Hey guys, I'm looking into buying an fd and the one I've set my mind on has an salvage title. Does this mean that the car cannot be driven or register for road use? Everything on the car works fine ac,cruise control etc. .It has a new paint job stock turbos and about 89,000 miles on the car. Please, any answer will be very helpful.

Thankyou

 

no a salvage title simply states that the car sometime in the past has been wrecked to the point where a insurance company totaled the vechicle. Most states simply require a safety inspection done at any Mazda Dealship... it may cost a little money but it would far less than buying the car with a clear title...

 

Say the car was worth 14,000 before the accident. Then it was wrecked and the cost to repair it is 15,000. It is then considered a total loss and salvaged.. Then someone buys it from the insurance company and fixes it and sells it. Thing is ussually it is not properly repaired or the frame may be damaged. Mine has a salvage title i owned 1 month and already had to get new clutch flywheel motor mounts, and now a new engine.

 

Also, check with your insurance company. Some will not insure salvaged vehicles period. Many will insure it, but not for physical damage (the coverage that fixes your car, not the other guys).

 

you CAN NOT drive a car with a salvage title. you need to get it rebuilt. how you rebuild is based on the state you call home. please take the car to someone that can fix the unibody on your car, and yes you can fix it,and no if the guy if good it wont be off even a small bit. have fun

 

yes you can

 

Agreed.

 

Any car with a salvage title will never be in the money, parts car yes real car no.

 

Street's closed, pizza boy.
Find another way home.

 

I purchased a '91 TII about 6 years ago from an insurance auction. 38Kmi., great paint, perfect interior, no frame damage etc., blue book was $10.5K at the time for a clean title car. There was a little overspray inside the rf fender and that was the only indication that anything had ever happened to the car. No problem insuring it with State Farm. Had to get a $65 lamp inspection for the DMV and that was it.

What occasionally happens is; an owner convinces an insurance company the repairs are not satisfactory, the insurance co. can auction it, take whatever they get minus the lot's take. The $$ they loose are passed on to everyone's insurance premiums. The new pink slip will say salvage from that time on.

You can get screwed with a POS if you don't know cars well, or get a killer deal on a great car like I did ($3900). I drove it to work, autocrossed it, tracked it for 3 years before selling it for $6500 3 years ago. The new owner was happy to get one of the nicest FC's in the country.

You just have to know what you're doing and be in the right place at the right time. I've talked to others who have had similar experiences. Good luck.

 

I think it depends on the state. Here in Pa you cannot drive a car with a salvage title, it has to be a reconstruction title.

You can do it by taking it to a mechanic; the mechanice has to fill out some state forms.

Good luck,

Hai

 

ok, thanks you all for all the info. From what the seller told me was that the car was in a minor front end accident, but at the time he was unable to pay for the repairs. but now the car is fix. And was fix and inpected in a certifide shop.

Should I still purchase it ? Its a 93 base for about $10,000 including shipping

Thankyou

 

I highly would recommend that you wait to save up enough funds to purchase a proper (low mile motor/turbo/suspension) FD. In the long run, you will save a lot of money. You will also have the piece of mind that you don't own a "salvage title" FD.

 

Cool, i understand.

 

I bought a car with a salvage title on it, the car was missing everything from the motor to the interior, it took a little work finding all the parts but in the end i ended up saving a lot of money, compared to going out and buying a ready to drive FD. In New Jersey i had to pretty much put everything back to stock so i could get it inspected at a state facility. Pretty much here in NJ they just want to see that mostly all the big stuff like the engine, trans... and otheres werent stolen so i had to show receipts, before and after pics, and just the proper paper work that could be obtained through the insurance company. Its a bit of a pain, but worth it IMO.

RM

 

i Agree i must depend on your state.

 

Not quite.

In NY state at least, a salvage title is branded when the cost to fix the car is more than half of the value of the whole car. In other words, if you had an accident in your '93 touring which carries a Blue Book value of around $13k and the repair comes out to more than $6,500 then your car will get totaled. And yes you can drive on a salvage title, it might just be called different in other states.

Something most people seem to think about all salvage cars is that they all were in some horible accident which twisted the frame or the car was cut into two pieces to get fixed. Sometime that could be the case, but a lot of times its not. Most cars are "totaled" because of part and labor rate costs. Repainting a whole car alone is worth around $3500 from a dealer. Add the cost of some parts like a front bumper assembly, around $1000, and two airbags with the sensor, around $3000 will easliy get your 93 RX7 a "salvage title" even though there was no major damage to the car itself.

