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I recently purchased a salvage title 2011 LS in fantastic shape. I too was hesitant at first, but it turned out the owner was a retired GM insurance adjuster. It was/is a Texas flood car that he personally purchased with around 29K miles on the odometer. He drove it for 7 years before selling it to me with 126K miles. I figured if any problems were going to crop up it surely would have manifested itself long before now. Being retired I was not overly concerned about resell problems because it is likely to be the last vehicle I will purchase at my age. It replaced a 2005 Jeep TJ which seldom left the garage and I suspect this Camaro will lead the same life. I've been making some improvements such as a 4-gauge console cluster, a aftermarket touch screen radio, DLR fog lights and lowered it 1.5" all four corners. Yes, it's just something to piddle with all the free time one has in retirement.
Just my 2 cents on Salvage cars.
First off. never buy a flood car. Yes, you will hear of stories of water that did not get too high and the car was totaled and it just needed cleaning but for every one of those stories there are 10 nightmare that will tell you the water did not get high. Even back in the 80's we used to say there are two happy days when you buy a flood car. The day you buy it because you get way more car that you thought you could afford and the day you final sell it. I had a friend that bought one back when I was a mechanic. Seems like I was digging into a electrical issue once a month. I stopped taking his calls. First time he had to pay someone to track down an electrical issue he decided to sell it Some states have different rules for retitling flood damaged cars vs just a wrecked. There is a reason that an insurance company will total a 110K Porsha that sat in 24" fresh water for an hour. They have tried to fix them in the past and they end up married to the car for the rest of its life repairing things that where cause by the flood 10 years ago.
The other side of the coin is wrecked cars. Some people think a total car means it can not be repaired. Cars can be a total loss just because of comedic damage. I was at a auction back early in the 2000's. There was a 1990 Z28 with a 350 with around 80k on the clock. The seller said it was totaled because it drove through a fence. Looked like it was barbed wire, The front nose was damaged with small gouges and the was scraps all down both sides. That would have needed minor metal work fix the nose and a paint job. Because of the retail value of the car the insurance company just paid the owner the value of the car and sent is to a salvage auction. Insurance companies do not want the hassle of selling a car that might be damaged then they could get sued so they always total it. There was NO reason I could see that Camaro would not have passed PA inspection at that time. Sadly I did not see the car until it was almost on the block and I could not find my friend to bid on it for me. He would have just charged me 10% just to make it all legal. It sold for $1200 it was a 6K, retail, car at the time.
Bad repairs, remember the insurance companies decided the car could not be repaired for less then the full retail valve of the car or 80% of that value. This means someone took short cuts to get it back on the road. There are small business owners and part time guys with low overhead that can repair the car correctly and make money but some guys will take short cuts and in some cases are simply not qualified to do the level of repaired required. Heck I have seen bad work come out of a dealer. I was suppose to align a car the was just painted at the dealer I worked for. I could not get it close, The computer said the wheel base was shorter on the right side then on the left side. Turn out the car was shaped like a banana and no one noticed. The other side of that is the new car that hits a tree at 70 miles per hour. A friend of mine had a new Iroc to repair that hit a tree so hard it pushed the battery to where the glove box was. 22K in repairs. That was a week on the frame machine. He was so worried. He was constantly checking for cracks. One miss crack could kill someone. This was not a retitled car. This could be on the road for the next 20-30 years. If that car was 1 year old it would have been a totaled and no one would have attempted to repair it. Rick did awesome work but even he said he would not want that car once it was done.
A big issue with retitled is financing and insurance. Most larger insurance companies will not give you full coverage which means most finance companies will not finance. This reduces the amount of people that can buy the car and as the cars prices go up they become harder and harder to sell. You also may have no legal recourse if you find out later the repairs where not done correctly, which is why finance companies do not like dealing with them. They can not resale a car they are not sure is safe.
A person that buys a retitled cars should know how to work on them, know how to inspect repairs (or pay some else that knows). Knowing exactly why the car was total is critical. Also knowing a model helps a lot. You craw around a good 5th gen long enough a bad repair will scream at you look at me. A good repair shop/person will have pictures of before and after. If they are smart they would even show the car in critical states of repair, like the frame/unibody being pulled or the showing the torn down car not having any structural damage. One of our local body shop used to reclaim totaled cars. He documented everything. If the body needed pulled he would take it to a certified shop. Document the process and give you the pictures and the receipt showing the finished report with everything in spec.
Remember when you buy a car from an induvial it is buyer beware. Here in PA you buy a car from a dealer there is an assumption that car will function in a safe manner for 30 day. There is a waver but that is the same as saying its a junk car or you are buying a project. You buy it from a person and it can break down backing out of the driver way and the property owner can have it towed at your expense.
