Have a friend with a 66 Mustang in very good to excellent condition (restored, I think) but the title -- this is in California, if that makes any difference -- has "Salvage" on it. He wants to sell the car, and is concerned about the 'salvage' thing. What impact does that have and, if a negative one, is there any way around it? What impact does 'salvage' have on the value of the car.
Thanks!
Christopher A. Steele
I generally walk away from cars with a salvage title. That means at some point it has been damaged enough for the insurance company to dump the car. Then somebody pulled it out of the bone yard and rebuilt. Maybe built one car out of 2 or 3 cars. Maybe they did a good, and maybe they didn't. Maybe it's just water damage from a flood. Who knows. Finding out what damage was done, and how good the repair was can be difficult. If it's water damage, you have to look in side all the small places and make sure it's not rusting from the inside out. If it's trauma, it needs to be put on a frame table and measured, and you need a very carefull inspection of repair points, frame welds, etc. In any case, it's a real risk. Unless the car is really something special, I just won't spend my time on it.
Usually a car with a salvage title is diminished in sale price by about 50% if not more. Many people wouldn't give a plugged nickel for a car with one. However, since we are talking about a 40-year old car (most of which have a dubious history to begin with) I doubt it would have as much impact as it normally would. Hell a `66 could have been in a fender bender pre-restoration and totaled because of repairs of a thousand bucks with no major structural damage.
It is really going to depend on the overall rebuild quality of the car, but I wouldn't expect it to being absolute top dollar.
Salvage title pretty much kills the value of a car. Since we are talking about a 39 year old car, it might not be as bad. Depending on when it happened, it wouldn't take much for it to be a Salvage car. There are a number of '66 Shelby's that were rescued from wrecking yards, Christie Edelbrock's car is one example. The important thing is to find out what made it a salvage title. Accident? Rust? someone commit suicide in it with a shotgun? (I know of a case where this happened). If the reasons can be determined and verified that the recovery work was done properly, it would still be worth less, but be a bargain to the purchaser. Good Luck
About any time an insurance company figures repairs will exceed the book value, they write it off as totaled and off it goes to salvage. Often, the owner turns around and buys it back for the salvage value directly from the insurance company. My own father has done that a number of times.
It could also be that the owner had no idea of the value, and didn't have the funds to put into repairs (like an engine overhaul) and had it hauled to a wrecking yard. lady I know was going to do that with a '68 Mustang. When I told her what it might be worth if it was restored, she reconsidered and is in the process of restoring it herself.
Anyway, it could have been in salvage for a week, or decade, or 30 years. How long it sat, especially the older cars because they were prone to rust, can make a big difference, as can where it sat... Nevada desert, snow belt, SE humidity, or salt air?
Remember that many of the old cars you see restored to become show pieces and command top dollar, were found in barns and fields, etc, where they sat for decades. There is little difference between sitting in a field for 40 years where the license expired and was never renewed; or it was placed into "non-op" status"; and sitting in a salvage yard.
Many buyers do not care about a car's history They only care about it's present condition. They don't care that road salt ate the entire floor pan and it had to be replaced. It's covered with carpet. Who is gonna see it? There are some who will back off, but most won't as long as any restoration work was done properly.
Your friend might consider getting the car inspected and appraised. It will cost a few bucks, but it's something which can be presented to prospective buyers to help take away any fears they might have. That's what I did with a 66 FB I sold a couple of years ago. With those done, the deal was closed "sight unseen" (they did get to see photos with the report).
Spike
1965 Ford Mustang fastback 2+2 A Code 289 C4 Trac-Lok Vintage Burgundy w/Black Standard Interior; Vintage 40 16" rims w/BF Goodrich Comp T/A gForce Radial 225/50ZR16 KDWS skins; surround sound audio-video."When the time comes to lay down my life for my country, I do not cower from this responsibility. I welcome it." -JFK Inaugural Address
A quote from the latest 'Mustang Monthly';
"...Cars we were buying as parts cars 10 years ago are now being restored..."
(I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea).
Its a 1966 mustang. If you go over the car with a fine tooth comb and do good quality work AND document everything you have done, I wouldn't worry about salvage status on the title.
Total rust bucket, decrepit 60's coupes in my area are going for about
3 grand canadian dollars. Ridiculous.ZombyWoof wrote:
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