How many book-hours?

In the equation of time is money, I have a 2004 Chevy Malibu LS that seems to need driver's side ball joint/lower control arm.  If I sent it to the shop to be done, how many book-hours should I expect to be charged?  

An online estimator I just used (repairpal.com) said labor should be $88-134 per LCA.  That sounds like 1 hour book time to me.

Probably should factor in a front alignment as well.

I too guessed about 1 hr.  I have a regular shop that does work on my fleet (so I send them a lot) and they will do book work for $85 per hour on parts that I source.  That ends up being $90 with tax.  

I can get a Amazon Cheap part for $60 shipped.  Figure $50 for alignment.  

$90 + $60 + $50 = $200

This is for a flip Malibu auction purchase so I am not concerned with "lifetime" quality parts.  

The Malibu in question... 

https://sandusky.craigslist.org/cto/d/sandusky-04-chevy-malibumiles/6787726731.html

Two things jump out at me

1) im not an insurance or title expert, but getting bumped in a parking lot and having your bumper scraped shouldnt get you a rebuilt title. That seems real fishy

2) A malibu with a rebuilt title isnt a great flip candidate 

gearheadmb said:

Two things jump out at me

1) im not an insurance or title expert, but getting bumped in a parking lot and having your bumper scraped shouldnt get you a rebuilt title. That seems real fishy

2) A malibu with a rebuilt title isnt a great flip candidate 

John bought it at the auction with the bump and is the one flipping it. He does this a lot with very lightly totalled cars that require little to zero work to get the salvage title turned rebuilt.  I have one from him now

In reply to Patrick :

I misunderstood. When he posted the CL ad i thought it was a car he was considering buying. That didn't seem like a good buy for flipping. Seems like fair price for selling though. My apologies

Okay, the kids are in bed...

Pat, thanks for coming to my defense and maybe more thanks to Gearhead for the honest critique.  I genuinely do want to have the best CL ad that will bring the quickest sale so I welcome his and other comments.  

Tackling #2 first about the Malibu not being the greatest flip.  I think it is if the price (and the timing) is right. 

To paraphrase I think I once heard someone say, "it is actually easier to sell average, boring cars to average boring customers than it is to sell special cars to special customers."  

This is a car for the masses.  Part of the timing is that this will also be an easy sell to a single parent spending their tax return.  Another part of the timing is that as a public buyer (not dealer) at IAA branches in Ohio, I am only allowed to buy 5 salvage cars per year.  That is calender year. This was from the last auction of 2018 and is my 4th purchase for the year.  I now have the ability to buy 5 more for 2019 and I likely will not buy another until this one is gone. 

Side note:  5 limit on salvage vehicles but not limit on repo or clean title vehicles at IAA Ohio.

Okay, onto #1 and the scuff being the total:  

To Pat's point, this is the last car I sold, "totaled" Pontiac Vibe with just a dent.  Sold to the first person who drove it.  

As for the Malibu scuff:

This is a car from the north.  I find Midas Muffler paperwork in the glove box from Midas Muffler in Flushing, MI (Metro Flint) and the current title goes back to Parma, OH (Metro Cleveland).  These are not rust free communities!  The car has typical and normal rust by the standards of the locations.  Rough spots at the rockers.  A chip in the paint on the trunk lid near the sliver trim is a surface rust spot.  Normal chips in the paint on the hood are many small surface rust spots.  All pretty typical.  

I imagine this scenario... The Malibu gets bumped in the rear in a parking lot and aside from the slightest exchange on what seems like green paint on the plastic bumper cover, a small "puddle" of rust debris falls off the car.  That's right, actual small pieces fall off and hit the ground.  Because, that plastic is the bumper cover.  The real bumper is a steel bar running the full length of the car which is hidden under that plastic cover.  At the time of impact, this steel was already significantly rusted so what the impact caused was some crumbling of the bar.  

I think I should point out that the car body or the trunk floor pan is not altered or damaged.  The hit was not that hard.  The rusty bar moved slightly but mostly folded onto/within itself.  Here are pictures that I took from under.  I apologies, they are not the best.  

It really seems that this car was "totaled" because you can no longer secure that one "push connector" into the steel bumper The other 5 (not shown in the picture) are all connected but I dare you to take them out.

​​​​​

I think, what "killed the car" is that the insurance company did not want to open the rusty can of worms.  This rusty rear bumper bar is not going to unbolt from the unibody in the same fashion is was assembled.  Even if you do get the bar off, that is no assurance that you will have solid mounting point to attach another bar to.  If you dont have mounting points then your going to have to graph in a new section of trunk floor pan, etc.  

