[BurritoInABowl]

Originally Posted by pogofx

When buying a salvage or any other car with a title that has been branded for some reason, keep another thing in mind. How long you plan on keeping the car. If you plan on driving it for a very long time, it probably doesn't matter about the salvage title, provided the repair is good. You'll get a good deal and many good years out of the car.

The problem comes when YOU try to sell it. If you only keep the car a couple of years, it will be difficult to sale. Most people will need to finance the car since it will still be high enough in value that they can't pay cash. Even as a really good deal from the salvage. Most banks will not finance a salvage. Even though someone really wants your car, they can't buy it.

I ran into this problem when I got a killer deal on a 2011 Mini Cooper Clubman S. It had been a dealer buy back (aka lemon law). Car was perfect, but the title was branded as "Dealer Buy Back". It had been lemon lawed due to a check engine light with 3K miles on it. Ended up being a bad spark plug. Fixed and warrantied by Mini and then sold at auction. I ended up with the car with about 35K miles on it and got a great deal. Saved many thousands of dollars. It was flawless. Perfect condition. Thought I would drive it into the ground, but fell in love with the BRZ and bought one. Tried to sell the Mini and had a hell of a time. Had a ridiculous good price on it, but no one could get financing. I was probably 4-5K below the comps. Forget about trading it, dealers don't want it. I'm mean the car was in perfect shape except for the stupid title. And that wasn't even a Salvage.

Now, if you plan on driving the car for a long time until the value is worth in the $5k-7k (or less) range. It won't matter. People can probably afford that without a bank.

Something to think about. I thought I'd keep my Mini a long time, but didn't. Ended up having to finance, acting as the bank, for the person who bought it. Sold it for 10k. A lot of little dealers were interested in it as well, until they saw the title.

I'm not really looking into selling this car anytime soon, it will actually be my first car purchase so I plan on keeping it for a while.