Title Questions
 

well i have a 93 that i bought 2 yrs ago and when the bank of the seller sent me the title, it was salvaged and the seller had moved. im now stuck with a salvaged title fd however the car is perfectly straight. no damage to the front, rear, sides, and the only thing i can think of why it was salvaged was it went in water since my fans relays were rusted up and my stock 10 yr old paint is getting bad. my question is can you replace a salvage title with a clean title in CA? i was also thinking of just buying a title or a really cheap wrecked fd and using its title. comments.

im pretty sure you cant but think of it this way, it could be slavaged for many reasons. perhpas something very minor

From what I understand in several states, you have the ability to repair a salvaged car and have the DMV/MVA/some local automotive authority inspect it. If it meets their guidelines they'll reissue a clean title.

but that's just hearsay.

unless you dont have any plans on keepin her..
title should be of very little concern to you..

I agree.. unless you are planning to sell it to make money.. I'm sure you picked it up cheaper than normal..

When you do a carfax, it will always be on it.. Even if you now get a non salvage title. If you just want to get your title to not say salvaged.. sometimes, people take it across statelines and it resets.. but still carfax will list it as salvaged..

You could do what you are thinking of.. its slightly tricky.. and lot of work.. since vin number is acturally on the firewall.. if anyone knows anything about an fd, they'll see it.. unless you swap the frame..

I would just not worry about it.. you picked it up cheap (i'm assuming you knew it was salvaged??), so when you sell it it will all work out..

I thought there were problems trying to get comprehensive insurance on a salvaged car or something along those lines. I believe there are a few details that could be important to someone without him trying to be slimy.

I think couple of things associated with salvage cars.. usually banks wouldn't loan you the money and some insurance companies are not going to insure at full retail value.

well unfortunately i didnt know it was salvaged. I bought it for 10.5k and it is a touring that HAD red interior, now black. i tried to find out where or who created the title change but had no luck. anyone here work for the DMV that could help me out. the reason i was asking was becuase i was thinking of selling it but i think i would actually lose money if i did. the motor i think has been rebuilt because it pulls hard for having 120k. Another question, is it worth dumping a lot of money into a salvaged title? i own a business and i need a car to show so i was planning on doing 99 spec w/ a few cf/ add ons, new motor w/ something like a gt35/40, paint, and interior redone. basically take the car down to the body and rebuild the whole thing. thanks again for the responses

I'm not trying to be rude, but didn't it ever occur to you to run CarFax report or ask the owner at the time if the car had a clean title? :confused: That's a $10.5K mistake. :eek:

Read the original post.


The owner of the car lied to him and when the bank sent him the title, it was salvaged. After that he couldn't get ahold of the original owner since he moved.


This is a common practice for people that are trying to sell salvaged cars.

I did read the original post and it mentions nothing about the owner lying. Still, that doesn't answer the question about running a CarFax report. Caveat Emptor.

I am under the impression that the owner has to disclose that information by law. If they don't, hence the lying.


At least in California they do.

yeah this thread is not going the way i wanted it to but oh well. basically i f*cked up too. i didnt do a car fax and i didnt file a claim about the title not being as it was. I guess i was just too excited to have the FD :D. So yes, the owner did lie to me but by the time i had got the title from the bank he had already moved out of his house and was no where to be found. Oh and i dont think it was a 10.5k mistake since i did get the car i wanted, and i didnt have to fix a thing because of the salvage title.
i think Fumanchu understands the situation.
so can i do anything about having it inspected to have the title cleared?

The only thing thats the title is going to hurt you on is if you resell the car and your insurance. If you have full coverage and total your car they most likely won't give you what you paid or cover the full value of the car. I had this problem before. I bought a wrecked car for 1,500 put 12k into fixing it and mods then it was totalled and I got a wopping 2k for it. I'll never do it again. Well at least put fully coverage on an R-titled car.