what is a salvage car exactly? one that the frame was bent and was fixed? crashing it once and only body work was done? or is it when the damage to the car exceeds what the car is worth so you take it over to the CHP and they cut out the old VIN numbers and slap on new ones "salvaging" it. <--- i think its the latter of them all but i'm not quite sure.

 

It is when a car is stolen or wrecked and the insurance company decides to just "total" the vehicle. Then insurance companies sell these vehicles (which they basically bought from the owner who filed the claim) at auctions or the owner of the vehicle can elect to purchase the car from the insurance company at a price determined by the insurance company.

Then the car can be rebuilt or reassembled (if stolen and stripped) and taken the the State Patrol for an inspection. If the paperwork is OK and the car has been redone well enough to pass the inspection a new title is issued but this new title will always be branded "salvage" or "rebuilt".

 

Also the actual VIN on the car stays the same. They just mark the VIN and the title as rebuilt or salvage. HTH

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 5 Skware &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It is when a car is stolen or wrecked and the insurance company decides to just "total" the vehicle. Then insurance companies sell these vehicles (which they basically bought from the owner who filed the claim) at auctions or the owner of the vehicle can elect to purchase the car from the insurance company at a price determined by the insurance company.

Then the car can be rebuilt or reassembled (if stolen and stripped) and taken the the State Patrol for an inspection. If the paperwork is OK and the car has been redone well enough to pass the inspection a new title is issued but this new title will always be branded "salvage" or "rebuilt".</TD></TR></TABLE>

I always wanted to know what it exactly meant. Great info.

 

it's different from states to states

the car have to be stripped in order to get an salvage title in california, so don't buy into the scam(seller will tell you the car is taken for joyride, no crash, no stolen stuff, etc)