This has posted many times before however with the current market for used cars has anyone noticed more of trend or something that is more frequent than 5 years ago.
In my market in Minnesota, I had noticed a surge in vehicles with accidents reported on vehicles. 5 years ago, I would be able to spot them as they would be below book, and you could just tell that it was too good to be true. The lot would have one or two like that. I have seen almost have their lot have accidents.
Now there is vehicles they are selling at book value or even more despite accident. You start to do your due diligence on a vehicle for 13K at 130K, yet it has moderate to serve accident. I won’t touch a vehicle with a accident or damage reported. You don’t if was they bumped into something and broke some plastic or worse. Also, they are never the same after an accident. Things wear quicker.
Prices also are absolutely all over the place. I had seen a vehicle over 3K compared to book value. Never see such over book before. You would see a dealer be high but not by thousands. Miles is another thing. There was one with 217K for 13K. I couldn’t believe it. Well maintained vehicles can go a long time however you are hoping over 3/4 of its life it had been taken care of.
They seem to be selling vehicles well and the turnover/inventory changes often. Any thought, advice, or anything you noticed more so than 5 years ago or even just a few years ago.
My thoughts about salvage/rebuilt/restored (branded) title vehicles are:
I would not buy a branded title vehicle unless whatever event led to the branded title occurred at least two years ago, and the car successfully ran for at least a year afterward with no change in ownership. If it’s been resold every few months, forget about it.
I would not buy a branded title vehicle without thorough physical inspection and a long test-drive in order to ensure that it runs and drives properly, no electronic “gremlins” when driving over bumps in the road, etc.
Assuming the car is in good condition and runs well, I am willing to pay 50% of the clean-title value for a branded title vehicle. If the seller won’t accept that, then (censored) 'em. It’s not worth buying a branded title vehicle for a slight discount or no discount, no matter how “good” the restoration is.
Not that far from me, someone has a 2011 F150 XLT cab and a half with a rebuilt title that they can’t figure out why it has one, stating there is no damage they could see, though it mentions having to replace the gauge cluster. They’re asking $7500 for it, even though that is the FAIR condition average with clean title trade-in on KBB. Ad is also 3 weeks old at this time.
Blockquote
Seller’s Description
2011 Ford f150 xlt
4x4
Extended cab 4 door
V8
108k miles
5.0l V8
6 speed auto trans
Run and drives great.
I got the truck as a project. And have fixed it up for the most part. I did have to replace the cluster. So the mileage on the cluster isn’t accurate to the body. But I do have the original cluster as well. Truck has 108k miles on body.
Does have a rebuilt title. Not sure why. Doesn’t have any existing damage. Pretty clean truck as well.
Interested in trades as well. Lete know what you have
Something tells me it might have been a flood truck, or the damage was repaired well enough to not show up to them. If it were me, I’d offer $3000 at first, maybe $4000 max due to rebuilt title, but nowhere near what they want, or probably put into fixing it up.
Something tells me that this seller is full of (censored) and he certainly knows why this thing has a salvage title. The fact that he’s “interested in trades as well” tells me everything I need to know. It’s got some problem that he can’t figure out. Something also tells me that the real mileage is way more than 108k, as well. Run, don’t walk away from this “deal”.
I’m not even remotely interested in it, I just like to look through the truck ads every now and then. Another interesting one I found was an 07 f150 that needs a new motor and they priced it just right at $1500obo, but they say it doesn’t have a title, which gives off more red flags than the '11 f150 above
I guess I hadn’t noticed the change because it has been 5 years since the last time I was looking to buy a vehicle. In that 5 years it has totally change it seems like. It is just erks some as some of the vehicles at first glance looks like a viable option until you find out it has an accident/damage reported.
I am sure insurance companies have a love/hate relationship with vehicles that had damage or an accident. Higher premium but a higher risk insuring it. I am just too skittish to even consider a vehicle with a accident or damage especially not knowing exactly what happened.
I’m guessing insurance companies band together to maintain a database so they can share this type of info w/each other. If someone interested in the truck asked their own insurance agent to investigate they could probably tell them why the truck has a rebuilt title .