that cars with this little damage are totaled because to the extreme prices on NEW parts. A little fenderbender gives the car a salvage title. Copart
There were cars with double that damage when they were new and repaired with no issues Now they are tagged salvage, there will be a time when salvage dont mean that much if properly repaired
If that was my spider....God forbid, the insurance would be fixing it. I don't understand this rational by insurance companies but I'd go after them with my attorney and it would be fixed. I've fought this kind of stuff before and always won. Someone is going to get a great project and a lot of car for next to nothing.
I bought mine thru copart, with about 2k damage. , a front lower control arm , wheels and a piece broken on the front spoiler about the size of a dollar bill. " totalled by hagerty" i'm not complaining, but i too wonder how they justify totalling a car for such little damage. My car will never be for sale, but i did take a ton of pictures so i could show how minor the damage was just in case. I wish the car could talk and tell me the story. I even called hagerty and they cant even shed any light , and i have not been able to come up wuth any contact info on the last owner, so it remains a mystery, but a good one for me and the car which has been rescued " serenity now "
The ins companies figure new parts at Ferrari prices at the best body shops. The insurance company estimate on my tree car was $57k. Actual cost to repair (I'm doing disassembly and reassembly), a complete paint job including front bumper fix and ttop paint for under $10k.....sheet metal damage only! There are those who demand to have a car with the slightest dent totaled (and thank God for them), and those that just want their car back fixed, and those who can afford one only if it's got a "salvage" title. Gonna be a lot of cars running around with salvage titles in a few years, and guys who can tell what's really been done are gonna be VERY happy with the cars they get.
And the real shame is not the salvage title. Owners of those will drive them like they stole them. Valuable Ferraris like in the millions get rebuilt from nothing but a vin plate. The key is having them checked out. Everyone is a sucker for PPI's anyways and repair quality is no different from interpreting a leakdown test. The real shame is the 10K mile 355 garage queen that just sits there languishing
In the aircraft world, planes with "damage history" are similar to that of a car with a salvage title. Some A&P mechanics will argue that a lightly damaged aircraft, properly fixed, is a better plane than one that never had an issue. Reason? Repaired aircraft get a complete and thorough inspection during repair. Done right it is far more in-depth than anything done at annuals or 100 hour intervals. Certainty, there are real dogs out there. But just because some metal has been bent does not mean it is a worse car than one that has not had that happen.
The other cool thing about salvage Ferraris is that the parts are so expensive that you can have other minor issues where the parts add up to a salvage yet no sheet metal is involved. You can get a really good Ferrari that why if you know what you are doing.
Not on topic but this garage queen thing reminded me of something funny i saw this weekend on "whats my car worth " . The owner of a 2005 ford gt with 265 miles on it was talking about the cars horsepower and performance and i thought to myself what a joke, what good is the 500hp if the car just sits in a garage , undriven, just begging to go out and stretch its legs, it might as well have 50 horsepower, it just sits there. How stupid! I think it even more amusing when you watch barrett jackson, a 1991 zr1 crosses the block, 1000 miles, and it sells for $25000, i want to say to the seller " you should have drove it, at least you would have had some enjoyment for the money you lost " " serenity now "
+1000. I have a salvage ferrari with all its original paint except for the bottom 4 inches of the front spoiler, so nice of ferrari to put that body line there to hide the paint line ! " serenity now "
Sorry, will be interesting to see what it sells for. Wheni bought mine thru copart the ins co tried several times. Even tho its an auction the high bid is still subject to approval. They certainly did not give my car away. First they had it up for sealed bid, then a live auction , then a second live auction with the opening bid as the high bid from the first auction.certainly wasnt cheap but it only took a few thousnad to fix it , and was done in 4 or 5 days. I've been a car dealer for 16 years , so i've been arounf, but was surprised at the copart buyer fee, around $1500. For comparison , the fee at a regular dealer auction would be around $500 . Ouch ! " serenity now "
I think part of the issue with the salvage title is how negative they are viewed to prospective buyers. The 348 in question obviously has had minor damage that should not have branded its title as salvage. The problem is even if it not branded as salvaged the simple fact that it was involved in a claim thru the insurance company and therefore reported to carfax as having an accident hurts this 348's value significantly. They only recourse the owner has especially if the accident is not his fault is to file a diminished value claim. Problem is most insurance companies fight tooth and nail rather than pay out such a claim. What's the owner to do if he/she is unsuccessful in obtaining compensation for a diminished value claim. Insist that the insurance company total the car. This way the owner gets the full retail value of the car instead of a repaired car with a negative mark on carfax against it. This is not right but it is a reality. If (god forbid) was ever rear ended lets say and the insurance company refused to pay the diminished value claim I also would insist that they total the car and pay me fair market value so that I can buy another car the doesn't have any "stories". Storied cars are hard to sell for top dollar.
Thats high. The winning bid i paid was $21000. My car nad 27k on it, and arrived in mint condition ( besides the damage ) and my car needed no body parts. The car the op points out is going to need some expensive parts. Now i know i did the right thing not letting mine get away " serenity now "
I did not consider what you point out. That would explain why the car i bought was totalled with such minor damage. Thank you, you have likely just solved the mystery I had not considered this, now it makes complete sense, especially since the previous owner of my car had hagerty insurance on it.once the car arrived we just kept looking at it wondering how it was deemed totalled. Thanks again !!!!!!!! " serenity now "
As for the cars on copart it depends on the adjuster, some will take the sob story from the owner who wants it totaled while others would be happy to get it fixed and back. Others just accept the total and it's gone.. I am also a A&P mech, after years of working in 40+ year old helicopters every one of them had some damage at some point either crash or battle damage. And some were rebuilt from three different helicopters because of the field splices you. Like do it easily. Lots and lots of holes patched on our planes haha
Helicopters don't count. They are just a loose collection of nuts and bolts flying in tight formation.
lets be real... Most of the time owners have the car insured for well over what they could actually get from selling it on the open market and taking the check is far more inviting. That and the caustic fear that potential buyers have about cars with branded titles makes owners pushing to get these cars totaled is a no brainer.
