Is A Salvage Rebuild Worth It?

[Sam_]

Originally Posted by blsfrs

I don't know about DMV laws in NE but in Va, retitling a car as rebuilt or salvage is a PITA.
4 years ago, I got my FRS by making friends with a small local used car guy. He searched auctions for "as is" BRZ/FRS/86's. We found mine in Texas for $6k. It was a repo with an open recall on the valve springs but it actually ran just fine. With shipping, auction fee, and $500 to my guy I had $7500 in it.

If only I could find anything near 6k for BRZ/FRS. It seems that the prices have gone even higher recently hence why I want to try and save a couple bucks any way I can.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Sam_

If only I could find anything near 6k for BRZ/FRS. It seems that the prices have gone even higher recently hence why I want to try and save a couple bucks any way I can.

All used cars are high right now. It is probably the worst time in automotive history to be buying a used car. Unfortunately that also means that salvage cars are selling for more than normal as well.
If you can hold out another year then prices may "normalize".

[Ultramaroon]

In this case especially, the saying holds true. "If you have to ask, you're not ready."

The required experience is built incrementally over years. No matter how badly you want it, don't bite off more than you can chew.

[Opie]

@Sam_ they are out there, you just have to be diligent checking for them regularly. There are still several clean title cars that pop up near me with high mileage and some minor issues that I can usually pick up for under 5k

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Opie

@Sam_ they are out there, you just have to be diligent checking for them regularly. There are still several clean title cars that pop up near me with high mileage and some minor issues that I can usually pick up for under 5k

Opie: You live in Florida though. Location kind of matters on this one.

OP: I just want to say that I loved my '08 manual Accent hatch (Rio twin). I see you drive a Rio currently, in case everyone thinks I'm crazier than I really am.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Opie

@Sam_ they are out there, you just have to be diligent checking for them regularly. There are still several clean title cars that pop up near me with high mileage and some minor issues that I can usually pick up for under 5k

Out of pure curiosity I did a quick surface skim of the larger car sales sites in the US. I found several decent looking cars in the $8K to $10K range at dealerships. Those are actually very, very good prices n this market even at retail.
Didn't have much luck with private sales but those are probably posted more locally and I didn't dig that deep. If there are $8K retail cars out there then there must be less costly private sale ones.

The bigger salvage auction sites have shitloads of them listed. I mean at this rate there won't be any eft in a few more years! Many had no bids listed yet but those that did were not dirt cheap. One had the whole front end wiped off it and the current bid was $2,500. One that didn't look too bad (though they took the picture from the undamaged side) was a $5,500 and still has two days left. Most looked bad enough I doubt that even you guys would be interested and will end up as part outs not rebuild. I also noticed that most of the wrecked ones (with working odometers) were well over 100K miles.

None of them were real close to the OP but I doubt he will find many in his backyard anyway since the big concentrations are on the coasts.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Opie: You live in Florida though. Location kind of matters on this one.

Which reduces his odds of finding a wreck anyplace close just as much as a cheap roadworthy one.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Which reduces his odds of finding a wreck anyplace close just as much as a cheap roadworthy one.

"His" being OP, or Opie?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Spuds

"His" being OP, or Opie?

Op. Opie will have pile’s available around him. Dead centre of the country not so much.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Op. Opie will have pile’s available around him. Dead centre of the country not so much.

In that case, I agree.

[Sam_]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Op. Opie will have pile’s available around him. Dead centre of the country not so much.

Step one. Don’t live in the middle of nowhere. Story of my life.

[Sam_]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Out of pure curiosity I did a quick surface skim of the larger car sales sites in the US. I found several decent looking cars in the $8K to $10K range at dealerships. Those are actually very, very good prices n this market even at retail.
Didn't have much luck with private sales but those are probably posted more locally and I didn't dig that deep. If there are $8K retail cars out there then there must be less costly private sale ones.

The bigger salvage auction sites have shitloads of them listed. I mean at this rate there won't be any eft in a few more years! Many had no bids listed yet but those that did were not dirt cheap. One had the whole front end wiped off it and the current bid was $2,500. One that didn't look too bad (though they took the picture from the undamaged side) was a $5,500 and still has two days left. Most looked bad enough I doubt that even you guys would be interested and will end up as part outs not rebuild. I also noticed that most of the wrecked ones (with working odometers) were well over 100K miles.

None of them were real close to the OP but I doubt he will find many in his backyard anyway since the big concentrations are on the coasts.

That is actually surprising to me. Even when I searched with no location limit ones that didn't have astronomically high mileage were in the $16k range. And I agree that places like copart have gotten to be way higher priced and that’s not even factoring the fees that can be upwards of 40%. After seeing rebuild videos I noticed when people are rebuilding them for around $4000 that was years ago.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Sam_

Step one. Don’t live in the middle of nowhere. Story of my life.

Hey, at least you're a real person. That's a plus. Welcome.

[adriancharles451]

Hello


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