Rebuilt titles

   / Rebuilt titles #1  

Hay Dude

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A Hay Field along the PA/DE border
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Challenger MT655E, Massey Ferguson 7495, Challenger MT555D, Challenger MT535B Krone 4x4 XC baler, 2-Kubota ZD1211’s, 2020 Ram 5500 Cummins 4x4, IH 7500 4x4 dump truck, Kaufman 35’ tandem 19 ton trailer, Deere CX-15, Pottinger Hay mower, NH wheel rak
Found a Duramax 3500 that would be a perfect work truck. Rebuilt title. I havent investigated yet, but will be shortly.
My question is,,,,,, would ya? :confused3:
Its about 1/2-2/3 the cost of similar used trucks with clean titles. Looks excellent.
If Its going to be a work truck, not a driveway queen or family vehicle, it reduces the importance of a perfect title.

Anyone ever buy a rebuilt title? I never have. Always scared me off.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #2  
I bought my daughter a 2017 Ford Fiesta, in 2017, Texas food car, 2,800 miles, it's the titanium package maxed out... Paid $7,800.

Once about a month after she started driving it it went into some sort of limp mode. She called me, I said to shut it off, open the door, shut it and restart it. That reset it and it's never happened again. Maybe I'm lucky, but she's got over 40K miles on it now.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #3  
A man in this area makes his living buying, rebuilding, and selling totaled cars. He is very particular, if the frame is bent he won't mess with it. His customer support is great, one we bought had a leaky AC compressor and he installed a good one for us. I have bought three of his cars and have been very pleased. Air bags are expensive enough that their deployment comes close to making a five year old car a total with fairly minor body damage.
The highway patrol must inspect the rebuilt vehicle and certify that it is road worthy. I would suggest having a trusted mechanic look it over before buying it, as is good practice with any used vehicle.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #4  
It used to be that most rebuilt cars had extensive frame or structure damage. That's no longer the case since almost any damage goes into 4 figures at normal shop rates and skilled body men can repair them for a fraction of the cost. If you look it over carefully you can get a really good deal.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #5  
See if the owner will tell you WHY it has a rebuilt title. The damage could have been relatively minor but expensive for a shop to fix. It could also have been involved in a flood and have damage which may be hard to spot. It's really a coin toss which way to go and regardless how good or how bad the experience of others the deciding factor will be YOUR experience. Usually it's good.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #6  
It would depend on why it was totaled, and who did the repair work. My father bought a rebuilt Celebrity wagon that was in tough shape when they started; yet it turned out to be a great car. I ran it for a couple of years after he bought a newer vehicle, and it was rust that finally killed it.
A cousin had a year old Subaru that got hit with a bad hail storm; it looked like somebody took a ball peen hammer to it. The insurance company totaled it out, he paid his loan off and ran that car up to around 200k miles. He was one of those guys born with a horseshoe up his -
Well, you know where.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #7  
Knew a guy who did it as a business, on one deal he bought two front wheel drive Ford sedans, i forget the model one hit in the front one hit in the rear, both cars had under 10000 miles on them.
He literally cut the cars in 1/2 after some very careful measuring. Mig welded back together the "Good" 1/2's all the way around.
When that car was finished and repainted it was perfect looking.
He was a pretty stand up guy, got all his cars inspected and also took detailed pics of all his work and shared it with any perspective buyers.

I would ask for any documentation of what was done. it could be like what was posted earlier dimples in the body. My wife is still driving a Grande Cherokee Limited which was originally "Totaled" over being hailed on.

Then again it could be frame damaged and just cosmetically repaired. Until you determine what the original cause was i would not consider buying it. resale of any rebuilt title will of course be be even lower if you ever sell it.

If the vehicle is new enough,

Autocheck and others may shed some light on the vehicles damage event.



hope this helps
 
   / Rebuilt titles #8  
I would want to know the reason for the rebuilt title. In Texas it is called a salvage title and is issued for multiple reasons. It could have been rebuilt because it was wrecked, burned, or the owner retained it after the accident and the insurance paid off. It is also issued if it was stolen and paid off by the insurance company, or abandoned, towed by the police, and sold at auction because the owner never claimed it. Could be something major happened to the vehicle or something minor like having minimal repairs and having it rekeyed.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #9  
Some states are ridiculous about registering a salvage or rebuilt titled vehicle.
One of my daughters bought a Massachusetts salvage titled Jeep Wrangler,
when she tried to get a NYS registration for it she had to jump through hoops for NYS,
it took her several months to get it registered and titled, just bureaucracy idiots at their finest.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #10  
Make sure you can get it insured.

Flood cars are automatically totalled. Buying one is a crap shoot.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #11  
It used to be where I live that the state patrol inspection had little to do with the inspection of the vehicle but rather a list of parts and receipts for the work done. We used to see that same clan at insurance auctions do things like buy the car with stripped interior example. Cost way to much to fix, unless you were the one that stole and stripped the car in the first place. Me? I would do my due diligence and find out what I could on damage extent or type of damage. Even a before pic tells you something. Then at the every least have it scanned to see if there is some red herrings in a BCM, ECU or what have you that may give a guy trouble.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #12  
1 more suggestion

Put It Up on a Lift

and look at everything closely.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #13  
Make sure you can get it insured.

