Looking at a vette with a rebuilt title.All it had was front end damage. Just the plastic. Would you buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Do a thorough inspection or have someone who is familiar with corvettes look at it. Rebuilt doesn't always mean its a bad car...

 

Thanks for quick reply. Car is about 500 mi. from me. Car looks great by pictures and a movie, Will think about this awhile

 

If you can get the vin number you can do a Google search and you may be able to find the pictures when it went up for sale as a salvage vehicle. At least it will give you some idea how badly it was damaged.

 

They did send pics of the damage and they did drive it before it being repaired. To me it looks like mostly plastic. It is a 2015 and was wondering why it was totaled'

 

That’s why you Google the VIN.

I’ve bought one “R-Title” (repaired salvage) Vette off the guy who restored it. He bought it from a salvage reseller operation. From my search I found all the reseller’s photos AND the police report. The fellow I bought it from was a good guy and did nice work — BUT having access to pix/records he could not screw with really helped my confidence a lot.

Bottom line is I bought an awesome Vette cheap, enjoyed it as a DD for 2 years, and sold it for a couple grand less than I paid.

Good luck in your endeavor…

 

You are wise to wonder. The economics would lead one to conclude that the cost of repairing the damage was greater than the value of the car. Personally, I would be concerned that the damage to the car was far more serious than represented (and/or the repair was not particularly workmanlike) and I would pass. But that is just me.

 

There is certainly a risk involved. I wouldn't even consider it if you can't get a thorough pre-purchase inspection done by someone who knows Corvettes. As long as it didn't have any flood damage, and was repaired correctly, then you can get a nice car for cheap. However, as I said there is always a risk. You might also consider that there can be issues insuring a rebuilt title car. I'm not saying you can't get insurance at all, but you likely can't get full coverage.

 

These days it doesn't take much for an insurance company to total a car. Any front end repair on a Corvette is very expensive easily 8k to $10,000 with no frame damage. I see many cars that are totaled by an insurance company but really shouldn't have been. Someone's making lots of money off of these rebuilt cars.

 

I totally agree- but it would likely take more than $10,000 in damage to total out even the most average high miles C5. Unless a typo, I believe we might be discussing a 2015 C7 Corvette. In any event- it's good to consider the value of the car at the time of it being declared salvage and do the math. No doubt there are good deals to be had particularly where the labor costs discounted. I have a friend who recently bought a salvaged late model Camaro with what appeared to be minimal front end damage; spent good money in parts and bargain priced labor getting it to look right and that car would not go down the road in a straight line (he sold it a few months ago, with full disclosure, not sure if he got his money back). It sure looked good though.

 

Couple thinks to think about. I used to by salvaged motorcycle that the insurance company call totaled. When buying salvaged u buy as is. I rebuild them to inspection off state safety rules.
After i think the bike is up to standard i would take it to state inspection. ILL looks at all the the numbers on the bike even the fairings to see if it was put together with stolen parts. Once they pass inspect it is street and safe to drive. Then i look on ads to sells. I look at average price of same bike and came down 2k. I always get the bike for 1500 too 2000.
Average bike 7k i sell 5k. Cost is usually around 1000ish. always sold within a week. so that was nice money on the weekends to get away for battleaxe. I never payed for a new bike. Every two yrs i would get a new bike. So my point is, depending what state u live in will determine what there inspection consist of so, i would check that. There is a database where all insurance company report stolen bikes but don't know about cars. That's why inspector check numbers. But rebuilt that's all done and passed. Again that don't mean everything is good to go. Its still up to u to get a mechanic get i up in the air and check. When total they don't tell why its just total so u don't know what was repaired. But u can get some gems. Remember u have a lot of leeway on that price because they're making a huge profit. Labor is free. Good luck

 

In the case of a rebuilt, the more miles after the repair the better in my mind. More miles tells me the car is drivable.

 

It normally has to be somewhere around 75% of the value but they are afraid of hidden damage and reduced value claims. They just want to get it off the books and sell the wreck. They never lose money cause they just raise their rates. Some of this might not apply to the collector car insurance which is typically fixed value.

 

$10 Grand in repairs is nothing anymore. Heck, in 2003, I hit a deer while slowing down to turn into my driveway. I couldn't have hit it doing over 30mph. After dark, so it tore the pass side headlight out, damaging the hood on the way, broke the pass side front fender in half, and smacked the memory/heated side mirror into the door glass so hard it left an outline of the oval glass on the window!!! That's IT!!! Just over $6,000.00 later, I got my car back. Keep in mind, this was almost 18 years ago, with not a lot of damage!! Also keep in mind banks don't loan on salvage vehicles. Hope this helps, and best of luck to you.......

 

You got that right, son hit a deer with his Z06. Damaged the front bumper cover, fender and headlight. $8300 to fix it. That was just about 2 years ago.