that my father purchases are from insurance auctions, not from regular vehicle auctions. They are, at the time, in possession of insurance companies, who have purchased them from owners who have totaled them.

Originally posted by: buck

I have seen plenty sneak through with clean titles even thought they are rebuilt. The DMV people aren't the sharpest folks.....
BTW, this was in a suburb of Cinci OH.

Years ago, this used to be possible, laws have cracked down on much of this, nearly impossible now. The one exception is a stolen/recovered vehicle, which has little/no physical damage, in some states you can receive a waiver, but the title history (Carfax, etc.) will still show salvage history.

 

[thedarkwolf]

My last car had a rebuilt title and I had no mechanical issues because of it over the 3 years I had it. The biggest downside about it is when you go to sell it a lot of people won't even consider it even if it is half the price as proven by this thread. My mustang was the cheapest 89-93 mustang 5.0l coupe in the country and it still took me a awhile to find a buyer for a rather high demand car.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Captante
It depends on what happened to the car that caused it to be written off & also on who did the rebuilding... I wouldn't take the chance of buying one myself because your Dad is right & its likely to have major problems.

It does depend on the rebuilder. Some people will work on them inside and out until they literally look, run, and even smell like new. Others will slap on a lot of fiberglass and resin patches, paint it, put in an air freshener, and call it rebuilt.

I bought my car from someone my dad worked with, until he quit and started his car business. Randy mainly buys from insurance auctions. Some are in excellent shape, possibly theft recoveries, and some are very badly damaged, which he uses for parts. Occasionally the wrecks will have imprints on the windshield from where the passengers' heads impacted. He does good work, and doesn't charge a whole lot. I got a '97 Hyundai Elantra GLS for $5000, and I think it was 7 years ago when I bought it. There were 35,000 miles on it, and now it's closing in on 100,000. It has had a few issues over the years, but nothing serious.
The worst problems that come to mind:
- One of the radiator fans failed. A new fan would have been $80 or more just for parts. I took the car to Randy for servicing. It was less than $50 for parts and labor. He just pulled a fan out of another car he had. It's been working for a few years now.
- One of the spark plugs or wires stopped passing electricity. I got a "tune up" which I believe entails checking or replacing all of the plugs and wires. I think that was less than $100.
- Possibly excessive power drain (>0.2A) when the car is off, which could be due to a cheaply made CD-MP3 player, as I find that cheaper electronics tend to have higher standby power requirements. Efficiency adds cost. It could also be due to the security system.
- Other than that, the biggest costs of it thus far are gas, insurance, and tires.