In article <436AE40F.3010505@aol.com>, SilverEightynine@aol.com (Terrible Tom)
writes:
>
>
> Short of getting really lucky and having a customer walk into the store
> tomorrow and tell me he has a totaled Dodge Dakota to sell to me, how
> can one go about locating an entire truck thats been wrecked and someone
> willing to sell it?
>
> I had a few ideas - some obvious - like simply calling up every salvage
> yard in the phone book and asking them if they have any... to trying to
> contact insurance companies (state farm, allstate, etc) and seeing if I
> can buy them from them? Don't know if they do that or not.
>
> I was talking to a couple guys at work and they said good luck trying to
> buy a whole salvaged truck - due to red tape and possible greed. (red
> tape meaning the legality of selling a car/truck thats branded salvage -
> and greed in that I would figure a salvage yard would not want to sell a
> whole truck because they can make more off it as parts.
>
> Anyone with any experience or insight that could lend a few tips?
>
> --
>
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> Rocks are for skipping... I'm all about the mud
> http://members.aol.com/silvereightynine/
> AIM & Yahoo: SilverEightynine
>
Best option is an insurance auto auction. If you are close to a major
metropolitan area there is usually one or two out there. When an insurance
company pays for a totalled vehicle, it is then transferred to a salvage yard.
These yards sell the complete vehicle at pennies on the dollar. Sometimes it is
done in an auction format, other times by soliciting bids. Each state is going
to be different on how a salvage title is handled. Some states do not even have
a provision for declaring a vehicle as salvage. Others do not transfer from
state to state. Thus a vehicle salvaged in one state may be retitled in another
with a clean title. It depends on the state though. You can always get
insurance on a salvaged vehicle, but you may be limited to liability only, no
comp/coll due to the salvage. If it has a rebuilt/recertified title you can
usually get comp/coll, but the value of the vehicle is significantly lower.
Where a non salvage vehicle may have an ACV of $15k, a rebuilt may be $5k. None
of this applies if you are looking for a parts truck though.
You might get lucky finding someone on one of the boards or ebay, but chances
are it won't be close. Figure $1-2k to transport a disabled vehicle.
Kevin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Dec 01 2005 - 10:10:44 EST