jorgelito

Hi all,

I'm thinking about buying a used car from the years 1996-2004 with a budget of $10,000USD.

Mostly for drving around town (Los Angeles) and perhaps once a week 40 mile roundtrip mostly highway to grandma's.

Typical models I'm looking at include:

Honda Civic
Toyota Corolla
VW Jetta

Others:
light SUVs or cheap models - Expedition, Navigator
Station wagons too: Volvos

Fantasy or "want" car:
BMW - 3 series (318, 325)

My real question is: Are salvage titles legit? Are they worth it or should I not bother considering it?

Thanks for any advice/comments/suggestions or joke of the day.

jorgelito

Oops:

I forgot to add - here's a link to a car I saw on carigslist:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/car/54150541.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/car/54055122.html

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/car/54006974.html

Is craigslist a good site to look or are there others? I want ot avoid going to the dealers.

shakran

depends entirely on the car and what your long-term plans are for it.

if it's got a salvage title you need to go over it with a fine toothed comb- especially check the frame - make sure there aren't any cheap assed welds in there. You need to check that whatever damage the car had was completely and correctly repaired. If you don't know what to look for, find someone who does, or you'll get screwed.

Next: If you ever plan on selling the car, either don't get a salvage, or don't offer more than a few hundred for it. Salvage cars are pretty much worthless. You'll lose a lot of money if you resell it.

cj2112

If I were considering buying this car w/ a salvage title, I would first find out who this guys mechanic is. After insuring that "his mechanic" is not the local dealer, I would take the car to the local dealer to have it inspected. If you plan on ever selling the car, forget buying one w/ a salvage title.

Nimisys

i would be very very cautous abouy a slavage title vehicle, espically since your in socal. a lot of work gets done in mexico and 99% of it is pure shit work. i have sene some repairs that just kleaving you wondering why the car is even allowed on the road (ie cutting down a suspenion rod form car to work in a car it was not deisgned for, or leaving it out altogether), or how it even manged to get into your stall. if your buying a salavage in socal, unless you can personaly inpsect it yourself and know exactly the damage that was done, the risk of shoddy repairs is too great. be espically worried if it involved an airbag equiped vehicle, as it has been known to have non functioning bags installed int he vehcile due to the high cost of replacments.

Boo

I avoid them at all costs. There are too many vehecles out there that don't have a salvage title that are in the same price range. I just picked up a 92 Toyota pickup for $550, rebuilt the engine. Now it runs great, great little run about town rig and it is worth more than double what I have in it. I would be in it even less if I had just went to a junk yard and got a good running motor, but I plan to drive it a couple years.

Drive around. Look for vehicles that are just sitting at a house. Knock on the door and see if they are willing to part with them. Sometimes it is more money to get them towed so they just sit there and rust. I just read about an early 90's Jeep for $200. All it needed was an exhaust hanger. The deals are out there, you just have to look. When I was racing off-road, I used to get VW's for free just by asking. I never paid over $100 for one. Some of
them even ran.

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Scorps

You would have to take the cars for a test drive...



P.S. I like the beemer

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bendsley

A 3 series? No, you want a 5 series or better. The 3's are too small and tight.
I have a 525i and love it. Have done some custom stuff to it like adding a built-in radar detector, car computer with touchscreen LCD mounted in-dash, etc.

http://floabie.com/gallery/bimmer (stock pictures)

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GetRdone

5 or better? He wouldnt want a 7 series, considering they are massive, and a huge hassle to maintain. and 6 series are rare and kind of a strange car. and the 8 series....well goodluck finding one, unless u have like half a mil lying around to spend. I used to work at a BMW dealer and i really do like the 3 series. The 5's are nice if u want a larger vehicle, but the 3 series have a veryl light-on-its-feet kinda feel.

merkerguitars

It depends on the vehicles if a salvage title is worth it or not. At a body shop I work at I asked the boss whats the difference and he said usually a vehicle with a salvage title has alot of damage and it just makes the vehicle harder to sell. Sometimes he's seen vehicles with salvage titles that he doesn't know why they where issued one. A prime example is his 1984 corvette he just acquired, it had no real damage, just some cracked fiberglass from being rear ended, he put about a 1/2 a days work in it and it was perfect. I would look out for shoddy work if you are buying one that is already fixed cause usually the only way they can make money on a vehicle with a salvage title is cutting corners.

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