Those cars are like 30% below market price. How do I tell if a salvage title car is due to stolen or accident? Does Carfax say the reason for salvage?
If I check it by eyes, what points/parts I should look carefully?
I'd watch out, 10 of thousands are coming out of New Orleans, and related areas, due to the Hurricanes.
You need professional help here, I have carfax, get the vin I will run it for as step one, then you can decide whether you feel comfortable looking this over yourself. "usenet-news.net" wrote in message news:NBgVf.16355$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe14.lga...
30% below market price of a car with no problems is not much of a discount. You need a good set of trained eyes to check the car over thoroughly. I would not even bother unless it was purely for parts and was dirt cheap.
I heard that salvage cars are more of a safety risk. I had one salvaged car where carfax showed an accident, but I didn't have any issues other than normal wear and tear. If the car was in a flood, there's a risk of electronic sensors not functioning properly such as air bags, etc. For this you would need to sniff for mold or whatever from a flood.
BTW, the March 26, 2006 Washington Post has an excellent article by Dan Oldenburg on the risks of buying storm damaged cars. Unless Car Fax or the owner can provide a definitive history of the car showing it's title with dates issued since new I would treat the car as being from storm country.
Too many flood cars out there for them to go for more than 50% and that is pushing it.
Once all the plugs and sockets for everything have been sitting under water, they will corrode fairly fast. Up here in the rust belt, we have enough trouble with corroding connections. Getting one that comes that way would be a nightmare. It would never run right and just keep getting worse and worse and worse.
If you had the history on the vehicle and knew it was repaired accident damage, then you only have to worry about tire wear and it falling in half on you in a fender bender or something....
Mike
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