What exactly is a salvage title?

Question

I found a 2003 Mercedes Sedan for 11000 and it was totally rebuilt and he says it has a salvage title. Are they illegal or something? what does someone have to do to make it a clear title?

Answer 1

it's a title for a junk yard instead of a reg title of ownership,if you buy it ,take it where you have your title/plates transferred to your name for a regular title

Answer 2

Not illegal at all It just means it was totalled or sold as scrap and repaired (hopefully) but yes you can still drive it

Answer 3

It means an insurance claim was made for damage to the vehicle, and the insurance company determined that repairs would cost more than the value of the vehicle.

Somebody bought it at auction for scrap value, and spent less on repairs than the insurance company thought it would cost.  They either used cheaper parts and cheaper labor, or else they didn't fix everything that needed fixing.

Once salvage always salvage -- it's to tip off future buyers that the car suffered serious damage.  

That's all it means, nothing more nothing less.

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"is it legal to drive?"

did it pass the state inspection?

are the tags up to date?

is it insured?

then it's legal!

Answer 4

Salvage title means it was some kind of damage to the car. Could be car crash, theft, flood, fire damage,vandalism etc, And the insurance company paid it off to the owner. Most of time when the damage is accedes 50% value of the vehicle, or it had a frame damage. You can't make it clear title legaly.

Answer 5

Its when your car was wrecked and the value to fix is more than car is worth plus it could also mean it had Major damage I would never by one already learned my lesson

Answer 6

It will always have a salvage title.  A salvage title means that the car was totaled by the insurance company.  They decided that the cost of the repairs was more than the value of the car.  The owner of the car was paid the value of the car, the insurance company then sells the car at auction (sometimes the original owner will buy it back).  And someone rebuilt it and is now selling it.

The car will always have significantly less value than one with a clean title.  If you plan on keeping it for a long time, no big deal, but if you want to change cars frequently, it may be difficult to sell.  Generally new car dealers will not touch them for trades.

Answer 7

Once its had a salvage title ( totalled by the insurance company) it's always going to have that in it's title history. I personally wouldnt buy one, no matter how good the price was.