Branded titles- worth the risk?

[Houndoc]

As I shop for a daily driver, a lot of branded title vehicles show up. Seems like usually save a few thousand dollars for age and miles.
My first inclination is to run away, figuring there is no good way to know extent of damage or quality of repairs.


Any thoughts as to whether that is the right approach or not?

 

[mbryson]

I've always taken the approach that if you don't know why it's branded and how it was fixed, I'd pass on a branded title. If I can see the damaged area and evaluate the repair, I'm hesitant but it's got to be about 60% of the price of a comparable non-branded title rig. Resale is somewhat difficult on branded titles. If it's got any issues with safety stuff, I pass.

 

[Hickey]

I think most sellers want too much for branded titled vehicles. I'm with Marc, 60% is what the price should be. That being said, I have been looking at used Mercedes SLK's for several years now. At a certain age they cost too much to repair versus a total, even in a relatively light fender bender. I've driven several branded and unbranded SLK'S and I have found that the branded cars are usually in a lot better shape.

 

[Tonkaman]

Subscribed and interested to hear everyone’s input.

I’ve only bought 1 vehicle that was in a major wreck before I purchased it. It bit me in the butt big time! Even though it had been fixed, there were many ghosts in the machine

 

[Deleted member 12904]

When I detailed cars at a dealership in high school the dealership owner told me he follows this rule for value on branded titles
Age of vehicle
1 years old =10% off value
2 years old=20% off value
3years old =30% off value
4 years old =40% off value
5 years and older =50% off value

Following this rule obviously has huge depreciation as it ages but it also seems to be more in line whith pricing I see on branded vehicles.

 

[TurboMinivan]

Here at our dealership, the value of vehicles with branded titles is about 50% off, no matter what year or how many miles. This is in line with most other dealers we talk to. There are many reasons to avoid branded titles, including--but not limited to--the following:

1. many lenders will not finance a branded title vehicle
2. manufacturer warranty will be null and void as soon as they learn about the title
3. further headaches that can pop up down the road--collateral damage which was not first found, etc
4. repaired vehicles may have weakened body structures which offer reduced protection from further impact

There are a few dealers in the area who focus on branded title vehicles. They buy them cheap (see my opening statement above) and mark them up, typically advertising them for 90% of the market price of a clean title vehicle. "You're getting 10% off," they tell their buyers. "It's such a great deal!" Hardly.

My most recent salvage vehicle experience went like this. A young couple came in to trade their Accord sedan for a new Subaru. The husband bought the car before the marriage; they now had a child under one year old. The Accord had a salvage title and he knew it when he bought it, but it ran fine so he felt it didn't matter. She took it in for brake work to an independent shop, and while it was on the rack the technicians noticed the rear unibody frame area had been seriously crumpled and then pulled back sorta straight. Turns out the car had been salvaged by being nailed in the rear by something big (which I was able to confirm via a title check). The technicians explained how the car's rear crash absorption was now compromised, saying, "if you get hit hard in the rear again, whoever is sitting in the back seat is dead." She immediately drove home, took their baby seat out of the back, and told her husband they are buying a new car immediately. It took a few days to gather their down payment (during which time she borrowed a car to transport her child rather than put the baby back in the Accord), but in less than a week they had driven home in their new Subaru. Moral of the story? If you are going to consider a salvaged vehicle, do lots of research and inspect it extremely carefully. Saving a few dollars now could cost you dearly in the long run.


The only time I would even consider buying a branded title vehicle is if I were just buying an old Jeep and planning to strip it down and turn it into an off-road-only buggy... and even then, maybe not.

 

[Pike2350]

I would also recommend checking with your insurance. My sister was looking at a branded title car until she found out her insurance wouldn't insure it.

 

[Spork]

My experience has been with a dealer out of Orem trying to sell branded title cars for the 10-15% lower model, by the time I got done with numbers I walked, my wife was pissed but it wasn't worth it. If I were to buy one I'd plan on driving it until the wheels fall off. the 10% you save today may cost you 50% in 5 years when you try and sell it. The financing discussion went something like we're selling the car for new-10% but then we want to sell you a warranty because the manufacturer won't support it, then charge you for dealer fees, taxes, window etching transfer, etc, etc. It didn't help when they asked how much I wanted to put down and then all numbers going forward weren't for the total cost just whatever I was financing. I figured the cost ended up at +20% of what the advertised price was so I'm not sure what I was saving.

