Questions on buying (anyone have a carfax acct?) - Page 2

boogetyboogety · 02-12-2008, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Lastly, does anyone have a Carfax account? If so, I’d love to see what the results come back with!

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7258

Careful, people...

ibjeff · 02-12-2008, 02:10 PM

boogetyboogety is right. You can't have anyone else do your carfax. You will have to do that yourself.

The Thin Man · 02-12-2008, 02:13 PM

boogety, interesting thread there. I wish I did work for Carfax then I'd get the VIN report free and I wouldn't have to ask.

Leeper · 02-13-2008, 05:49 PM

It now shows at the listing no longer existing, this should be a sign of something being fishy.

Second - Insurance companies do not "salvage" cars if they require only minor work as sated in their listing, that is complete bull... just think about it... why would they take a loss if it were that simple? The usual rule of thumb is that the repairs must equal or exceed @80% of the cars value in order for them to total/salvage the car. Their line doesn't jive, sorry!

In general salvaged titles are not worth anymore than 2/3's a non-salvaged car on the market IF the work performed to bring it back to new condition is excellent. Typically those cars that are salvaged are sold at or below 1/2 the price to auto shops in auctions. Unless this seller can substantiate what is being told to DO NOT believe a single word said. Often times credit unions and banks won't loan on salvaged cars and often times insurance companies are skeptical too.

Bottom line - I know each person wants to believe what others tell them AND that they have run across one of those "killer" deals you really know about salvaged cars and have deep pockets in case of errors stay away. These can be VERY risky and there is not a good market for salvaged cars out there.

Good luck

The Thin Man · 02-13-2008, 05:55 PM

Leeper, great points. All very true.
Something funny actually happened this morning.
I'm already really leery about the car/post and then, I saw this follow up, which summed it all up: http://portland.craigslist.org/clc/car/572427438.html.
I emailed the poster and told him the info about the salvage title and the battery. He added it to his post. 2 hours later, the car post was taken down.

Lesson learned (thankfully, not the hard way), buy a car with a clean title!