buying salvage

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Wed 12 Jul 2006 16:24
buying salvage - adam f
was thinking about buying a car from salvage as a repair job but dont quite understand all the CAT C,D, etc etc damage.
i have seen some on ebay and at my local breakers. the ebay ones usually say whats wrong (bumper/wing damage etc etc) and usually say if it still drives. i have noticed on ebay that they hardly ever have log books and i have to take for some test to retrieve this from dvla.

can anyone help me out and give me some pointers of what to do and what i should know
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Wed 12 Jul 2006 16:27
buying salvage - local yokel
I'd suggest that if you don't know what's what that you are probably better off not getting involved. Salvaged cars are cheap for a reason.
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Wed 12 Jul 2006 16:46
buying salvage - DP
I agree with local yokel. There are salvage bargains to be had, but you need to be able to quickly and accurately identify and cost any repairs that are needed and work that out against the market value of a "straight" example.

I know someone who bought a stolen/recovered 3 year old Astra GTE 16v back in 1993 at auction for about half its market value. The insurer had paid out on it and the car had turned up when a local lockup was raided a year on. It was undamaged save for the locks, steering column shroud and a busted rear quarterlight. It went on to give him five years utterly reliable service (until it got nicked again and rolled!). He got to hear it running and had a cursory look underneath, but the rest was down to chance. It paid off, but there was an element of luck.

Unless you are confident, avoid these cars.
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Wed 12 Jul 2006 18:04
buying salvage - Hamsafar
You need to be doing it more than once to pay. On some you will lose, on others you will win, if you do a few, overall you will probably be better off at the end, but when you do one, and it's the one that goes wrong, it could end up an expensive mistake. They often have a few parts missing/swapped for faulty too, such as control units that people in the trade have stolen because they know you won't notice for months!
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Wed 12 Jul 2006 19:21
buying salvage - blue_haddock
I also think that if you have to ask these sorts of questions then it's probably not the best way to get a cheap vehicle. Unless you know what you are doing your are very likely to get stuck with a lemon.
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Wed 12 Jul 2006 23:22
buying salvage - martint123
www.wcsauto.com/salvage/categories/index.html
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Thu 13 Jul 2006 08:42
buying salvage - Collos25
This is a big fish game and minnows get eaten but fleeced first.
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