 

[4x4_Welder]

Sometimes it doesn't take a whole lot to total a car. I have a 91 Alfa Romeo 164 that I've been fighting with the insurance company over since August. I was driving along in the middle lane, and their client pulled out of a parking lot straight into my lane. I mostly missed the guy, but hit their rear wheel with the front bumper. From the outside, it just needs the fender straightened out, new bumper cover, and a headlight. Unfortunately it tweaked the radiator support, and front frame horn, so the total came to $3k. Their initial valuation was $3500, so it's totaled. No airbags deployed, not even touching the crumple zone, but still totaled. I've seen similar executive type cars totaled by being scraped or keyed. Once you get into a $5k paint job, it can total a 10year old car.
Research is key.

 

[SnwMnkys]

I've bought, fixed and sold quite a few wrecked Jeeps. I can usually get 80% of value when I sell them. My current JK is rebuilt restored and have zero issues with it. All my vehicles will be Rebuilt/Restored here on out.

 

[Caleb]

I've owned a branded jeep. It had been stolen, stripped, insurance paid out and then it was recovered. No damage other than it needed new seats, wheels, tires, etc. Great, all things I was planning to replace anyways. It never gave me any issues, etc until I went to sell it. Ended up selling it on ebay because I couldn't get any buyers, even well below market value at the time.

My mom bought a branded Kia. She didn't do much due diligence but the dealer had told her it had been repaired "as good as new". Well, she was on a little road trip, driving down the freeway and lost control, ran in to the dirt embankment along the side of the freeway. Luckily she was ok. It wasn't going anywhere and she was stranded up in Idaho. So my dad and I load up my trailer and head up to get her and the car. We get everything home and take a look at it. One of the rear coils had been cut down to get it to sit level because the rear was so tweaked. That coil had popped out and that's what caused her to loose control of it. We also noticed the airbag didn't deploy (freeway speed in to an embankment should have easily popped it). Dug in to that and the airbag had straight up been removed.

Moral of the stories, I'll never touch a branded vehicle again if I don't plan to strip it and build it from the ground up and I plan to keep it forever. That's very unlikely since I can't keep any of my vehicles longer than a couple years. I'd pass on the branded vehicles, you never know what you're going to get and even if you do, they are tough to get rid of.

 

[Jeepj667]

We just bought a branded '15 Forester Limited w/30,000mi. for $13,000. We looked at a few before picking one. Try googling the VIN, I was able to find pictures of the salvage sales of almost all the cars we were looking at. Then you can tell where to check for the repairs. Also could tell if airbags were deployed, or not. The one we picked had been rear ended but not hard enough to get into the subframe, no airbags deployed. It is a limited so they had to replace the power rear hatch which I believe is why it was salvaged. We plan on driving it until the wheels fall off.

America First will loan up to 80% of NADA clean RETAIL
IBEW CU will loan up to 50% of NADA clean TRADE in.
Liberty Mutual had no problem insuring it.

 

[AaronPaige]

My lenders want full coverage insurance and I have not found anyone that will insure a branded title more than liability, my tj has a rebuilt title(that I wrecked in to a cow) and I felt it was repairable with bolt on upgrades so I keep it, I’d love to know who your insurance through.

 

[AaronPaige]

Oops just seen liberty I’ll be calling them

 

[Caleb]

I use State Farm and had no issues getting mine insured.

 

[zmotorsports]

Unfortunately this was the biggest reason I quit buying wrecked vehicles to rebuild many years ago. Back before they branded the titles I would have my wife in a nice fairly new vehicle every couple of years and did a lot of rebuilds for friends and family members. Then when they started branding titles no one wanted to give me anything for them when we went to sell them. My rebuilds had no corners cut and in many cases were nicer than ones that hadn't been in an accident. I quit rebuilding wrecks for this very reason and focused more on mechanical fixer uppers.

