RE- Cal Salvage title

["Moparconvtman" <Moparconvtman@xxxxxxx>]

Subject: Automobile Salvage Titles
 This information is written to be correct to the authors knowledge, but as
always there can be exceptions.

A salvage or rebuilt title does not mean the car was bent in half and
repaired nor does it mean that it did not pass some sort of safety
inspection.
 There is no set rule on what cars will be totaled in terms of damage. Every
car is different because every situation is different, Example; A 96 Chev.
Camero is stolen and the owner is fully insured. He is given a rental car to
drive, weeks go by and the car is not recovered, he complains to insurance
company, since police have not recovered the car the owner is given a
settlement, the cars title is forwarded to the title division of that state
as totaled. The car is found 2 days later, it is taken to the insurance
auction to be sold to the highest bidder, He will receive a bill of sale and
take that along with any receipts for Items put into car to make it road
ready to the state police and have the Vin# checked against his paperwork
(no safety inspection) he is then issued a title or a branded title
(rebuilt) or a salvage certificate depending on that states laws. Now the
car in this example could have been smashed in the Front or rear etc. And
the damage could have been $3000 to $30000.Dollars if an adjuster cuts a
check and claims the car as totaled  the title is sent in as described. And
the scary part is this, In 2 states in this country (Washington and ?) if
the car is over 7 years old at the time of the accident or incident the
person presenting the bill of sale will receive a Clean and normal title!
Sometimes in any state the title comes back clean for no reason. So
generally if someone has turned a salvage car into a clean title it is not
from illegal acts but from software issues or clerical mistakes. Also the
paperwork can get slowed down in this process and the car can be bought and
inspected and re-titled before the rebuilt status is even know. So the body
shop in California may be telling the truth. These cars are all over the
country, that may be bad or good depending on the car. A few years ago I
bought a 92 VW Jetta GLI with only 38K miles at night, it looked great, the
next day I found that the front frame rail looked like Swiss cheese it had
been hit hard and repaired quickly and incorrectly. This car was dangerous!
But the title was clean! I have bought others that had rebuilt titles yet
were repaired to were you could not really tell they had been hit.
The moral here is you should always have an inspection done  prior to
purchase. Because that car may be rebuilt and you wont know and dont pass on
a car that is rebuilt because it may be perfectly fine.
Bryce Kennedy
Seattle

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