[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I was perusing the Internet want ads looking at cars I might want to own but can't afford as I'm like to do on occasion when I noticed some dealers, particularly on eBay but show up in other sites as well, that offer savage cars that had "light damage" and were repaired then offered for sale at a step discount.

For example, there was a 2019 CTS-V Carbon Black that supposedly had only the driver's side door replaced. Now, I always assumed a salvage title car had been totaled. There is no way a $90,000 car was totaled if all it needed was a door replacement.

When I contacted the seller, who has sold well over a thousand cars on eBay and has a good rating he said "A lot of people don’t like to fix their cars so they get paid in full from insurance.. that’s why has been in total loss because paid in full". He also sent me the "before" and "after" photos that showed the passenger door pretty well pushed in but no a lot of other damage (I'm guessing the airbags went off as well from the side impact)

Really? Is that an option in some states (this guy is in Michigan)? Just curious more than anything. I'm chalking this up to the too good to be true category but wanted to see.

Edit: just saw you were looking at a black one so not this car, but if you have a link to the car you were looking at post it so we can look at it too.. but for the purposes of this thread i'll leave my reply...........


This car?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2019-Cadill...%7C1000%7C2500

If so this should match the before pics..
https://en.bidfax.info/cadillac/cts-...0k0146131.html

Anyways, that car needs a door, glass, airbags, airbag computer, potentially seatbelts, some GMs won't run after an airbag popped but that auction said it started soo.. there's also possibly roof and qtr damage and there is undercarriage damage as well.

Also going to need work to the door frame which is EXPENSIVE to do correctly. The auction estimated that as a near $45k fix.

Keep in mind insurance companies will NOT take a chance with airbags. They won't put used parts in and restitch a seat. They will replace the entire seat. They won't reprogram the SRS module for $45 bucks, they will put in a new SRS module. Wiring often burns from an airbag deployment and while cutting/soldering new ends on is easy insurance companies again will not want to do that because it's a liability for them down the road.

And all that is how an expensive car gets totalled for something that would have cost a couple grand to fix on a car from the 90s.