Flood cars are automatically totalled. Buying one is a crap shoot.

I would not buy a flood car, it will have many electrical issues.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #14  
I currently have a car that has a "salvage" title. We purchased it brand new in 2014. It was the wifeys car and after 2 years only had 15K miles on it. Then the next spring, we had a hail storm with 1 1/2" hail stones. The car was dented on the very small hood, the entire roof, and cracked the windshield. The car was $14K brand new, we owed about $8K. Damage was estimated at $4800 to repair. The insurance company valued it at around $10,500. They totaled it out, paid the balance owed, and "sold" it back to us for $1200. We actually still got about $800 back after paying our $500 deductible.

We still own that car... inside is immaculate, mechanically perfect, and the only time I see the dents is when I'm standing right next to it!

You CAN find very good "salvage" or "rebuilt" vehicles.... it's all in the history of WHY they are classified as such!
 
   / Rebuilt titles
  • Thread Starter
#15  
Here it is
 

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   / Rebuilt titles #16  
Google the vin. You can likely find before pictures if it’s a relatively recent rebuild as there’s websites that archive salvage auction results.

Lots of Russians that do shady stuff in that area where the truck is. Personally I would only buy salvage directly from insurance auto auctions, if and only if sold by an actual insurance co. If seller is not listed on vehicle details page, buyer beware.

That being said, I have 4 cars at the moment. All came from insurance auction. 3 now have rebuilt titles and one is clean. I rebuilt them all myself.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #17  
A quick check of the dealership doesn't necessarily come up roses. Is there a state court website to check?
 
   / Rebuilt titles
  • Thread Starter
#18  
Google the vin. You can likely find before pictures if it’s a relatively recent rebuild as there’s websites that archive salvage auction results.

Lots of Russians that do shady stuff in that area where the truck is. Personally I would only buy salvage directly from insurance auto auctions, if and only if sold by an actual insurance co. If seller is not listed on vehicle details page, buyer beware.

That being said, I have 4 cars at the moment. All came from insurance auction. 3 now have rebuilt titles and one is clean. I rebuilt them all myself.

Funny you mention. I went and looked at a truck months ago and the salesman had a Eastern European accent. :laughing:
 
   / Rebuilt titles #19  
I would not buy a flood car, it will have many electrical issues.

I have "rescued" several flood cars. After Harvey several friends and family had cars that they didn't have the desire or ability to mess with, that I either fixed for them or bought and revived. They can be exorcized of gremlins but it can be a process that is not for the faint of heart.

I started by removing the interiors and letting them dry in the sun for several days, also the doors open on the car sitting in the sun for several days. Unplug every electrical connector that was beneath the water line, spray it out with contact cleaner (you'll need to buy the stuff by the box), scrub with a toothbrush if any corrosion has already started, and pack full of dielectric grease. Same for every single module (airbag module, fuel pump controller, etc, all the modules that got submerged); open the module, inspect for corrosion, clean with contact cleaner, coat circuit boards with dielectric grease. It is a good idea to hit every connector and module, even those that weren't submerged, because ambient moisture (it's like a rainforest inside those cars) can get into the connectors. But this is an even more daunting task that I chose to forego, and luckily it did not come back to bite me.

Put the car back together, drive it for a while and address the gremlins that pop up. After a couple thousand miles usually what's going to come up will have come up already. And usually it can be remedied by repeating the cleaning and greasing of the effected connector/module. I only had a couple of modules that were actually damaged and had to be replaced.

The cause of the gremlins is almost always bad connections (intermittent open circuit) caused by corrosion in connectors or intermittent short circuits between circuit board traces, also caused by corrosion. The corrosion is caused by electrical charge in the presence of moisture. The best thing you can do if your car gets flooded is disconnect the battery ASAP. You take away the electricity and the corrosion will be minimal. Do not reconnect the battery until the car is completely dried. If the windows get foggy when sitting in the sun, it is not dry enough to reconnect the battery.

All of the cars I repaired are still on the road and not having issues. I consider that a stroke of luck, and only possible because my first action after flooding was to do what I did. Where it becomes an insurmountable problem is when a car gets flooded and the owners thinks "hey it still runs, guess i dodged a bullet," and they begin to drive it around without addressing the moisture in connectors and circuits. They're driving around pumping more and more electrons into the many thousands of little reactions which are slowly eating the car like a cancer. By the time it's discovered, it's progressed to the point that it's a lost cause.

It really is a crapshoot buying a running/driving flood car. You don't know what steps were done to mitigate the damage. I would only buy a flood car that I personally rescued from a flood or that I know hasn't been driven or ran since being flooded. And even then, I would not pay even half the blue book.
 
   / Rebuilt titles #20  
Just looking at the ad you posted, the truck looks to good. With that many miles you expect to see some dings a scratches. I woukd say it has been repainted, which is not necessarily bad.
 

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