Light front end damage, and more specifically just a headlight and bumper wouldn't cause a vehicle to become a branded title. So either you bought it that way and someone lied to you, or you're not telling the whole story. It seems like a relatively fair price considering the miles and I'm not even suggesting that having a rebuilt title is bad, but if a bumper and headlight caused it to be totalled which is less than $1000 in repairs that would make your car worth $1200 and we know that's not the case. I just don't want anyone to make an ill informed decision when purchasing a vehicle with a reconstructed title

 

i have done over 2500 rebuilt titles. in Virginia it only takes 24% retail estimate to salvage a vehicle. if you price the bumper, reinforcement, fender and of course the insurance company is going to add other parts that did not need to be replaced as a precaution. then you add all this at retail price, plus the retail price for labor and paint, you easily get 24%. I hope you have now learned something so you can use an opinion based on knowledge versus your opinion based on ignorance. I have seen theft recoveries with absolutely no damage still get salvage titles. honestly, its up to the insurance companies and how they decide to write the vehicle off. in most cases, and I have witnessed many in 18 years, the insurance companies rip off the customers when they pay them for their vehicles, and sometimes its very significant. so they have a lot of room to sell the vehicles at auction.

 

If you are still not convinced, ask yourself a simple question......how come there are so many body shops? and how can so many body shops operate next to each other? that's because they are paid by insurance companies with retail estimates. I did a 2010 gmc commercial van in 2011 with 6k miles on it. the insurance estimate was $16,100. it had damage on the roof and side, and needed airbags. I fixed the roof, replaced the necessary parts and put in used airbags, it cost me, with labor, $3100 to fix it. so if anyone out there is sitting around thinking about their future, and they love cars, get a license and open a body shop. I am now retired and do this for fun.

 

A theft recovery is a different story. That doesn't have to exceed a damage amount, it generally has to exceed a time frame amount to the point where the insurance company just writes the car off as a total loss and pays out to the insured. If a car has a retail book value of $12,500 and the damage amount is, using your example of 25%, $3200, the vehicle will not become a total loss. Your information is not correct and mine doesn't come from ignorance, but nice little jab there. I'm not sure why you are becoming defensive. There are other considerations and factors that come in to play determining a total loss and on a 1993 honda civic a fender, bumper, and paint may do it. However, on an 04 g35 that you seem to indicate was salvaged over 2 years ago, when it was worth even more, would not have been declared a total loss due to minor front end damage, unless there was more severe underlying issues. Again, at the end of the day I'm not saying people shouldn't buy cars with repaired titles, but they need to be a little more cautious when inspecting so that they know exactly what they're getting in to and don't end up being out of their hard earned money.

 

anyone who wishes to purchase this car, instead of talking about it, I have all the paperwork including the dmv inspection for you to look at.

 

the state of Virginia has its rules but other states have theirs. salvage titles are also not always determined on just percentage of damage, as with theft recoveries. again, everyone's opinions vary and unfortunately there is no official nada or other regulated controlled agency that determines what a repaired car is actually worth. i have hundreds of examples of cars that should have had clean titles after a wreck, and hundreds that should have has salvage titles but were given clean titles. I have some official documentation that shows insurance companies do what they want in most cases. I think people should always be cautious when purchasing any used car. I am a very honest person. I price all my cars in consideration of its history and its current condition. I only offer a choice to people who do not want to pay retail. And I have had extremely great success at this. I gladly welcome everyone's opinions, but I would also like for each and every one of you to establish your experience and share your knowledge from experience with us, not just your opinions. this forum is better off with experienced opinions versus just opinions. I have free time and would love to share my knowledge and experience about salvage, insurance companies, insurance auctions and dmv protocol. there is a lot of truth that the average consumer is not aware of concerning insurance companies.

 

oh, just to rub a little salt in this discussion and make things interesting, I have a total of $4600 invested in this car. the price is still not negotiable.

 

brand new rear tires.....

 

weekend bump....

 

$4700.

That's a $100 come up. Don't sneeze at it.

Also, if you're a dealer, I think you need to pay for vendor or something.