R-Title Cars, Ever Buy One?

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Mon. Nov. 10, 2008 9:55 pm

rberq wrote: State Farm did all they could to appraise the car as low as possible so they could total it instead of fix it. .
Late model cars are rarely worth fixing for estimated costs. They can total the car, write you a check then sell the car for reasonable sum of money to someone that will fix it cheap. I own a "totaled" car myself. Was a 1992 Regal with like 30,000 miles on it when I bought it. $2800 and it was fixed. :lol: I lmost walked away whn I saw that it was in an accident but the guy had pictures of it which I still have. All minor cosmetic damage but it included the bumper, the front quarter and rear quarter panel


 
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Post by Rick 386 » Mon. Nov. 10, 2008 10:38 pm

Richard,

You're right.....Insurers can total any car for any amount of damage.

The issue is that when they do total them, the vehicle title is supposed to be changed (branded) to state that it was indeed totalled. It's all about consumer awareness. You at least knew before hand that your vehicle had been wrecked and rebuilt.

Several years ago, State Farm was caught NOT BRANDING the titles in Louisiana. Further checking discovered that this was a nationwide policy of theirs. They were getting big bucks at the salvage auctions by not having the titles branded. But before the attorneys got to it, SF did an end around by getting in touch with a favored attorney general from some state I think in the midwest. That Attorney General convinced all of the other state Attornies General (except 2)to allow State Farm to give each state in excess of $ 1 million each to check all of the state registrations to notify the owners of those previous totalled vehicles to get some cash back or SF would outright buy the vehicle back from the current owners.

Talk all you want about insurance fraud but the insurance companies themselves are the worst at committing fraud on the consuming public.

Sorry to take this off topic. If you wish to move it do so. But this is a hot topic for me. I put up with this consumer fraud every stinking day.

And don't rely on CARFAX to help, they can only report what information is given to them.

--------------------------------------------------------

Rick

 
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Post by kootch88 » Mon. Nov. 10, 2008 11:16 pm

Richard,

You're right.....Insurers can total any car for any amount of damage.

The issue is that when they do total them, the vehicle title is supposed to be changed (branded) to state that it was indeed totalled. It's all about consumer awareness. You at least knew before hand that your vehicle had been wrecked and rebuilt.

Several years ago, State Farm was caught NOT BRANDING the titles in Louisiana. Further checking discovered that this was a nationwide policy of theirs. They were getting big bucks at the salvage auctions by not having the titles branded. But before the attorneys got to it, SF did an end around by getting in touch with a favored attorney general from some state I think in the midwest. That Attorney General convinced all of the other state Attornies General (except 2)to allow State Farm to give each state in excess of $ 1 million each to check all of the state registrations to notify the owners of those previous totalled vehicles to get some cash back or SF would outright buy the vehicle back from the current owners.

Talk all you want about insurance fraud but the insurance companies themselves are the worst at committing fraud on the consuming public.

Sorry to take this off topic. If you wish to move it do so. But this is a hot topic for me. I put up with this consumer fraud every stinking day.

And don't rely on CARFAX to help, they can only report what information is given to them.
Rberg, the insurance companies can not total a vehicle at will, check with your state department of insurance on the rules, they are outlined in most cases on the state web site. There are cases where they will total them when there is a safety issue, and in general, when the damages for a car reach 60% they will often total the car, depending on the type of damage, and at 75% they will certainly total it in almost every case. The insured almost always has the option of buying the salvage back however. Also, what you say about State Farm and titling is not true. Nor was it true of any company I know of. I was an auto adjuster from 92-99 and know the titling procedures very well and this was not a national issue at all. There may have been some regional issues I am not aware of, but definitely not national that I am aware of and I read the blue sheets weekly issued by the courts, not any insurance company. We also had other insurance legal case reviews we would review regularly.

There is no question the insurance industry is guilty of a lot of things, but you have to be accurate about what they are guilty of. If you look at Katrina and realize most of the suits were overturned in the end on appeal, in large part because the class action suits brought by Scruggs were a scam for example. (Is Trent Lott also a scammer because he is his brother in law and Scruggs got nailed for accepting bribes and other offenses? I could go on and on about Lott and his role in the Katrina lawsuit) Once you are an adjuster, you will understand what fraud is all about. I dealt mainly with bodily injury claims and my unscientific estimate is that as many as 40% of the claims were outright fraud. I could go on forever describing cases that netted millions and millions of dollars that eventually were broken up during our investigations, but no one cares becasue it isn't a sexy story when an insurance company is being ripped off and you and I are paying for it.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Mon. Nov. 10, 2008 11:17 pm

My title is a R-Title but like I said he had the pictures to show what it looked it before it was fixed. I'd buy 100 more cars just like it. A car like that when I purchased it was selling for about $5000+ so it was a no brainer. I got a luxury car for less than what it would have cost me for a regular car. I mean how can you go wrong. the car is perfectly clean too, must have been garage kept and used once a week to go to the store. The fabled "little old lady owned it" car. :D

