“Don’t ever buy a salvage title car”
In our area, salvage cars are sent to the Missouri scrap yards for parting out. Instead, they will cobble together two or three wrecked ones, repaint them and send them down into Arkansas where for $50.00 they can get a nice clean title, showing it had never been wrecked and “Only driven to church on Sundays by the salesman’s grandma.”
I had a wreck, 49 years ago in which my car was “totaled” with front end damage then bought by a scrap yard.
A few days later, I drove by and saw the entire front end laying in the scrap pile, and another front end from a rear damaged car placed on the car.
Same for a pickup truck I had 25 years later.
Our company had the plant manager, for company use, buy a brand new car off the lot. Several months later, I walked by, and the sun hit it just right, and I noticed the trunk lid and rear quarter panel were just a shade different in color.
I notified the boss, who then had our Maintenance men look at it and found the trunk and quarter panel had been built up with BONDO and repainted. This “Perfect” new car had sometime in the past been wrecked.
I’ve seen some real junk heaps on Ozark roads.
Any car used now I have my mechanic go through with a fine tooth comb to look for flood residue now.
So many cars caught in hurricanes and floods end up in shops like that, power washers and dryers and *presto*, grandmas church on Sunday special for a good price.
Regarding the “new” car, I’ve heard that sometimes new cars will be damaged in shipping (body dent) and the dealership will use bondo and repaint.
i.e. it’s possible that it IS a new car that has had a dent repaired.
BTW, the guy I said that I know that deals in these got a really sweatheart deal a year or so ago. He bought a package of brand new GM trucks that had been declared salvage when the insurance company paid off for a whole parking lot full of trucks that had flood damage from a hurricane.
However, with the exception of one truck, they had all only been in standing water about three inches deep. One of them had been in about three feet of water. They used that one as a parts truck because the drivetrain was basically toast due to sitting in, and taking in standing water.
His dad took one and he kept one.