Oh and a "new clutch flywheel motor mounts, and now a new engine" aren't necessarily related to a salvage title. These same things could have easliy have to be replaced on any "clean titled" high milage rx7.

Kouki7even, if you want the car, ask the seller if he has any pics of the damage before it was fixed. If it didn't look too bad talk to the seller a little more to find out exaclty what was replaced. With a little research you can have yourself a nice FD and save a bunch of money

 

i agree with you on how you get the salvaged title but im MO you cant drive with a salvaged title and that sucks ***. get it

 

From what i know here in CA, you can drive a car with a salvaged title, and also insure it.
i went to AAA to get a proce quote the other day and they will even insure a right hand drive!! Well I am looking for an FD myself, i would perfer a clean title but a salvaged one is much cheaper. O and there are also other types of salvaged titles cars; like Theft-recovery and Flood-damaged cars, get the s-title also!

Asaide from this I had heard that there is a way to take the salvage title of the cars that where never wrecked. DOES ANYONE KNOW OR HAS HEARD OF HOW?????

 

well in MO you can get the title REBUILT and then ist a good title but there will be a small spot that reads previosly salvaged. so its a good title but everyone will know something happended

 

If you plan on reselling the car in the near future - don't buy. If you are like me, and run things up to 180,000 miles or more until they are "well used". Go for it. I've bought 4 cars from "insurance" auctions in Sacramento including my fd. They were all "thieft recovery", no frame damage - just had parts missing. My Fd was $8,500, missing some interior parts and had 42,000 miles on it. I changed all the fluids, plugs, filters and have been driving it for 2 years now. Resale value will be much less than a non-salvaged car, but hey, I'll keep if for another 10 years and it really won't matter what it's resale value is. Also I wouldn't suggest this route to anyone who is not mechanically inclined - if you need to pay someone to fix all the stuff it doesn't $ out.

 

IMO.......... This "bit of a pain," is NOT worth it..... Don't get it!

If you add up the time, parts, and labor you put into it will surpass the value of the car....

Buy a clean title FD....

 

if you can fix it yourself get it. youll own a FD and if your like me and dont plan on selling it then go for it. as for time, as long as you fix it or have family that will do it really cheap then its worth it. your time isnt the same as paying someone else to do it. this would give you a chance to own a badass car for cheap. hell i paid 4500 for mine and its not bent or enything i had to repair somethings but im doing it my self and my bro who owns a shop. if you dont know how to fix it then dont get it

 

I bought my 93 silverstone (R1 I think) w/86,000 miles and a "Salvaged" Title for 7k. There are interior pieces missing and a front sway bar.
State of NV requires that a LICENCED shop visually inspects the car for road worthyness. Once this is done(and you pass) you then take that form that the shop filled out stating you passed to the DMV for a "Moving Permit". Now you are able to drive it to the DMV Inspection station for one last look. If it passes, the car is as good as new! Your title will still have "salvaged" on it only for resale purposes.

The truth is you can get a great FD for a very resonable price if you're willing to deal with a rebuilt car. Keep your eye out for the right one to come along and I promise you'll find one! Plus! like me, you're helping the 3rd gens live on!

 

i totaly dissagree i paid 5k for my car at an auction in georgia 3 years ago. it had a lite hit in the front pass side. i needed headlights, a radiator and the clutch was going bad. it had 120k miles on it and it ran great. i did the body work at my friends fathers shop who took me to get the car i gave him 500 for letting me use his shop and stay at his house for a week. i got the car inspected at a place in GA and i now have a CLEAN title (GA dosent give you a salvage rebuilt title, those suck it makes it hard to register in diff states) with all of that, it ended up costing me about 8k. i drove it for 2 years without any major probs. then one day i overheated and blew the motor. i got a new one and i was back in business. i actually have the car off the road right now cause i did the permanate non sequential mod. im waiting for my IC piping and my manual boost controller. i just did a **** load of work to it. ill be driving it next week. so walien, can you tell me how ur car works better than mine? also you dont need to list every little upgrade to your car, a collum mounted boost gauge is not a mod. i'm surprised you didnt put you gas octain in there.

diffrent states have diffrent laws into what kind of title you get back. just find out before you buy it. if they dont give back clean titles you may be getting yourself into problems and have to wait to register it. i would buy it if they give back a clean title. insurance companies dont always total out a car because it is wrecked bad. if the owner wants it totaled they can fight to get it totaled.


also a new york salvage rebuit title would have to get inspected again if you wanted to register it in florida. each state needs to inspect the car. they mainly look for stolen parts.