what's up TSP this is Charles from
humble mechanic comm answering your car
related questions this one comes from
Wilson Wilson asking about buying a
flood or salvage titled vehicle he's
looking to add a diesel truck to the
fleet of cars this would be a third car
for him and his family and he wants to
know what the deal is with buying a
salvage titled car is there a deal to be
had or is it really not worth the risk
so Wilson great question let's talk a
little bit about what a salvage title is
a salvage title happens when a vehicle
meets a certain criteria so the most
common one really is accident damage you
get in a minor fender bender on an older
car it's really easy to total a vehicle
if it's a newer car it takes a lot more
typically for a vehicle to be totaled
which then moves to a salvage title it
has to be about 75 percent of damage to
the car so a car worth ten thousand
bucks
takes about $7,500 worth of repair
before it's totaled
this actually adds up really quick and
the less value the vehicle has the
faster it happens whether you're fixing
a brand new car or a ten year old car a
lot of the stuff is still gonna cost the
same so paint still costs a lot of money
car parts are way expensive and it's
really easy to get to that value you
guys may remember a while back when
Jack's truck was totaled the cost of the
repair exceeded that 75% so they deemed
it a total loss Jack got his check to
buy another car and then what happens is
the vehicle either goes through the body
shop and gets repaired and back on the
road maybe it goes to an auction or
something like that in order for it to
be either scrapped or become roadworthy
again if they decide to make the vehicle
roadworthy again the title to the car is
deemed branded that means forever and
ever the title will come up with a big
old red flag saying hey something
big-time has happened to this vehicle so
if we know the car has a salvage title
it's not a huge deal if we're not sure
and it may not be a bad idea anyway we
want to run a Carfax on the car this is
going to give you like a life report of
the vehicle where it was purchased where
it's been titled
some service stations will report to
Carfax so you might be able to see
maintenance history if this car has had
a great life up until the time it got in
a small accident and it was minor then
it it may be a great deal if it's been
abused throughout its life well then
maybe not so much after we run the
Carfax we want to do our own personal
inspection on the vehicle we of course
want to look at the vehicle as a whole
does it run does it drive does it shift
if it's four-wheel drive does the
four-wheel drive work sit in the
driver's seat and touch all the buttons
and make sure everything functions
understanding you're buying an older car
but we want to make sure everything
works now rather than figure out
something doesn't work down the road
since the likelihood of the vehicle
being wrecked is pretty high we want to
take a look at the gaps in the car what
I mean is the gaps between like the door
and the fender or the front door in the
back door or in the truck case where the
tailgate shuts we want to look at the
hood and make sure that it lines up
properly now you're thinking Charles I
have no idea what this what you're
talking about
how do I know if it's lined up properly
or not well the cool thing about a car
is this stuff's really easy unless it's
completely screwed up because you have
two sides so you're gonna look at the
driver's door you're gonna look at the
gap at the back of the door and make
sure the top and the bottom are about
the same look at the gap in the front of
the door between the fender and the door
make sure the gap at the top and the
bottom are about the same then what
you're gonna do is you're gonna go to
the other side of the car and you're
gonna look at it over there and they
should be pretty close you can take
something like a piece of paper and mark
on it and kind of line it up that way
that's a little more in-depth than I
would probably do typically the eyeball
test works really really well or running
your finger down the gap is another
really good way just to check the gap
and make sure that it's not completely
ridiculous if it's really bad you'll see
it right away
once your eye goes to those gaps or
those body lines you'll see it right
away someone with a trained eye will see
that kind of stuff from a mile away in
addition to like imperfections and the
paint and overspray and paint drips and
things like that but we are buying an
older car that's had damage and a lot of
that stuff's not really gonna affect the
performance of the vehicle if the car
passes
that test our next step is to get it
professionally inspected this is going
to be the best hundred to one hundred
and fifty bucks you could possibly spend
take it to somewhere that knows this
vehicle well this is advice that I
always give anyone buying a used car
when you're spending more than like
1,500 bucks 2,000 bucks this is a small
investment to make sure that you a no
other things that are wrong with the car
B have the opportunity to run as far
away as you can from the car or C gives
you leverage when you're negotiating the
price and the biggest most important
factor in this is do it before before
before you buy the vehicle once you buy
the car as yours there is nothing that
you're gonna be able to do about it but
if you do this before you at least have
some leverage or the decision to not buy
it at all this is probably one of those
times that even for the folks that hate
going to the dealership this is the time
to go to the dealership because other
than a real specialty shop a lot of
places the general service places aren't
gonna know this vehicle inside and out
like the dealerships do so I would take