According to the IAA details State Farm gave the car a pre-accident actual cash value (ACV) of $3,409 and an estimated repair cost of $5,002.  

You are probably also noticing the pictures that IAA had of the car were crap.  Where is the $5k damage?  Is the snow hiding it?  I think this also kept the remote bidders away from the car.  I however, go and actually see the cars in person and the snow was all melted the day I was there.

So, I am looking for a buyer who sees this as a $3,400 car that now has a scrap on the bumper which will save him $1,200 (or more) off the price of the car.  

In reply to gearheadmb :

I see you were commenting while I was writing but I'll still take whatever advice about the ad you might have.  

I put the ad up on Saturday at 2:00.  At 3:00 I had entered into a text conversation with someone who then came and saw the car at 4:00.  That ended with a statement of, "I have another to look at, I'll let you know,"  Nothing more form him...yet.  

I have also had one other honest text conversation and one phone conversation that ended quickly.  The phone caller asked how long I had had the car and I honestly answered, "less than a week."

I drove the car over 100 miles today.  It runs like a champ but could use a left ball joint...which seems like would cost me about $200 all in...which brings this thread full circle.  

gearheadmb said:

 

2) A malibu with a rebuilt title isnt a great flip candidate 

You can say that again. A 'rebuilt' title rusted Malibu isnt worth the paper the title is printed on.

OP, is that you CL ad? Are you seriously expecting to get $2K for that thing?

In reply to GarageGorilla :

I have some room to budge on the price but...

This link should take you to my small town CL listing which I have sorted for all vehicles under $2,500 and with less than 150k miles.  That brings up 14 choices and of those 14, only 3 are real "ready to drive" choices like this Malibu.  The most closest choice being a '04 Taurus w/ 109k also asking $2,200.  I think I am priced okay for my market.

at that age everything is rusty up here and especially a county east of john if it’s got no engine light on and will pass e check, it’s automatically worth $2000 at tax return time.  I wish my cousin could afford it because she got hit last month and they just now decided to total her car, and she basically got enough from insurance to pay the loan balance.  

John Welsh said: ...

Tackling #2 first about the Malibu not being the greatest flip.  I think it is if the price (and the timing) is right. 

To paraphrase I think I once heard someone say, "it is actually easier to sell average, boring cars to average boring customers than it is to sell special cars to special customers."  

This is a car for the masses.  Part of the timing is that this will also be an easy sell to a single parent spending their tax return.  ...

I totally agree with this. Over the last three to four years, I flipped about a dozen cars; a couple reconditioned Porsche Boxsters, some pick-up trucks, and lots of family haulers. By far the ones that were quick easy sales were the 4-doors and SUVs. People that Need transportation are looking for these cars and one that looks reliable and isn't being sold by a shady dealer will sell fast.

Wow. Around here, $2-2.5K would get a nicely sorted Accord or Camry of around the same vintage. 

GarageGorilla said:

Wow. Around here, $2-2.5K would get a nicely sorted Accord or Camry of around the same vintage. 

 

Around here with good inspection stickers $4k asking price wouldn't be out of the question, $3500 would let someone think they got a steal even with the bumper support rust. 

Shame you're not closer to the border John, that would be a hot sell in PA in the next month or so when tax returns start going out.

GarageGorilla said:

Wow. Around here, $2-2.5K would get a nicely sorted Accord or Camry of around the same vintage. 

 

I wondered if that was true so I see from your profile that you are in KC.  This link should take your to KC CL with the same sort parameters of under $2,500 and less than 150k miles.  

Best choice is this '02 Accord with 140k and a missing airbag from a previous accident.  https://kansascity.craigslist.org/cto/d/shawnee-mission-2002-honda-accord-ex-v6/6788043708.html

The best available Malibu is a '00 (4 years older) with the same miles (116k) asking $2,150. Similar scrapping on bumper but with denting.   https://kansascity.craigslist.org/ctd/d/shawnee-mission-2000-chevy-malibu-ls/6782488234.html

I would say the markets seem to be the same on price but KC generally has less rust, though the vehicles offered have a similar checkered past.  

Of course, you and I can find cars cheaper than this and you the Gorilla, may be able to find that Accord/Camry for that price.  But, if you're hanging out at GRM your not exactly the average consumer. 

Patrick said:

I wish my cousin could afford it because she got hit last month and they just now decided to total her car, and she basically got enough from insurance to pay the loan balance.  

Significant GRM discount available!  

I might take a Subaru as trade plus.  

Edit: A little update.  Sold on Feb 9th for $1,950.  A good deal for buyer and seller.  I had $1,150 into the car and about 8 hours of effort getting the car bought, inspected and ready for sale.  Not making millions of dollars but $100 per hour of effort achieved my goal.