I'm looking into buying a used car. i found one that was not too old and had little mileage (its a corolla 2007). the problem is that i ran an autocheck report and it was listed as being a salvage title and then a rebuilt. well i had a mechanic check it out and he noticed there was front damage that was fixed but didn't look to severe, that they had to change the fender and the headlight. so if this is the only damage it has how come it has a salvage title that would consider the car a total loss(it was involved in an accident)? sorry for the long explanation and thank you for good answers!Salvage and rebuilt title car good idea to buy?
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skip it, not worth the headacheSalvage and rebuilt title car good idea to buy?
There are basically two ways for a vehicle to be deemed a total loss. One is from a accident, the other is if it was stolen and not recovered before the insurance company paid out on the claim.
Based on your description of there still being signs of damage, it is fairly reasonable to assume that it was involved in a collision resulting in damage close to the full value of the vehicle. The vehicle was probably sold at a salvage auction, rebuilt and then re-titled. Rebuilt salvage vehicles can be a good deal if you are comfortable w/who ever rebuilt it and you know they did it right and fully, however there are a lot of rebuilt vehicles that are put together just good enough to get the appearance to be adequate to get the re-built title.
I personally would not purchase a rebuilt titled vehicle unless it was valued at approx 50% of a similar clean titled vehicle due to the fact that if you were to purchase it and then get into a accident with it, the insurance company would deduct from the value for the title history.
