High-end Salvage/Rebuilt title cars

[coltboostin]

What is the pain threshold for a higher end or exotic car that is rebuild? 30% or retail? 40% 50%????

 

Obviously, as an investment, not the best move. But lest say the car is old enough that that it would be difficult to car loan anyways, so your market is primarily cash buyers. Rebuilt does not hinder your sale of the car down the line (in theory) and I assume you could just get ahead of depreciation, and come out ahead or even when you resell.

 

Use this as an example- 04 Viper. Average Retail used now is 45k. You can probably taker this home for 28-30k, around 35% off retail. And, its only got 8k miles.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201226767193?forcerRptr=true&item=201226767193&viewitem=&sspagename=ADME:B:WNA:US:3160

 

Do you make that move?

[Jewtoys]

Not a good investment.

 

 

Also many credit unions will offer a loan on anything. I can have a check cut for a 1920 car for 100k @ 2.5% if I so wished.

 

Walk away from anything that actually costs money that carries a salvage title.

[STEVE-O]

Depends on how bad usually rebuilt salvage is 50%. Seriously it kills the value for anyone looking.

[Rustlestiltskin]

:barf:

[gillbot]

I would never do it as an investment or with the intent to recover money on, but if the deal was good enough I'd just enjoy it.

[jeffro]

If you're willing to buy it i'm sure there is someone else who would buy it from you. There are 7 billion people on this planet.

[Brandon]

Specifically with Vipers I have some experience in salvage vintages.

 

I worked with a close friend whom bought two salvage vipers. Both I worked on and fixed the small things that really didnt help their value, aka making them "more factory".

 

Both cars were bought at around 35-45% of retail. Both were driven and then sold approximately a year later, for the same money purchased on the early model, and for 1500 MORE on the later. (factor in about 10% invested into each cars purchased price, one was a 00 car at 18k, and the other a car identical to the listing above for 32k)

 

All in all my friend essentially broke even / lost a little. However he drove the shit out of them and enjoyed them while he had them. Also both sold quickly and painlessly.

 

Salvage vipers seem to move quickly, when priced in a spectrum that normal joes can afford. Everyone wants and exotic with out paying the price, so you have a pretty good pool to sell to.

[STEVE-O]

Why not just get a clean title VETTE?

[Jewtoys]

This is a Viper you need, http://www.viperalley.com/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=18905&sort=2&cat=2&page=3

[o0n8]

Seller: robbi_ashle = Robbing Asshole

 

stay away!

[gillbot]

Specifically with Vipers I have some experience in salvage vintages.

 

I worked with a close friend whom bought two salvage vipers. Both I worked on and fixed the small things that really didnt help their value, aka making them "more factory".

 

Both cars were bought at around 35-45% of retail. Both were driven and then sold approximately a year later, for the same money purchased on the early model, and for 1500 MORE on the later. (factor in about 10% invested into each cars purchased price, one was a 00 car at 18k, and the other a car identical to the listing above for 32k)

 

All in all my friend essentially broke even / lost a little. However he drove the shit out of them and enjoyed them while he had them. Also both sold quickly and painlessly.

 

Salvage vipers seem to move quickly, when priced in a spectrum that normal joes can afford. Everyone wants and exotic with out paying the price, so you have a pretty good pool to sell to.

I gotta agree here. If I ran across one at a price I couldn't pass up, i'd rock that bitch and have fun. I do know that sooner or later someone would probably toss me an offer around what I paid, then I'd let it go after I had my fun with it.

[iwashmycar]

Seller: robbi_ashle = Robbing Asshole

 

stay away!

 

No chit...zero feedback too. You dont just start ebaying with a Viper.

[1Quik7]

JP can make that move...if anything goes wrong he can wrench it himself.

 

The_Buster should not make that move......but prolly would try.

[zeitgeist57]

Came here expecting to see unwise investment decisions in automobiles.

 

Saw that TEH_BUSTER was mentioned...

 

Left the thread satisfied.

[ec_E92]

From internet research (and I've been looking at 1G Vipers pretty hard) they're easy to wrench on. Many early Vipers were totalled out because insurance companies didn't want to pay the large bill for a factory clamshell hood (read small collision) and ended up salvaging and repairing with aftermarket fiberglass and being resold. So original, no story ones will always hold a premium and large gap between salvage "widow makers".

 

With a salvage title, you're really never going to come out ahead - best case is break even - and it may take a while to find the right buyer, but it opens the door to exotics and a fantastic track car with minimized financial risk. But do your due diligence, and hope for one with no frame issues and only new fiberglass.

 

Then again.... aren't these cars supposed to be driven sideways? DO EEET!

[coltboostin]

I would never do it as an investment or with the intent to recover money on

 

Not a good investment.

 

Can you nerds read? LOL

 

Obviously, as an investment, not the best move.

 

Here is what I am looking at-

 

1) I don't need or want a car loan-so if I can get car A in the same condition as car B for 20k less, I'm buying car A all day.

 

2) As Brandon and E_92 stated, anyone with their nose in the viper market knows Gen 1 and 2 Vipers get salvaged very easily and there are a lot of buyers in the 20-30k cash range, so many that its hard to get a good deal because they sell so quickly. I looked a car that literally had a crack, one freaking crack, in the clam shell because the guy bumped a concrete parking pillar. He had pics, and all the info from insurance. It sold the next day before I could make an offer.

