Rebuilt titles

[dannoGT]

Make sure you can get it insured.

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

I have a neighbour that unknowingly bought a Katrina flood car it was a really nice looking BMW 750 it ran good for the first month then went into limp home mode. He took it to his mechanic and he told him it needed a new intake manifold gasket!!! That didn't work, mechanic then told him it needed to have ECM software updated that didn't work! I told him to take it onto the BMW dealer and have them look at it. So he did! So they brought it in and hooked it up ran some tests and then the service advisor comes out and starts asking all kinds of questions about the car! Where did it come from? Where did he buy it? So turns out the car was a Katrina flood car but there is a real game that gets played with these flood vehicles they are supposed to be written off! But they get sold off at an auction and someone hauls them up to a state where the title can be cleaned! Then it's loaded back on a Hauler taken back to a different state and sold off at another auction. So it turns out the car needed a new ECM module that was worth about 3 times what had paid for the car. He sold it to a a local car dealer. Yes I'm quite sure it was repaired!

 

[sd455dan]

Well Autocheck shows several records for the truck ,

Got to Pay to find out what the report shows though.

 

[crazyal]

Any good dealer would provide the carfax for free. I would start there. If it's something you are really interested then find a local body shop (hopefully someone you know) and have them look at it. Offer to pay for an hour of their time. Any good body shop can tell what's been done. If they can't then it's probably something like flood damage. If it's flood damage I wouldn't touch it. Too much of a chance of a connector that's slowly corroding that could cost you lost of money or a transmission that's had water drained out of it.

Back when I was just out of school I would buy wrecked vehicles and repair them. Back then they sold cheap enough so you could make money or drive it for a year or so and break even. Now the prices are too high. When that happens parts are repaired that should be replaced or if they are replaced it's with cheap aftermarket stuff. I don't know how a real body shop could do the work on some of these cars and make money.

 

[dragoneggs]

What bugs me are shady used auto dealers (that have a back shop) and don't explain or even reveal a salvage title until after sale. My daughter got caught up in such a scam. If the seller would come clean that is one thing... but young inexperienced buyers get taken, thinking they found a heck of a deal. In my daughter's case, we had a friend lawyer that was wise on the racket and forced the seller to make good. She ended up keeping the car after the seller was forced to cut the sell price by 50% or taking the place to court and likely shutting them down.

 

[two_bit_score]

You can save thousands on a good rebuilder.

Difference in rebuilt vs rebuilder. Rebuilt is already done. Rebuilder is one you are going to rebuild.

Find a dealer rebuilder who specializes in rebuilding and selling totaled trucks. Its best if you can See the vehicle after the wreck and before the rebuild is done. OR, better yet, find a buyer who will buy a fresh wrecked truck for you and rebuild it right so you know what’s done every step of the way. There are rebuilders who do this frequently.

I know a lot of people driving nice trucks and cars that look perfect but have rebuilt and flood titles on them.

Rear end wrecks will total trucks a lot of times because of the frame And they are often easy fixes. Anybody tells you they never fix a frame is selling something you don’t want to buy. They ALL fix frames.

You could even buy a flood vehicle with a good frame and replace a wrecked frame with the flood frame. It’s done. Fresh water won’t hurt a frame. Often salt water won’t either depending on circumstances but I’d stay away from almost all salt water floods.


Bottom Line: Know the truck. Know the Rebuilder. Know the process. Once you get into it you will probably never buy new again.

 

[Tomtint]

Friend of mine owns a really good body shop. Over the years he has rebuilt several totaled cars with no problems. He had a very low mileage Honda something that was punched in the nose. He bought another that was hit in the *** and basically made one car out of two. His wife drove it for 7 or 8 years with no issues, and they then sold it for 10K ish. He has also bought a few flood cars and completely restored them. But if the water line was over the wheels he won't buy it. Salvage cars are a crap shoot. I would suggest you have some mechanical ability to take the risk. I personally wouldn't put my wife in one.

 

[fidowanttobe]

My sister and I have/had several. We look for them. With the ridiculous prices of vehicles these days and the amount of miles we rack up it is a no-brainer. Our local rebuilder sells them done or not and will look for what you want. I agree with most everything that has been said here but I would definitely check it out. We have NEVER had a problem with a rebuilt car due to the accident.

 

[dodge man]

One thing I have learned from body men is doesn’t take much of a wreck to bend the frame. Often a very minor tweak but they still need to go on a rack to get things back in line. The reason I bring this up you often hear people say they wouldn’t buy anything that had the frame built.

 

[two_bit_score]

When the manufacturers started using HHS for the unibodies no honorable shops cut cars in two after that. The proper repair on HHS does not allow for heating with a torch or grinder the way vehicles were sectioned years ago. Welding HHS is not the same either.

That makes a lot of vehicles totals when they might need a section of the floor pan for example but a BS would not want to try to satisfy a retail customer with straightening it and the manufacturer says the warranty is void if it's sectioned.

But a rebuilder who has a customer who will accept less than cosmetically perfect repairs can properly repair it at much less cost.

 

[two_bit_score]

One thing I have learned from body men is doesn’t take much of a wreck to bend the frame. Often a very minor tweak but they still need to go on a rack to get things back in line. The reason I bring this up you often hear people say they wouldn’t buy anything that had the frame built.

Part of the reason they use unibodies on cars is the "unibody frame" has designed crush zones. Those are either repairable or replaceable as part of the manufacturer approved repair process.

A vehicle can sustain 'frame damage' as the result of a parking lot fender bender.