Buy Slightly Damaged And Repairable Cars For Sale At Salvage Vehicle Auctions

Do you know that you can buy very cheap repairable and salvageable vehicles at dirt cheap prices from auto insurance companies? While many are older or used, sometimes you can come across new cars and trucks that were slightly damaged by floods or hurricanes when these hit the dealership showrooms or car lots. When the insurance companies write these off as complete losses they become what is known as salvage vehicles.

This is the usual approach used for flood damaged cars and trucks, but many can still be repaired and made road worthy again as rebuilt salvage vehicles. That is why many car rebuilders and second hand dealers buy these repairable vehicles at very cheap prices at salvage car auctions.

A potential gray area with buying repairable cars from insurance companies' salvage auctions is the vehicle title. Since these vehicles have been damaged and written off by insurance companies in order to resell at the auctions, many states require such cars and trucks to be sold with a salvage title instead of a clean one.

If you are looking to buy a used car and there was a serious weather problem few months ago such as a tornado, flood, etc, you need to be careful of unscrupulous old car dealers that may try to sell you a flood damaged vehicle before telling you so. Ask a trusted mechanic to check the car internals thoroughly.

However, some states allow a new title to be issued for such vehicles without the salvage status. There are some unscrupulous salvage vehicle sellers that move these repaired cars and trucks to a clean-title state in order to hide its salvage history which improves the selling price.

For example, the following states do not record salvage vehicle titles - Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, etc.

Always ask for a vehicle history report; the CARFAX Vehicle History reports are not perfect but quite accurate. If a car or pickup is salvaged from weather damage, its status will be reflected in its CARFAX report. You can also check for VIN numbers of vehicles that were damaged in floods and hurricanes at the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

To identify a flood damaged truck, the easiest way is to look for tell tale signs of water damage under the hood, seats, carpets, and in the trunk. Check for strange moldy odors, and look for rust and oxidation showing on hard to reach parts inside the vehicle which may be left out during the repairs.

If you are familiar with cars and can recognize which salvage vehicles on auction can be easily and cheaply repaired, you will be able to buy some great trucks and cars at dirt cheap prices. You can even get into the business of buying and reselling repairable vehicles from salvage vehicle auctions. These events are publicly held at regular intervals and anyone can attend.

When severe weather conditions causes damage to an entire batch of vehicles in a location, the insurance adjusters usually will not individually inspect each vehicle to be written off in great detail. For example, there may be 200 flood damaged cars and trucks at a car lot. If the insurance adjusters estimate that there are at least 70% cars with serious damage beyond economic repair, the whole batch will be written off as complete losses even though there may be potentially 60 cars with minimal water damage that can be repaired or cleaned up. And these will be the targets of salvage vehicle dealers and car rebuilders that will search for written off cars with little or no damages.

Although this does not sound morally correct, you can start looking for salvage vehicle auctions by insurance companies few weeks after a bout of bad weather conditions. Whenever you see serious natural events and damaged cars being reported on the news, it is an opportunity for anyone to buy repairable cars for bargain prices that will be declared complete losses by insurers.

You need to carefully examine the vehicles at salvage car auctions before buying. Expert mechanical knowledge on car parts as well as market knowledge on pricing and availability of aftermarket parts will be necessary. You will not want to pay too much for a totaled vehicle that cannot be repaired despite looking new on the exterior. When you buy weather damaged vehicles, having a good estimate on how much it will cost to get the car back in running condition is very important to stay within your budget.