Would you buy a car with a rebuilt title?

I'm tossing the idea around of a fly-n-drive on this Journey.
Price is acceptable to me and it would be a 12 hour drive home.
But, the rebuilt title has me asking questions

I have, 1991 Miata. No issues came of it. I had it fully insured. Even made a claim. But for a mostly newish DD, you'd need a big price drop like Datsun1500 mentioned.

the asking price is $7500 and I'm guess could go lower.

I agree, a rebuilt title at that low a mileage means extensive damage. I think I'd keep looking. Also as a PSA: that year was not exactly the model's shining moment. They had weird FOBIK (key) problems which I don't think were ever really ironed out.

My M3 has a rebuilt title. At the time I bought it my budget was very constrained--my decision was basically between one of several older, lesser E36s or this specific M3. I gave the car a pretty thorough shake down test drive, offered 20% less than the asking price, and decided to take the plunge. It worked out okay, but I knew exactly what I was getting before I put my money down and had no intention of worrying about resale down the road.

Datsun1500 wrote: I just ran the carfax. It was totaled in Dec 2009 with 21k miles while it was a rental car. It was 9 months old. That had to be a lot of damage. There's a big difference between $3500 totaling an older car, and something like this.

No, not necessarily. If it was a rental, the damage may or may not have been severe. Quite often rental companies will total a car even with fairly minor damage. The reasons are wide and varied, but I've seen it routinely. But it's academic, the car still has a salvage title no matter how bad the damage was. I would pay 50% of it's regular value, assuming the repairs were done right.

Holy carp! One of the worst vehicles ever built, with a rebuilt title? It would have to be free, IMO.

I did. It was $50.

1988RedT2 wrote: Holy carp! One of the worst vehicles ever built, with a rebuilt title? It would have to be free, IMO.

Yeah. In general, I wouldn't, but might make an exception for something really special. A Dodge Journey is... not special.

Klayfish wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote: I just ran the carfax. It was totaled in Dec 2009 with 21k miles while it was a rental car. It was 9 months old. That had to be a lot of damage. There's a big difference between $3500 totaling an older car, and something like this.

No, not necessarily. If it was a rental, the damage may or may not have been severe. Quite often rental companies will total a car even with fairly minor damage. The reasons are wide and varied, but I've seen it routinely. But it's academic, the car still has a salvage title no matter how bad the damage was. I would pay 50% of it's regular value, assuming the repairs were done right.

Do rental companies self-insure their vehicles?

(Legit question, not being snarky)

Reason why I'm looking at these is not because I particularly like them, but I have 4 children and it would work well vs another minivan as a second vehicle.

Looks like I shall continue looking.

rental + rebuilt? nope, nope, nope....

z31maniac wrote: Do rental companies self-insure their vehicles? (Legit question, not being snarky)

The big ones do. They have entire departments dedicated to nothing but handling total loss, accidents, etc... Many of them will have coverage for catastrophic events (hurricane for example), but for the most part they handle their own.

Insurance depends on what the renter does when he/she signs up. Bailment law says that you will return the item in the same condition as you received it so the rental company generally charges the loss back to the renter's account ie credit card and then the parties try to sort it out from there. You could have the entire value of the car charged back and the rental company has no incentive to repair the vehicle.

I also owned a rebuilt title Miata years ago, and had a rebuilders license for a while. It used to be 60% of a cars value for loan purposes, not sure now.

Also, I have seen newer cars totaled on air bags alone. For an example, a woman hit my '85 MR2 with about a year old CLK. The hit set off something like 5 airbags. The car had minimal damage, but they totaled it on the sheer cost of bag replacement. Totalled only means something expensive broke, not that the entire car was a mess.

whenry wrote: Insurance depends on what the renter does when he/she signs up. Bailment law says that you will return the item in the same condition as you received it so the rental company generally charges the loss back to the renter's account ie credit card and then the parties try to sort it out from there. You could have the entire value of the car charged back and the rental company has no incentive to repair the vehicle.

Not quite. Most renters don't have enough on credit card to cover the cost of a new Sentra or Malibu. The rental company isn't supposed to let you take the car out without either having your own insurance or buying theirs. It's a much more secure thing than hoping you have sufficient credit limit.

The credit card mostly is for smaller charges like the rental fee, gas, tolls, if you smoke in the car, etc...

Gearheadotaku wrote: rental + rebuilt? nope, nope, nope....

This^^^

And the only way I would buy a salvage car if I had every intention of keeping it until it went to the crusher, they are not a worthy investment but they do serve their purpose

Yes, if I knew why it was totaled and who did the repairs. My sister-in-law managed her parent's collision repair shop for several years. Every car she and bother own are "salvage" titles. She was in a position to jump on deals and had control over the repair process. I would not hesitate to buy something from her. If it is someone random on craigslist, I would be more hesitant.

To answer the OP, I wouldn't touch a Dodge Journey even if it didn't have a salvage title.

spitfirebill wrote: To answer the OP, I wouldn't touch a Dodge Journey even if it didn't have a salvage title.

Are they that bad in terms of reliability?

Long time Mopar service advisor: Yes, they are that bad. Not sure why; same drivetrain etc as the minivans but damn they break a lot.

I think buying a journey with a salvage title would be like knowingly paying for an STD.