On 9/26/09 9:22 AM, in article
5ef5d0cd-f3d1-45bd-89a3-f5187e77c109...oglegroups.com, "Elle"
<honda.lioness@gmail.com> wrote:

> AZ Nomad <aznoma...@PremoveOBthisOX.COM> wrote:
>> Both are the way to go. *Learning wether a car was used as a rental
>> car or totaled in an accident can be invaluable information.
>
> I agree with robb, Leftie and you. To share experience for the
> archives, about a year ago when I was looking at Craig's List cars,
> the Carfax report showed that about one-third had had odometer
> tampering. Many also had a salvage title. This information was not
> being disclosed by the sellers. Also, a salvage title is important not
> because it is a clue to look for damage, a non-straight frame, etc. A
> salvage title is important because it means the car will not be fully
> insurable for damage to it in the future, regardless of the extent of
> repairs to the car in the past, because some insurance company
> somewhere has already paid out on the car for its full value.

I agree it won't be fully insurable. If you are going to buy a salvage car,
its not really a viable idea unless its priced such that you would never
consider putting collision coverage on it. You shouldn't need a salvage
title to tell you to look for damage though. That's part of your
inspection, CarFax or not. My feeling is if somebody wants to give me the
Carfax free to look at, I'll look, but its not on my list of things I would
spend money on.

I also agree with you as far as what you find on craigslist & in the local
paper car section. The last couple of times I looked at cars that way, all
I found was sleazy guys set up in vacant apartments with cars that appeared
to have been used as outhouses, essentially unlicensed used car lots. The
only places I've seen consistently nice used cars around here (Dallas) the
past several years has been in new car dealers' used car lots & even then it
is still caveat emptor at a lot of them.