Why don't you find one that DOESN'T have a salvage title?
A salvage title is where a car is written off as a total loss by the insurer, the owner's insurance company. It could be major damage, or just something expensive that didn't warrant the cost for repairs. Generally if repairs are more than 75% or so of the cars value it is paid off and sold as salvage. Sometimes these cars can be fixed, sometimes not.
But you're right - you cannot get financing for a vehicle with a salvage title, and you can only get liability insurance - no comp or collision. And there's no guarantee there are not still structural or mechanical defects. And the selling price should be about half of a non-salvage in similar condition with similar mileage. Generally they are a cash purchase. We got one for a teen driver, it was fine, but it was a cash purchase for a ten year old car for a couple of thousand dollars. Sometimes salvage cars are from a flood, and you don't want one of those - the electrics are never the same.
Our sparky was parked out on an arterial street in front of my office when it was just a couple of months old - about a thousand miles on it. A truck passing by lost it's load - about a 450lb tool box fell off the flatbed, slid down the road and hit the back of our car. Not only did it cave in the tailgate, but the rear body shell as well, required a new bumper, cover, and tailgate, and repaint. About $4500 for repairs at the local chevy dealer. There was talk of it being totaled if they couldn't get parts. They told me there were no tailgates in stock and they would have to order one from the factory. I asked them if they realized the car was built by Daewoo in Korea - this was in the middle of the pandemic. Their eyes got big - I told them to find a used one - they had to repaint it anyway. Repairs were done in a week instead of months. I would have been fine with a total, but there were no other cars available to replace it with - I found one other one clear across the country.
The automatic is really gutless you know? And the car is downright scary on the freeway. We use ours for local trips, grocery-getter, and towing behind a winnebago.
A salvage title is where a car is written off as a total loss by the insurer, the owner's insurance company. It could be major damage, or just something expensive that didn't warrant the cost for repairs. Generally if repairs are more than 75% or so of the cars value it is paid off and sold as salvage. Sometimes these cars can be fixed, sometimes not.
But you're right - you cannot get financing for a vehicle with a salvage title, and you can only get liability insurance - no comp or collision. And there's no guarantee there are not still structural or mechanical defects. And the selling price should be about half of a non-salvage in similar condition with similar mileage. Generally they are a cash purchase. We got one for a teen driver, it was fine, but it was a cash purchase for a ten year old car for a couple of thousand dollars. Sometimes salvage cars are from a flood, and you don't want one of those - the electrics are never the same.
Our sparky was parked out on an arterial street in front of my office when it was just a couple of months old - about a thousand miles on it. A truck passing by lost it's load - about a 450lb tool box fell off the flatbed, slid down the road and hit the back of our car. Not only did it cave in the tailgate, but the rear body shell as well, required a new bumper, cover, and tailgate, and repaint. About $4500 for repairs at the local chevy dealer. There was talk of it being totaled if they couldn't get parts. They told me there were no tailgates in stock and they would have to order one from the factory. I asked them if they realized the car was built by Daewoo in Korea - this was in the middle of the pandemic. Their eyes got big - I told them to find a used one - they had to repaint it anyway. Repairs were done in a week instead of months. I would have been fine with a total, but there were no other cars available to replace it with - I found one other one clear across the country.
The automatic is really gutless you know? And the car is downright scary on the freeway. We use ours for local trips, grocery-getter, and towing behind a winnebago.
