o.k. so after looking at vehix.com, autotrader.com, yahoo.cars.com, etc, it looks like a running, complete, CLEANLY titled '05 gt with a stick can be had for as low as the mid $14's. there are a few i have come across, which are SALVAGE titled, and from the pics, (at least) appear to be thoroughly fixed. i am looking for a running, but guttable, s-197, as cheap as possible, to campaign as a camaro-mustang-challenge car, in the NASA race series. the two salvages were "wrecked", so the insurance must have totaled them to be on a salvage title. one was described as getting new bumpers, new front fenders, and headlight assemblies. so, HERE IS THE QUESTION: these 2 salvages are about $14K +/- a few hundred. about 500 less than a cleanly titled one. how much more do y'all think i should aim to haggle them down for the title problem. of course i wont tell them i am transforming it into a race car, but instead play up my worries about getting raped on the price on the back-side, once i eventually decide to sell it thoughts?? doc
You should be able to knock the price down significantly from a clean title because insurance agencies don't like to insure cars with a salvage title due to greater risk. That's really your negotiating power. You should save in the thousands not just a couple hundred dollars otherwise there's no incentive in hunting down salvaged cars. The seller really needs to wise up if he wants to get rid of the car.
When a nice woman ran a red light and T-boned my 05 GT, it was a total loss. Basically the drivers door, front fender, and some wheel issues. No frame damage. The insurance company would allow me to keep the car for $4500. So figure a totalled 05 GT can be purchased for $4500, then fixed up and re-sold. I can not imagine it would have cost a decent shop more than $4000 to fix up my old car. So you can see, selling it for around $15,000 is a heap of profit. NEGOTIATE!
I bought a '06 with 21k miles yesterday. It is torch red premium gt package with leather and 1000 shaker stereo. It has a salvage title, and I payed 11750$ for it. This car was in a minor fenderbender (left fender, hood and left headlight), it was totaled because the previous owner took the insurance money and let the bank take the car back (repo). I am a mechanic by trade (27 years) and have worked for Ford in the past, so I know what to look for. The core support was untouched (no pulling, no new paint), the hood latch wasn't even damaged. Bugs were still in the a/c evap core so I knew the wreck wasn't bad. Alot of people do not want the car back after being in a wreck no matter what, some were having trouble paying for it (especially in todays ecomony) and the wreck is the perfect opportunity to let it go, which was the case with mine. State farm insured it sight unseen (full coverage) with no problem, I do have to bring it by there tomorrow so they can take a picture. I bought back my '89 Cougar XR7 (factory supercharged) in 1991 for 1000$ fixed it myself and sold it for 10,000$ in '92! I have NO problem with salvage titles, you are the only person who has to know, until you sell it.
Oh, forgot to mention I've owned three previous cars that had "salvage" titles, with no problems what so ever.
I make loans on vehicles for a living. I always deduct 50% of book when calculating value on salvage title vehicles. Good Luck!
Hello all, I know this is an old thread but I'm in the same predicament with a 2005 Mustang convertible 34K miles, V6, 5sp, leather, 6cd changer, spoiler, etc. Salvage title due to front end damage (Fenders, bumper and hood) no damage to the core support that I can see. The car looks great but I think he is asking too much. ($8950.00) SC 07 Mustang, when you do a loan is it 50% off retail or wholesale? Thanks
I think it's pretty normal for Previous Salvage cars to be sold for Trade-in Value. Whenever I fix a rebuilder, I always try to buy the car, make all of the necessary repairs, list the car at trade-in value, and still try to make $1K. I know there are people out there that try to sell previous salvage cars for book price, but they're crazy. My personal feelings on rebuilders are as long as I know the extent of the damage and the car is fixed by a repitable shop, I would not have any problem owning one.
Lemon Buy Back I'm looking a car that is listed as a Lemon Law buy back. What would be the adjustment for that? I don't think it would be as severe as a salvage, but I'm considering the potential difficulty of reselling it down the road. The seller is about $3K below KBB Retail on the price. Any thoughts?
I would find out whay it was recalled under the lemon law. Do your homework because you may find that the car really never had any major problems, well except for the anal bastard that may of owned it. The other thing I would also do is to compare the price that is listed in KBB and NADA, When I'm selling a car I always use KBB because they always seem to be a bit higher. And when I'm buying a car I use NADA because they seem to be a bit more accurate (IMO).
