California salvage title - lessons learned fixing all the lights, electronics, and brakes

The process in CT sounds even worse

My 2008 Ford Fusion with *only* 43,000 miles was totaled re $5000 repair estimate. I could have done it myself for about $1500, all cosmetic, nothing mechanical,  right front end scrape.

I saw where ins. co sold it at auction for $1200 to a body shop/used car lot who will probably either repair and sell it, or use as a part out. Rest of car was showroom clean.

Do they not have a Classic Car licence for vehicles over X years? Or does that have too many restrictions?

John :-#)#

"We're from the government. We're here to help you."

Not.

""Retired" snipped-for-privacy@home.com wrote

That Connecticut process _does_ look even worse than California! But what does it mean when they said "salvages cannot be rebuilt".

In Connecticut you need before and after photos and descriptions of how th3e repairs were made and receipts and they can even inspect the undercoating by scraping it away for the DMV inspection process to be completed.

Also in Connecticut you apparently need the airbags inspected by licensed technicians.

I'm amazed they check the hood latches, the hinges, the bumpers and energy absorbers, even the height and length, the windshield and window tinting, the adhesives used, the visibility of the VIN from outside, the windows, and even the interior seats, seat position locks, seat back locks, seat belts, defroster, heater fan, trunk, and even trunk seals and underbody rust.

They check the alignment it says in the PDF (how can they do that at a DMV?)

Wow. Towing. Mandatory. With no wheels on the road.

Luckily for me I drove mine to the smog and brake and light inspection shops, and then to the DMV office but I've also been driving it for months where in Connecticut, based on your pdf, they "cancel" your registration the instant the DMV gets the notice from the insurance company so that would have made it illegal to drive on the public roads.

This has only about 250K miles but it's still going strong. The damage is cosmetic, but as you noted, almost anything will total a twenty-five year old vehicle even if the engine and drive train are still running strong.

One difference is California keeps the "salvage" title while Connecticut apparently changes the title from salvage to "rebuilt" if that matters.

I saw in the DMV a sign saying you need a special license just to dismantle your car or to sell the parts off your own car!

It means you can't get a salvage title on a car and then build a car from random parts and use the salvage title on it.

In general, getting a car totalled is not worth it for a car that is of low value. You get a couple hundred dollars from the insurance company, then you go through all sorts of craziness in order to get it back on the road.

That craziness exists to prevent people from getting hundreds of thousands in insurance on a Ferrari and then getting a salvage title and driving it around while paying minimal taxes on it.

It is assumed that unless you're going to be getting a lot of money from your insurance company that you'll just withdraw the claim. Which is what the original poster should have done.

--scott

Yikes! No wonder I find old/salvage cars pop up in California for cheap. I can never figure out why sometimes almost perfect looking cars in Cali will be for sale for well under $1k sometimes.

I've also heard that if the car sits not registered for years with prior California registration, you must pay for ALL of those years before they will register it again, hence the owner would rather sell it to someone out of state.

I thought Ohio's salvage car inspection to make the title rebuilt was annoying. Boy, I'm sure glad that I don't live in one of these states. Vermont is nice, I've heard, with NO titles for vehicles over 15 years of age; just bill of sale to register the car!

Me, I'm blessed to live in an area with NO emissions or inspection. I literally drive whatever I want, and pick up cars from Pennsylvania that won't pass their state inspection for sometimes just a few hundred dollars.

I've heard different stories on California registration when you skip a year or two or three so it would be nice if someone who lives in California could clarify which it is.

One story is as you said above that if you don't register in any one year or two or three (say you're not using the car all that time) you still have to pay ALL the missing registration (plus penalties) before you can register it in California ever again.

Another story I've heard is you only have to pay the full fees for that year that you finally register it so if it's a January registration and you register it in June, you have to pay all the way back to January of that year.

Which is it? I don't know.