it to either a specialty shop or the
dealership ask for a pre-purchase
inspection they're gonna go through the
car top to bottom left to right they're
essentially looking for things to sell
you so they're gonna find all of it and
also let them know that the vehicles got
a salvage title in there may have been
damaged asked for like an accident
evaluation or a structural evaluation
and have them look at some of those
things as well and if they're really
cool they'll even take you out to the
shop and show you what they find they're
gonna look at things like where the
frame mounts up to the body all the body
parts and how they're bolted up to see
what has happened to this vehicle
another really cool thing about cars is
they typically don't lie they leave
witness marks they leave imprints you
can usually tell when a vehicle's had
damaged or some kind of repair because
it doesn't look right or a bolts not
painted when it was from the factory or
you can see tool marks on certain parts
of the car so for someone that's a
professional these kind of things really
jump out and stand out and they'll be
able to find that stuff pretty quick we
also want to make a phone call to our
insurance company there's a lot of
insurance companies that
out will not cover Salvage titled
vehicles yours might be one of them
you'd like to know that before you buy
the vehicle so give them a call and ask
them tell me you're gonna be buying a
salvage car in addition to that ask what
kind of coverage you can get if you're
buying a $2,000 car just liability
insurance is not a big deal it's what we
all have to have anyway and having the
bare minimums not a problem but if
you're spending eight to ten grand on a
truck I would probably still carry full
coverage because what's it gonna take to
replace that truck I'd hate for you to
get in another wreck and you know beat
out ten grand or a tree fall on your
truck and be out ten grand because you
could only get that liability insurance
so that's another question you want to
ask it may be more expensive for the
insurance or they may not cover it at
all so from my standpoint it all boils
down to this how safe is this vehicle
was the damage to it structural if
that's the case I'm not super
comfortable if a rock popped up and hit
the oil pan and knocked a hole in it and
all the oil spewed out and now it just
needs an engine or it needed an engine
and that was the total loss fine I'm
cool with that that's mechanical that's
easy but when it comes to structural
damage I get really uncomfortable
remember that almost everything in a car
is built around safety when we start
heating metal and cooling it or welding
new pieces on now it's not the way it
was from the factory so we don't know
that it's going to behave in a collision
the way the vehicle was designed to
behave if you open up the hood and look
on your along your fenders you'll see
little ridges and bumps and you know who
knows what they're for well they're
actually for accidents they're actually
meant to absorb and slow down that
impact so it's not all transferred into
the cabin and then into you so when a
vehicle's repaired
even if it's repaired really well and
looks nice you don't know that the
structural integrity is the same as it
was from the factory things down to the
radios are designed with safety in mind
on most modern cars the radio buttons if
you have whack on them hard enough
they'll actually collapse into the radio
and they're meant to do that because if
they didn't do that
and your face hit it then it's gonna
collapse into your face so safety is so
important and it's so ingrained in
modern vehicle design that anytime we
start screwing around with it and making
certain repairs it can affect the second
accident in a lot different way than the
first accident was so it's not usually
the first accident I'm worried about
it's that second one that it becomes a
problem and we want to make sure we're
not putting our family in a position
that can be a bad one because the
vehicles not behaving the way it was
designed so I hope I haven't completely
scared you off of doing this Wilson I
think it's actually a way you can save a
bunch of money but personally I wouldn't
really seek out the salvage title truck
I would seek out one and it might cost
you two thousand bucks more upfront but
odds are if you even follow a lot of
those steps that I gave you for the
salvage truck odds are you're gonna have
a better quality product unless you have
an in somewhere and you know someone
that rehabs these kind of things then it
might be a huge savings but I would look
for one without that branding on the
title before I seek out one that is
branded because we remember to at some
point if you ever sell this vehicle
essentially the vehicle has no value if
you look up what a salvage car is worth
on like Kelley Blue Book calm or
something like that or Edmunds it almost
always says it has no value so keep that
in mind too for resale value if that's
something you're concerned about the
truck basically has none in the eyes of
the world so you're probably gonna have
a harder time finding that person that
doesn't care about salvage title that's
gonna give you the money that you're
looking for all right Jack and ESP thank
you guys so much for having me on expert
council I really appreciate it it's
awesome to be able to give back to this
community that's done so much to help me
out so I really appreciate that remember
guys send your car questions on over to
Jack so he can send him over to me I'll
also be cutting these clips out and
putting them on youtube so you can check
them out there and if you want to see
more of my videos head on over to Humble
mechanic calm you can check them all out
there guys thanks so much I appreciate
you and I'll talk to you next time