Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wrecked Tacoma - Buy or Pass?

Would the ins even bother fixing it if it was to be a "salvage" title? Sounds like the repairs were authorized by ins etc and he's looking to sell.

I always thought that the salvage title came into play when Ins wants to simply scrap the truck, cut you a check and you buy it back from them and have it repaired?

Pretty much^^^^
It's created quite the industry.
Half of the vehicles that are deemed salvage these days have light front end damage w/blown airbags.

A wrench turner/body guy that lives up the street from me makes a very good living repairing & selling salvage titled trucks and SUV's.

2019 might book for 25k, if damages reach a given percentage of book, then salvage title is forth coming. The biggest problem isn't they might not run great, it's you can't insure for worth. And resale can be a hard row to hoe. Unless one plans to keep and wear out the vehicle, salvage titles are a hard pass!

If the suspension was involved such that the frame had to be straightened, easy pass for me. I've never seen one that straightened out properly. They're a never-ending train of chewed up tires on at a minimum that corner, along with CV joints, ball-joints/tie-rods, and wheel bearings.

Agreed but a salvage title makes it hard to insure and register for public roads

Good on him.

At this point I think the biggest indicator is price. It just seems a bit squirrely to me that the dealer will "let you know" how much it will cost AFTER they've done the work.

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A few questions come to mind...

So why does your buddy not want the vehicle after the repair is done ?
Have you seen pics of the wreck ?
I this going to be one of those deals where you can never quite get the front end aligned to spec and it eats front tires?
The last ? is just a consideration and something I've seen happen.

To be succinct, it's a timing issue on his end. My memory doesn't serve me well sometimes, but I think it has to do with the insurance company and the circumstances around the wreck. You know how they can be a pain in the ass.

The dealer is currently working on it - I don't have details beyond that.

At a minimum I'd need a 3rd party to go over it for issues.

I'm just at the beginning of the process, and trying to come to a consensus that's satisfactory on my end.

there should not be a Salvage Title unless it was written off as a total loss and the insurance company took possession of the vehicle or Title... "insurance claim paid" or some such may show up on title when you register it though... is the missing part a weld in or bolt on?... either way, i'd go to a late model salvage yard and have it in two shakes of a lambs tail... biggest concern is the inflated trade in price that new car dealers offer to draw the suckers in... they make up the difference on the new vehicle price... personally, i would have no concerns other than the repair quality (nobody pleases me, but me) & the price...

From the sounds of it, it might really be more truck than you "need"?

How bad is the terrain on your deer lease? Mostly flat land? Up in what serves as mountains in GA? Hilly/rocky ditches and such? Do you really want to spend the extra money for a Pro model when even a 2WD base model would do and you could use the savings in cost for other purposes?

Nothing wrong with owning more truck than you need, just sounds like you're unsure given the circumstances.

I'll agree with others here, I doubt those repairs are going to warrant a salvage title, so if the price is right it's probably not a bad idea to pick it up, see if you like it, then sell it for little to no loss if you're not happy with it.

Hell, if I had one of them sitting in the driveway and the price was right on that one I might just buy it for parts in 15 years when Toyota discontinues supplying them as they have on my '01. I'm thinking of looking for a parts truck for mine as the driveline is now approaching 270,000 miles.

Good luck with your choice.

Make no mistake about it salvage title or not once there’s been that much repair done to it. It will show up on a Carfax and anybody down the line that might consider buying it won’t touch it with that much damage. If the damage means nothing to you and the truck runs, who cares but yourself but be aware, Carfax salvage title and so on will severely limit any resale…

If it comes with a salvage title are you planning on having cash on hand to purchase? Didn't think banks/CU liked to get into financing vehicles with salvage title, but who knows anymore.


Personally unless I had a pressing need and the guy threw a great number at me its just not worth the potential headaches.

I don't have total confidence in Carfax as I've seen serious repairs on known vehicles not show up. Is this because the shop or the insurance doesn't report it.

I don’t see it having a salvage title based on the damage. Nothing critical was damaged. A 2019 Tacoma with that number of miles and the Pro package is probably a 35k truck I can’t imagine that some front end damage would be enough to write it off.

Thanks for the input. He took the trade in (26,000) from the dealer and they marked 4000 off the new one. It wasn't a salvage title either. Win some lose some!

Sounds like GA prices are like WI prices.

Unless there's major structural damage, a "salvage title" doesn't bother me. I've bought several low mileage "totals" from insurance companies for ridiculously low cash prices, repaired them, and run them until they literally fell apart. I don't give a damn about any sort of insurance other than liability. Anything beyond a fender bender I can fix myself is going to end up sending the car to scrap anyway. I'll buy another total, fix it, and drive it for 200K miles or more.

Life's hard enough without focking yourself in the ass. Go find a clean one.mb

so remember you have to figure the cost of waiting to use the truck yourself. you're paying for a truck that isn't usable right now. A truck in that situation isn't tradeable either. so the seller can't use his truck of sell it right now unless YOU buy it as is. thats not an issue, its just a factor in price. Also a factor you might not buy a tacoma right now otherwise in your current sitatuion. If the truck is worth 35k never wrecked. the repair damage, I would want a discount of around 5k just for buying a wrecked truck thats been repainted. Repaints are never as good as factory. so repaired that is 30k, figure the wait and hassle I would be at 25 grand as is considering labor and parts are included. if the truck ends up with a salvage title. I probably want to be in it 6-7k less.