Selling a car with a salvage title

Whoever buys it, the brand travels with the car. It stays on the record after a rebuild, so say what the title says.

How a car ends up with a salvage title

Most salvage titles come from an insurance total loss after a crash, flood, fire or theft. Each state sets its own test, and some use a percentage of the car's value while others leave it to the insurer. Selling a wrecked or totaled car has every state's threshold.

The brand ladder in five large states

States use different words, but most follow the same three steps: damaged and not yet fixed, repaired and back on the road, or parts only.

Flood damage is its own brand in some of these states and part of the salvage brand in others. Pennsylvania has a separate flood brand, Florida stamps "flood vehicle," Texas adds a "Flood Damage" remark, while California folds flood into "Salvaged" and New York treats water damage as salvage. Selling a flood-damaged car has the full state list.

Salvage vs rebuilt: what the road back involves

Getting from salvage to rebuilt means proving the car was fixed properly and with parts that weren't stolen. A few examples of what states ask for:

• Pennsylvania wants the car restored to the maker's original specifications, airbags, seat belts and emissions parts included, then checked at an enhanced inspection station (PennDOT).
• California requires the car's cost to include labor, even if you did the work yourself, plus a brake and light certificate and an inspection by the DMV or Highway Patrol (DMV).
• Texas asks the person who repaired it to list the work performed, and to complete a Rebuilt Vehicle Statement when certain parts were used.
• Indiana has a state police officer inspect the car and verify where the major parts came from (IC 9-22-3-15).

None of this is free, and the brand stays afterward. That's why many salvage cars are sold as they are.

Who buys salvage cars

• Rebuilders. In Texas, anyone who buys, sells or rebuilds more than five salvage or nonrepairable vehicles a year needs a dealer license (TxDMV).
• Dismantlers, yards and recyclers. Federal law requires junk and salvage yards to report every vehicle they take in to NMVTIS each month, with its VIN (NMVTIS).
• Salvage auctions. Rules on who may buy vary. Texas lets an insurer sell a salvage-titled car only to a licensed salvage or independent dealer, an out-of-state buyer, a buyer in a casual sale at auction, or a metal recycler.
• Us. We buy whole non-running and junk cars and offer free pickup anywhere in the US. A salvage title has a route like any other title status, and it's one of the things that moves the offer.

Disclosure: the brand follows the VIN

Don't try to hide a brand. It isn't hidden.

NMVTIS, the federal title database, collects brand information from state titling agencies, insurers, and junk and salvage yards. Buyers can see a car's brand history through approved providers, which sell the reports.

States back that up. Florida law says no one may knowingly sell a rebuilt or flood vehicle until the state has stamped that on the title (Fla. Stat. 319.14). Utah requires the seller to disclose a salvage certificate or branded title before the sale (Utah Code 41-1a-1004). In New York, a car found with an undisclosed salvage history has to go through the salvage process before the DMV will title it or renew its registration.

Selling a salvage car to us

• Tell us the brand on the title and which state issued it.
• Tell us what happened to the car, what's been repaired, and what hasn't.
• Tell us if it rolls, if all four wheels are on it, and where it sits.

At pickup, both the car and the title are checked against what you told us. If the title is junk, nonrepairable or missing, the route depends on your state, so tell us exactly what you have.

Brands cross state lines

Moving a car doesn't wash a brand. Colorado, for example, carries another state's brand onto its own title along with the name of the state that issued it (C.R.S. 42-6-107). Florida keeps a brand on every title the car ever gets (FLHSMV). For junk titles specifically, see selling a junk car. For the kinds of businesses that buy cars like this, see who buys cars for parts.