I realize that most were not fixing wrecks to the same degree which is why the law was developed in the first place but it really made it next to impossible for those of us that actually did repair them properly and using OEM parts.

The other thing that bothered me is working in the auto body paint mixing department I would see shops repairing even brand new vehicles that had either fallen off a transport or damaged before being purchased, some of them pretty severely. These vehicles were never turned into the insurance so therefore never had a branded title even though they were damage quite badly and some in my opinion were not really put back together properly. Unknowing buyers thought they were buying a pristine new vehicle only to find out a quarter panel had a half inch of filler in it, fasteners missing and wire clips not put back where they go so several years down the road were having to deal with what they thought was a new mint condition vehicle when they bought it.

As for now, I look at it as how they are rebuilt and what your intentions are with it. If you are looking to only have the vehicle a short time then you may have a harder time selling. On the other hand if you buy it right and decide to sell down the road you aren't into it the initial investment. If you are planning on keeping it a long time and it is well done then by the time it depreciates out the branded title becomes less and less a factor.

My son bought his 2002 Chevrolet 2500HD Duramax about four years ago from a guy who had the truck catch fire on it several year prior and had it rebuilt by the insurance company. The truck was put together very well and then it started having mechanical issues. He was going to trade it in but they were only going to give him $5k trade in when most in the area at the time were going for around $12k-$16k for a clean Duramax. He had a neighbor friend look at it and he said it needed new injectors but I knew the guy just put injectors in the year before and I didn't suspect they would be bad already so I offered him a few bucks more than what they were going to give him trade in and he jumped at it because he didn't want to deal with it any longer. I was going to repair it and flip it but my son expressed that he wanted it.

A couple nights of diagnosing unveiled all that it needed was a FICM (Fuel Injector Control Module) which we picked up for a few hundred bucks and the truck was back on the road. Had I been able to flip the vehicle I would have been able to make a few bucks and the buyer would have gotten a very nice truck well below what others in the area were going for, granted it would have had a salvaged title but I knew I wouldn't be able to get much over $10k for it. Ultimately my son ended up with a gorgeous well taken care of Duramax for less than $6k including repairs. He will more than likely keep it for a long time so in the end the branded title means very little.

In my opinion, it all depends on how it was damaged, more importantly how it was repaired, what your end goal with the vehicle will be and how you can purchase it. However, the branded titles definitely make people skittish and unfortunately because of some bad apples, the skittishness is justified.

Mike

 

[mesha]

We have bought quite a few branded vehicles. The sonata we are currently driving is salvage. We have never had a problem getting financed or insured, not even a small inconvenience. We had one vehicle that leaked around the windshield a bit when it rained. That was a pain till we figured out what was going on, but we got it resealed and it wasn't a problem after that. I can see why people are hesitant because it could be a bad job on the repair for sure. We have had great luck and I will continue to buy salvage vehicles.

 

[2002maniac]

If it's a good enough deal I don't have a problem with a branded title as long as I can verify the extent of the damage and quality of repairs.

I've owned 2 salvage title vehicles and there were no issues with liability coverage.

My State farm agent told me full coverage was also an option, though she did warn me that if a claim were made, the value of the vehicle would be significantly lower than a similar clean title.

 

[UNSTUCK]

I've purchased a few. Do your do diligence and you'll be fine. The first car I purchased, for my mom, was a rental that had been returned late. It was reported stolen and then received the branded title. It was a year old. There was absolutely no indication of any repairs being made. The car was perfect for her needs for several years. No issues at all.

My wife now drives an Armada with a restored title. I saw the wreck pictures, saw pics of the repair, inspected the repair myself and was satisfied. She loves her Armada. She puts a whopping 3-400 miles a month on it!

I have see quite a few very shady repairs. Zip ties and such. They are easy to find. Walk away from them. In general I will only look at dirty titles on vehicles with a real frame. I think it's harder to hide the damage of a larger truck/suv.

No issues with America First FCU for loans.

 

[Houndoc]

Great replies on both sides of the issue....not helpful.