If you’re in the market for a vehicle and don’t have a lot of money to spend, you might want to buy a salvage car. To help you with this decision, let’s look into what this decision entails.
A Brief Introduction to Salvage Cars
Before you decide to buy a salvage car or not, there are some important things you need to know about this class of vehicle.
The first is that the term means something a bit different across the country. Being a salvage car denotes that the vehicle is too banged up to be driven and no insurance company will touch it before necessary repairs have been completed.
The simplest way to think of them is that the damage done to them will cost more than the vehicle is worth, hence the insurance company takes possession of them and gets what they can from a salvage lot.
However, there are distinctions used in different states. Sometimes, a “salvage vehicle” is one that needs repairs totaling 70% of the total worth, other times it might be lower.
Hopefully, this hasn’t caused more confusion. The point is that if you decide to buy a salvage car, you’ll need to look at each vehicle as an individual. They didn’t all gain this designation for the same reason.
Fortunately, this means that you may be able to buy a salvage car that is actually quite the gem. It might have earned the classification for some dubious reason and is now selling for a very affordable price.
How Much Will Repairs Cost?
One other thing about salvage cars: you can’t drive them until they’re repaired. This is literally the law.
Therefore, before you leap at the opportunity to buy a salvage car because the price looks right, be sure you take an extra moment. List out what is wrong with the vehicle and research how much it will cost you to get it back into working order. Otherwise, you’re going to be out a good deal of money for no good reason.
Where Will You Send It?
Likewise, that vehicle is going to have to go somewhere for those repairs and that’s going to come with further overhead.
Some of you may be able to handle the repairs on your own, so you can just have it brought to your driveway. Nonetheless, you’re going to need to pay a tow truck to bring it there because it definitely can’t be driven until the repairs are handled.
On the other hand, you may need the help of a mechanic. In that case, make sure you think about the cost of getting your vehicle there and speak to them beforehand to ensure they’ll be able to carry out your required repairs.
Finally, we’ll add one point to this discussion. If you use our services, you’ll have a lot more vehicles to choose from. This also means it will be much easier to find one that hasn’t been damaged too badly.
Hopefully, this helps you with your decision about whether or not to purchase a salvage car. It’s definitely worth looking into.
Comments