Buy Damaged Cars

Will You Buy Damaged Cars?

If you just want to buy damaged cars without wanting to know what's involved and how to guide, you can Explore and search them on eBay Motors and get more tips and advice on the eBay Motors page.

In general, buy damaged cars are NOT recommende for safety concerns. Damaged cars are referring to major frame damage due to collision or roll over. Mother Nature disaster like hail-damaged or flood-damaged vehicles. Insurance companies will issue the title with “Rebuilt or Salvage titles”. Vehicles like such are sold at insurance auctions as scrap vehicles or, some will go straight to the junkyard for scraping or crushing.

Here comes the scary part if you wan to buy damaged cars, some of them will be repaired and sold back to used car market as “salvage title” “rebuilt status” or even as “clean title” to consumers. If you are thinking about to buy damaged cars to save money, think again. You might be the target of some used car dealers or body shop who routinely buying junk cars, rebuild them and sold to general public with “washed titles”.

Washed Titles?

By spending a little money to run a Vehicle History Report and some inspection work will drastically decrease the possibility of being a victim of buying damaged cars. First, let’s look at what is a washed title and more importantly how to avoid them! Read on.

Washed title defined: damaged vehicles are sold and re-registered in a state that doesn’t recognize salvage or flood-loss title declarations from the originating state.

Thus the original “salvage title” or “rebuilt title” has been washed from the paperwork to appear as “clean title” used cars!

What is Rebuilt or Total Loss?

When vehicles are damaged beyond the reasonable repair, an insurance company will total the cost of repairs by issueing the owner a check for what’s car worth. Sometimes you hear the term “total loss”. Similar arrangement will also be made for stolen vehicles.

The Money Is In The Turns

The title will typically be issued as salvage, rebuild or flood-damaged. Those vehicles then sold at insurance auctions and that’s part 1. Who will show up at the insurance auction you may ask? Most of attendees are dealers and auto body shop or salvage yard people. Plus some scam artist looking to buy damaged cars on purpose, they can turn around to make some quick buck.

The part 2 of the business is to re-registered the vehicle that previously been declared salvage or flood-damaged title in a state that doesn’t recognize such title declarations from the originating state. Once the physical rebuilding work is completed and the title is been washed as clean, it’s time to remarket them to dealer-only auctions and general public.

Please note, it’s possible that the car dealer may not even know they purchased junk cars and selling them as clean title. It’s also quite possible that an individual is selling their salvaged titled cars to another private party with or without know the “truth”! Either way, someone (mostly consumers) will end up buying damaged vehicles and think they get a great deal!

The Evidence of The Crime

Just like forensic scientists conducting crime scene investigation. You too will develop some skills to inspect and protect yourself from being a victim of the crime. First and for most, always run a vehicle history report on your own. And read carefully between the lines.

Run a CarFax Report

If you are planning to buy damaged cars, the first step is to run a CarFax Report. For people who’s not familiar with Carfax – is a Virginia based reporting agency, specialize in VIN data in the automotive industry. VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number, the absolute DNA of any vehicles.

According to CarFax, every time a vehicle’s VIN is key punched into a computer, an electronic transaction is created. CarFax compiles these VINs, tracks them, and puts them into a title history report that allows consumers to research the vehicles recorded past.

For example, if a vehicle shows up in the Carfax report as “sold” at an insurance auction in one state, with a flood-damaged title. A couple of months later, the same vehicle registered again in another state with a “clean title”. That’s a typical sign of vehicle fraud and do NOT buy that vehicle. Period.

Signs of Flood Damage

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out if the perspective vehicle has been a victim of flood. Here are some tips for checking flood damage:

• Lift up the floor mats or the carpeting, can you smell moldy?
• Is there water standing underneath the mats or carpet?
• Do you see water lines on the doors, under the hood or door jams?
• Look under the seat, are the springs rusted?
• Check around foot pedals and look for rusty areas
• Open the hood; do you see a “water line” alone the firewall?
• Check your trunk look for wet carpet, rusty bolts and water lines
• Open up the fuse box and see if there is excessive corrosion

Signs of Frame Damage

1) Stand 10 to 15 feet away from the car and look down, see if you will see the following:

• Does the front and back wheels line up?
• Is the car “sitting straight”, are tires in alignment?
• Are the bumpers in line?

2) Look at all the gaps between EACH door and its respective panel. Pay attention to the hood, fenders, quarter panels and trunk. Check the gaps to see if they are consistent. Go to the side of the car and get on your knees to look at the frame rail. Can you see any “Clamp Marks”?

When a car has been hit hard enough, the integrity of the vehicle – its frame is bent out of alignment. A body shop will use frame machine to clamp onto the frame rails, to pull the car in alignment, thus leaving the “clamp marks”.

Clamp marks are serious indicator of been in a collision! And you should avoid buying frame-damaged cars at any cost.

3) Check the core support to spot the frontal collision. If the car was hit in the front with significant amount of force, the radiator support will be pushed in. The radiator is then replaced and welded in place. You can easily spot the core support frame damage by looking at the weld marks around the radiator, they are very obvious.

Get a Professional Inspection Done

Hire a professional to conduct a thorough inspection for you are always stressed and recommend in used car purchase. A trained eye can easily pick out something that most people overlooked such as paint overspray, evidence of collision repairs or odometer tempering etc. The money spent now can and will be well saved later down on the road.

Where Can I buy damaged cars?

What's the motivation to buy damaged cars? Consider yourself to be warned! With all the warning signs indicated by this page, the author of the site suggest NOT to buy damaged cars for the safety concerns. However, if anyone still would like to buy one, eBay Motors is by far the most popular place to look for.

In fact, many dealers have turned their “ugly duckling” trade ins into eBay and getting top dollars for their returns. If you happened to own a “salvaged title” vehicle and would like to sell, and so far have not much success selling locally?

Run an auction on eBay, you will be surprised how many people might be interested in buying off your hand. You can Click Here to do some research on eBay Motors official site.

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