Found a Lancer I may check out and wanted to know what you guys think. It is a 2009 Lancer ES with 30,000 miles for $8,500, the only catch is it has a rebuilt title. The guys has pics from before it was repaired which I am obviously going to want to see, but he said that the airbags did not even deploy and is only selling it so he can get another salvage car. If it checks out with a mechanic that there is no frame damage and that everything looks good including that the impact sensor is in fact in working order. If all that checks out what do you think about the price, or should I stay away from it.
Quite often the pics do not tell the whole story and damage may exist that the seller or rebuilder does not even know about. A car with a rebuilt or salvage title is worth about half of a clean title car so I think that one is overpriced and I would pass on it.
Regarding pics, a few years ago my youngest son wrecked his Camaro when a Crown Vic turned in front of him.
When I went to look at the car it did not look that bad at all with a slightly buckled hood, cracked windshield, and a barely wrinkled RF fender. The front valance, headlamps, and radiator were not even damaged at all other than some wrinkled paint on the valance.
A much closer inspection later showed the subframe was bent, the floorpan buckled, and so on. It was sold as a parts car.
Thank you for the response, im getting a full lookover done by a mechanic, but from the pics a door panel was dented and front bumper gone, but the unibody appers to be fine fine, looks like it may have been a deer that took out the headlights and cooling system.
You also need to consider if the person who did the work is compentent. Did he measure the frame on a body shop rig? Just using a tape measure in his garage doesn’t cut it in my book. I say as attractive as this may seem, I’d give it a pass. Especially if you don’t know his track record.
Is he showing you all the pictures? How do you know? Getting a full inspection is a great idea, and worth every penny. Before you pay for the inspection, you should look it over yourself very carefully. You might want to jack it up and check the undercarriage yourself.
That sounds like comparatively light damage for a 2009 model to be issued a salvage title.
There was in fact frame damage on the upper right rail, pretty minor. it was 1 1/8"off, but he get it repaired professionally. He has not cut any corners, and had any repair work done professionally, and replace parts himself. And i agree it was light damage for a salvage title, what I think had happened was the body shop that quoted the job was way high. And yes there are about 7 different pictures from different angles so you can see everything. Test drove it today and it runs and sounds great.
If the sale price is about 1/2 the book value of the vehicle if it had a clear title, I might consider it. The salvage title will never change, so the car will always be hard to resell. So, is the value of the car if it had a clear title $17,000? Look it up on sites like Edmunds.com.