 

If I can buy an exotic of any kind- Viper, Lambo, whatever-drive it for a year or 2 and sell it for what I paid, I'm winning. It just so happens that Vipers are the most lucrative to buy cheap since they are the most often totaled for minor accidents.

[STEVE-O]

If you do buy one I say either a colt emblem or special colt inspired plate just to mess with people

[gillbot]

Can you nerds read? LOL.

 

Tl;dr rules apply, so no I didn't read. :lolguy:

[Jewtoys]

Tl;dr rules apply, so no I didn't read. :lolguy:

 

Living in the south has dropped my IQ

[gillbot]

Living in the south has dropped my IQ

 

I'm an American so when I saw that wall o text, no thanks too lazy for that. :gabe:

[Jewtoys]

Can you nerds read? LOL

 

 

 

Here is what I am looking at-

 

1) I don't need or want a car loan-so if I can get car A in the same condition as car B for 20k less, I'm buying car A all day.

 

2) As Brandon and E_92 stated, anyone with their nose in the viper market knows Gen 1 and 2 Vipers get salvaged very easily and there are a lot of buyers in the 20-30k cash range, so many that its hard to get a good deal because they sell so quickly. I looked a car that literally had a crack, one freaking crack, in the clam shell because the guy bumped a concrete parking pillar. He had pics, and all the info from insurance. It sold the next day before I could make an offer.

 

If I can buy an exotic of any kind- Viper, Lambo, whatever-drive it for a year or 2 and sell it for what I paid, I'm winning. It just so happens that Vipers are the most lucrative to buy cheap since they are the most often totaled for minor accidents.

 

 

 

 

Yeah I actually knew some of the Vipers would just get totaled out because of the costs to simple body parts. My Elise had a crack in the front clam that you could only see when the car was on a lift, or if you sat on the ground and really looked. The dealer caused the issue, and I got a $8,600 check from a crack. Alot of those getting written off as well from mild accidents too. If you plan on just thrashing the thing around for two years and hope to come close to just breaking even then, it's not a bad idea at all. Just know selling it will become a PITA, salvaged cars are hard to sell.

[Littleguy]

If I was going to keep it for a long time just as my toy I would totally buy a salvaged title vehicle in good shape.

[2highpsi]

IMO 35% off of retail is not enough discount to justify the Salvage title.

 

Another thing I always look at is value in comparison to similar generation vehicles.

 

ie. Even though a 2006 Viper books for more than a 2003 Viper, they are generationally the same. So let's say a 2006 Viper retails for $50k and an 03 can be bought for 35k with high miles... there is no way I would pay even 30k for a salvage title 2006 because there is not enough difference ($5k) between that and a clean title car that is very similar. (People are more likely to deal with high miles than they are a title issue)

 

Also the more expensive the car, the more I think it diminishes value as well because your pool of potential buyers becomes so small. Let's take a cool desirable car (Evo, WRX, etc) that retails at 12k (clean title). Assuming you could buy that with a salvage title for 35% off retail that makes the car $7,800 roughly. That is a sell-able car. Most people can scrounge up that kind of money, or save it up in a realistic amount of time. Let's look at the other end of the spectrum and say the car is a Gallardo. If that car retails at $120,000 and you buy it for 35% off retail you are still looking at $78,000. Anyone who has $78,000 CASH (as we all know how hard it is to finance salvage title) is not going to dump it on a rebuilt car.

 

The car you are looking at is in between the two examples I posted. I *think* the market on a car like the one you linked should more represent something like a 45% discount from retail... placing the value in the neighborhood of $25k

[gillbot]

IMO 35% off of retail is not enough discount to justify the Salvage title.

 

Another thing I always look at is value in comparison to similar generation vehicles.

 

ie. Even though a 2006 Viper books for more than a 2003 Viper, they are generationally the same. So let's say a 2006 Viper retails for $50k and an 03 can be bought for 35k with high miles... there is no way I would pay even 30k for a salvage title 2006 because there is not enough difference ($5k) between that and a clean title car that is very similar. (People are more likely to deal with high miles than they are a title issue)

 

Also the more expensive the car, the more I think it diminishes value as well because your pool of potential buyers becomes so small. Let's take a cool desirable car that retails at 12k (clean title). Assuming you could buy that with a salvage title for 35% off retail that makes the car $7,800 roughly. That is a sell-able car. Most people can scrounge up that kind of money, or save it up in a realistic amount of time. Let's look at the other end of the spectrum and say the car is a Gallardo. If that car retails at $120,000 and you buy it for 35% off retail you are still looking at $78,000. Anyone who has $78,000 CASH (as we all know how hard it is to finance salvage title) is not going to dump it on a rebuilt car.

 

The car you are looking at is in between the two examples I posted. I *think* the market on a car like the one you linked should more represent something like a 45% discount from retail... placing the value in the neighborhood of $25k

Excellent info.

[coltboostin]

If you plan on just thrashing the thing around for two years and hope to come close to just breaking even then, it's not a bad idea at all..

 

That's my M.O. I have thankfully I have never lost on a car no matter how long I have owned it. The only one I will lose on $$ wise my wife's new Rav 4 (fuckin Women)

 

 

The car you are looking at is in between the two examples I posted. I *think* the market on a car like the one you linked should more represent something like a 45% discount from retail... placing the value in the neighborhood of $25k

 

I agree 100%-I go by body style date range, not year/blue book for value. As for the price-you saw the winning bid...and the seller had a "soft" reserve. At the end of the day, I may just put in an open order at Jet Auto for a cheap something-or-other any wait for your call.