I've seen a car I'm interested in getting for the youngest offspring. It's got a rebuilt title. I've emailed the seller asking what and how much damage resulted in a rebuilt title. If I spring for a CarFax, how much detail on the wright off and subsequent work will be on there to cross reference with what ever the seller tells me?
I have 2 R title cars that I bought straight from the body shop so I could ask for pictures of the damage. Not sure how you find out after the fact.....but maybe more important once its been driving are the maintenance records and tire or alignment info? My DD has 100k miles since the rebuild and my wife's about 40k so clearly they are fixed.
CarFax depends on the information reported by authorities, repair shops, etc. The most info I've ever seen on a CarFax regarding crash damage said something like "Accident Reported, Minor Damage, Vehicle was driven from scene" or "Minor damage reported, left rear".
If you reach your insurance company with the VIN number they can usually look it up from their Insurer data base. This is very different than what the DMV or Carfax has access to.
R title is such a huge category. It could be nearly anything. I had a Tercel that got totaled because of some light hail damage and I have also seen cars that were burned to ash be rebuilt.
Carfax won't necessarily tell you much. It will likely just say "total loss" which is the same as saying "the repairs cost more than 80% of the vehicle's value." In some cases it means a completely destroyed vehicle and in some cases it means a broken windshield.
Either way, I avoid them like the plague. I bought a Sonoma ZQ8 with an R title because I saw it before repair. It had been lightly sideswiped and I knew it was fine. The shop threw on some panels and painted it. But jeez... trying to sell it? Good grief. It narrows your market down to nearly zero buyers except other people like you and me. If you're going to buy it and run it until it's worthless, go for it. If you ever plan on selling it, just skip it.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
After it's April 5th inspection, I intend to sell off this '04 Silver Prius with R-title that could be great for young offspring.
Direct: jwelsh02...yahoo...
Personally, when looking at a rebuilt title car, if I can find out what the damage was, that's great. If not, it's a matter of look the whole car over (inside and out, check all of the somewhat hidden places I can, etc.) If I can't find any evidence of what was damaged and repaired and everything lines up properly, the car drives well, everything works as expected, tires don't appear to be wearing strangely, etc. then it was probably fixed well enough to not be a big concern. Purchase price would of course have to be lower than a non-rebuilt title, of course.
rslifkin said:Purchase price would of course have to be lower than a non-rebuilt title, of course.
That's the key....1/2 to at most 3/4 what a non R title car sells for with the goal of staying in the 1/2-2/3 range.
In reply to John Welsh :
I just PM'd you. Doh, now I see your email so I'll send it again in a min.
84FSP said:If you reach your insurance company with the VIN number they can usually look it up from their Insurer data base. This is very different than what the DMV or Carfax has access to.
Actually, it's the same database. Carfax gets the collision data largely from a centralized database used by most insurance companies. On the Carfax though, the information is very generalized, obviously for privacy. Your typical insurance agent may or may not have access to that database, it's usually a claims thing.
Adrian, Carfax won't tell you much. You may have to try to do your own sleuthing.
co-worker just bought a 2017 mini Clubman JCW with a R branded title. Car had cruise control issues from the very beginning. Mini bought it back from him, finally fixed, branded the title, and sold it for half of what it originally sold for.
One thing that's worked for me when looking at branded title cars is do a Google image search on the VIN. Typically, you can find pictures from when it was auctioned.
stumpmj350 said:One thing that's worked for me when looking at branded title cars is do a Google image search on the VIN. Typically, you can find pictures from when it was auctioned.
Beat me to it. Thats how I checked my last rebuilt title car.
Well, something strange happened. I posted a couple of hours ago and there is no evidence of it. I did not have any success with the Google image search. Maybe others are smarter than me, not hard to do.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
You sort of have two threads going on this one car. Was that "lost post" over here in the other thread?
I know s2000's will get an R title because seats and soft top are stolen. You can get deals on them because of it.
In reply to John Welsh :
YEs I do, they were meant to be separate Q's, but with hind site I should have done a single thread. But no, the lost post isn't in there.
VIN photos only show up typically if the car went through one of the big auction companies. If the owner does a retention and fixes it themselves, no photos on the web unless they post them with the VIN.
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