 
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Post by traderfjp » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 2:06 am

You can only go wrong if you decide to sell it and not run it into the ground. Most buyers will not even consider a car that has a salvaged title. The other issue is that once a car has a branded title the warranty is voided. That said I purchased a salvaged vehicle myself that was in excellent condition. I never had a problem with it and saved thousands on the vehicle. I found it extremly hard to sell when I was ready to get rid of it. Unfortunately I was hit and the car was totalled. The insurance company was cool about it and gave me low book for the value of the car. They could have been real pricks but there took care of me. I don't think I would buy another salvaged vehicle because I like late model cars with warranties.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 6:27 am

I have pictures though, I'll have to find it. When you see it you're going to laugh. I would have never bought that car without the pictures. Seriously, it only needed to get a new bumper, one front quarter panel and repair the rear quarter. If looks were of no concern you could have just fixed wah was there.The car dealer said they hit a deer and it spun around and hit the back end. The only other thing I can figure is they were in a low speed collision on ice. The insurance company must have totaled it because of the age.

 
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Post by billw » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 7:53 am

My neighbor makes her living finding totaled vehicles for a body shop that repairs them and sells them as R titled. Her husband has an s-10, fully loaded, 4wd that was two years old when they got it. They had less than 5,000 in it. He's still driving it with no problems after 6 years. My next pickup will be an "R". I'm always the last owner of all of my vehicles so resell value is a mute point.


 
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Post by cArNaGe » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 8:15 am

Run em in the ground!

It doesn't take long up here in the NE.

If I still lived down south I would probably still be driving my my 64 C-10 Stepside.

 
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Post by chemung » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 8:30 am

My opinion, I would stay away from one that had frame/uni body damage. Unless you have a deep pocket to buy new tires frequently. :o
cArNaGe wrote:Run em in the ground!

It doesn't take long up here in the NE.

If I still lived down south I would probably still be driving my my 64 C-10 Stepside.
Yep, That's what I'm doing. My oldest car is a '97 Olds Mini Van with 135,000 on it. Haven't had a car payment since 2002. It cost me $600.00 just the other day for state inspection. Besides oil changes that's all I put into it this year. Beats $300.00 or more a month. :)

 
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Post by ktm rider » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 8:56 am

I had a 2001 Dodge 2500 CTD that was an R-title. It looked great, ran great and drove great and I never had one single problem. I only got rid of it to buy another R-title 2005 Dodge 2500 Quad cab CTD. It only had 8,000 miles on it when I bought it and it still smelled new. I got that ruck for roughly HALF of the sticker price. I still have it today and it runs just great and no issues at all.
I also have a 2003 dodge Neon R-title that runs great also.

There is a guy in Pa. who restores R-title Dodge diesels ( the right way ) and resells them. This is where I bought my trucks and I couldn't be happier wiith them. http://www.balsleyautosales.com

 
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Post by SMITTY » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 9:17 am

Richard S. wrote:.............If looks were of no concern you could have just fixed wah was there............
Or not fixed it at all........ :lol:
'85 Monte.jpg

My '85 Monte Carlo that I bought for $650 in 1993. Went down the road sideways, I could completely let go of the wheel in right-hand turns & it would fog up the road with blue smoke at a stop! IT WAS TWEAKED! Drove it like this for 2.5 yrs until tranny blew, leaving me with no reverse, 2nd or 3rd gears. Got $100 from junkyard for it because I drove it there. Drove to White Mountains in NH, & to NYC -- only had 80K, ran great & interior was mint -- outside looked like hell! This pic is of the worst side.

.JPG | 236.8KB | '85 Monte.jpg

 
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Post by spc » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 9:21 am

My wife's last car was a salvaged vehicle, Nissan Altima, great car. It was a recovered theft. In RI all salvaged vehicles have to go through a special inspection. When I sold it I must have received 15 calls, the second guy that looked at it bought it, the first guy that looked at it called back to buy it, too late. He was kicking himself.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 9:32 am

chemung wrote:My opinion, I would stay away from one that had frame/uni body damage. Unless you have a deep pocket to buy new tires frequently. :o
Well obviously you need to know what kind of damage the vehicle had, obviously you don't want one that had some really heavy duty bad history. Found the picture, I had another one too but can't find it at the moment. You can see the dent in the rear quarter. The dealer said it was deer and the deer spun around and hit the back. Actually about the only thing that makes sense. It must have been deer on the front because of the way its pushed in like that.

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My "totaled" car

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Post by kootch88 » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 9:36 am

One of the big problems was with flood cars. Most insurance companies now crush flood vehicles after piecing them out. They are still a problem if not crushed because folks think they look fine and later, after the electrical components corode you can spend a small fortune running down all the problems on a car that looks perfect from the outside.

 
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Post by SMITTY » Tue. Nov. 11, 2008 9:38 am

Those cars ride great -- that was a good find!

Can't believe they totaled it just for that. No major damage there. Worked out good for you though!


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