If he bought it back from the ins company than it must have been totalled. I don't see how it has a clean title. Of course he may just mean that he still has a copy of his old title from before the wreck.
That's not the case in Illinois. It's no longer clean if it was a t/l and full coverage isn't an option here at that point. I'm sure the salvage value wasn't 4K. I'm sure it was a only a few hundred bucks. I'm sure it's different in other states.
I bought my Silverado back from the Ins Co. and they made me give up the title in exchange for a check. Frame was trashed and there for totaled.
Here in Ohio when you wreck your car the insurance company will sell you your car back for 7% of the amount they paid you for your car when they declared it a total loss. Pretty cheap. But they require you to take the title to the title place (here that is the county clerks office) and get it salvaged and send them a copy of the salvaged title before they will sell it to you. The car then has a salvage title. The car can't be licensed to drive on the road until it has been repaired and inspected by the State Patrol inspectors. After the inspection it will be issued a title with the brand "Rebuilt Salvage". It is then legal to drive. I have State Farm insurance, I have owned many salvage/rebuilt salvage cars, State Farm has never said anything about insuring them just as they would a car with a non-branded title. In fact I had a rebuilt salvage truck which I had owned for several years, wrecked it, totaled by ins co, bought it back for 7%, had it fixed cheap, had it inspected, insured it again with State Farm and continued driving it for a couple years longer.(I owned it for 12yrs total). But that is here, other states may be different.
My neighbor had crunched the fender on her 2000 Intrepid. Since the car had little book value, the insurance company told her the damage was more than the car was worth. The buy back was $250. She bought it from the insurance company and I bought it from her. The title remained clean. Now, the Carfax would be a different story. Jennifer's 86 Mustang was wrecked about 10 years ago. The insurance company paid her off for the car and she kept it and fixed it. Still a clean title here in NY. I know for a fax the Carfax said it was totaled though So maybe each individual state is different. o No:
Remind me not to buy a car in NY. Here is like most of the other guys say. They cut you a check and report the car as totalled to the registry. The title is then listed as void and a salvage title is issued. If you buy the car back you recieve a salvage title and the car can not be registered or insured until it is repaired and passes a recertification process. Then it can recieve a new title and the salvage title becomes void. On that note, the news does a story about every 2 years on cars that are recertified and sold as clean cars which then break because of poor repairs. It usually involves a japanese car with a cracked unibody that gets bondo and recertified. The car is then sold without anyone telling the new owner it was ever in an accident. A year or so later they can't figure out why the doors don't close right or why the windshields keep breaking. They had 1 car where the guy hit a pot hole and the whole car creaked and groaned and then he could see light coming up through the door sill. Turned out the car had cracked almost in half right along the firewall.
I have had three vehicles with clean titles but total loose carfax reports. I new they had bad history when I pruchased them. I could have sold them privately as clean title cars but I am not that guy. I purchased cheep and sold cheep. Always get the history report, don't count on the title to be branded with poor history.
Cars that are totaled here in MN get labeled as salvage, and if put back on the road the car has to be inspected. In my opinion, any vehicle that has been labeled as totaled by an insurance company should be unceremoniously crushed and taken off the road for good. Too many of these Frankenstein cars running around that may have been quickly patched together on the cheap. Passing an inspection doesn't necessarily mean they are safe.
Back to the original post........ This car belongs to a local LSPBC.org member, and was really nice before the accident. At that price, what's left of the car is a steal. Would be great for a transplant into whatever you've got. :TU:
This issue varies by state. Some states require the Insurer totalling the vehicle to first transfer the title into a salvage cert./title and others just require to tell the Owner what s/he is required to do ....
When my Skylark got rearended the insurance company ended up giving me $2750 and let me keep the car. They originally wanted to total it because the bluebook was so low, but I was adamant that they either pay out and let me keep it or find one to replace it with. As for the title, it never changed hands in any way. It remained clear up to the day I scrapped the shell.
OK V-8 Buick People: Here in California we have a similar situation. The insurance company totals the vehicle and there's a 99.999% chance the title comes back branded. This is a horrible system. It would be much better for the DMV, consumer and the insurance companies to disclose the reason for the title brand as well as to include the damage circumstances to be part of the revival process.
That is how both my Grand National and T-Type ended their lives. The just don't turn very well at speeds. ou:
Whether or not a car gets totaled by an insurance company simply depends on the cost of repair versus the value. It is not a fair system as it brands cars that could otherwise be safely returned to the road. The power is in the hands of the insurance companies. :rant:
Only if you want their money. My cars never saw and insurance adjuster after their damage, so the only one who knew was me.
