Rebuilt titles

[Hay Dude]

Found a Duramax 3500 that would be a perfect work truck. Rebuilt title. I havent investigated yet, but will be shortly.
My question is,,,,,, would ya? :confused3:
Its about 1/2-2/3 the cost of similar used trucks with clean titles. Looks excellent.
If Its going to be a work truck, not a driveway queen or family vehicle, it reduces the importance of a perfect title.

Anyone ever buy a rebuilt title? I never have. Always scared me off.

 

[Rock Crawler]

I bought my daughter a 2017 Ford Fiesta, in 2017, Texas food car, 2,800 miles, it's the titanium package maxed out... Paid $7,800.

Once about a month after she started driving it it went into some sort of limp mode. She called me, I said to shut it off, open the door, shut it and restart it. That reset it and it's never happened again. Maybe I'm lucky, but she's got over 40K miles on it now.

 

[shovelmike]

A man in this area makes his living buying, rebuilding, and selling totaled cars. He is very particular, if the frame is bent he won't mess with it. His customer support is great, one we bought had a leaky AC compressor and he installed a good one for us. I have bought three of his cars and have been very pleased. Air bags are expensive enough that their deployment comes close to making a five year old car a total with fairly minor body damage.
The highway patrol must inspect the rebuilt vehicle and certify that it is road worthy. I would suggest having a trusted mechanic look it over before buying it, as is good practice with any used vehicle.

 

[KennyG]

It used to be that most rebuilt cars had extensive frame or structure damage. That's no longer the case since almost any damage goes into 4 figures at normal shop rates and skilled body men can repair them for a fraction of the cost. If you look it over carefully you can get a really good deal.

 

[Roadworthy]

See if the owner will tell you WHY it has a rebuilt title. The damage could have been relatively minor but expensive for a shop to fix. It could also have been involved in a flood and have damage which may be hard to spot. It's really a coin toss which way to go and regardless how good or how bad the experience of others the deciding factor will be YOUR experience. Usually it's good.

 

[Jstpssng]

It would depend on why it was totaled, and who did the repair work. My father bought a rebuilt Celebrity wagon that was in tough shape when they started; yet it turned out to be a great car. I ran it for a couple of years after he bought a newer vehicle, and it was rust that finally killed it.
A cousin had a year old Subaru that got hit with a bad hail storm; it looked like somebody took a ball peen hammer to it. The insurance company totaled it out, he paid his loan off and ran that car up to around 200k miles. He was one of those guys born with a horseshoe up his -
Well, you know where.

 

[sd455dan]

Knew a guy who did it as a business, on one deal he bought two front wheel drive Ford sedans, i forget the model one hit in the front one hit in the rear, both cars had under 10000 miles on them.
He literally cut the cars in 1/2 after some very careful measuring. Mig welded back together the "Good" 1/2's all the way around.
When that car was finished and repainted it was perfect looking.
He was a pretty stand up guy, got all his cars inspected and also took detailed pics of all his work and shared it with any perspective buyers.

I would ask for any documentation of what was done. it could be like what was posted earlier dimples in the body. My wife is still driving a Grande Cherokee Limited which was originally "Totaled" over being hailed on.

Then again it could be frame damaged and just cosmetically repaired. Until you determine what the original cause was i would not consider buying it. resale of any rebuilt title will of course be be even lower if you ever sell it.

If the vehicle is new enough,

Autocheck and others may shed some light on the vehicles damage event.



hope this helps

 

[WM75Guy]

I would want to know the reason for the rebuilt title. In Texas it is called a salvage title and is issued for multiple reasons. It could have been rebuilt because it was wrecked, burned, or the owner retained it after the accident and the insurance paid off. It is also issued if it was stolen and paid off by the insurance company, or abandoned, towed by the police, and sold at auction because the owner never claimed it. Could be something major happened to the vehicle or something minor like having minimal repairs and having it rekeyed.

 

[LouNY]

Some states are ridiculous about registering a salvage or rebuilt titled vehicle.
One of my daughters bought a Massachusetts salvage titled Jeep Wrangler,
when she tried to get a NYS registration for it she had to jump through hoops for NYS,
it took her several months to get it registered and titled, just bureaucracy idiots at their finest.

 

[TractorGuy]

Make sure you can get it insured.

Flood cars are automatically totalled. Buying one is a crap shoot.