I'm shopping for a GE Fit, and I've been keeping an eye on the San Francisco area Autotrader and Craigslist pages for the last few months.

I've found that a huge percentage of the Fits that are advertised have salvage titles. I can't tell you how many times I thought I had found the perfect Sport MT, only to read deeper into the ad and notice that it has a salvage title.

Why do so many Fits have salvage titles?

 

because insurance never repairs them

 

Remember just because something has a salvage title doesn't necessarily mean it's bad.

Could of been stolen and had the seats taken out and that may be enough to "total" the car. It also may be a bad thing since you take your life into your hands driving in the Bay Area and could be wrecked/repaired/frame damage etc.

 

I too looked into the Bay Area for GE but couldn't find any that wasn't salvage title. I ended up expanding my search outside of the Bay Area to Fresno and LA. I found a used 09 Sport At in bsp for a good price. Asked all questions and pictures before going there. Rented a one way car and 4 hours later saw the car and knew exactly what I was expecting.

After a test drive, we went to the bank and finalized the transaction. The pink slip should be in my hands in a few week since it was still owned by Honda but I had a trustworthy seller who did everything to make the purchase as complete as possible. And it helps to be nice and in touch with them through email or text.

They said they had no one else interested in the car because of their location.

So search outside th Bay Area. I only saw one or two decent GE fits and a lot of owners keep them because they are practical and hold their value well with the fluctuating gas prices these days.

 

When I was searching for a used GE8, I found many salvage titles around too, very few clean titles. Maybe the clean titles just get snatched up really quickly leaving the rest for scavengers.

 

Because people can't drive for sh*t up here. My observation from living in at least four metropolitan areas across the country. Only place that has worse drivers is Las Vegas (by far)

Also may have something to do with the Fit being a low priced car, but the parts sure aren't low priced. That is purely speculation.

 

Does anyone have a sense of how much damage needs to be done in order to total a Fit?

Traditionally, I think "totaled" means "costs more to repair than the car is worth," but this definition might be outdated?

 

Depends on the state each state can be different as to salvage title

According to carfax.com, the following 11 states also use salvage titles to identify stolen vehicles: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, and Oregon.

Probably after Sandy you will a lot more on the market.

 

I would imagine it doesn't take much with our small cars. If the collision damaged the major framework, that would be totaled. If the car rolled over once I think insurance companies would call that totaled.

 

Depending on the state they will claim a salvage title on a car just for a small claim for a fender bender even for a small scratch.. But not always the case. Doing your research is your best tool and car fax helps

 

Women. 10 chars.

 

A bumper scratch costs $750 to repaint. Doesn't take much damage to get to $10-$15k.

 

because people like this guy https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ecked-fit.html

 

The reason is the people that bought a Fit are happy with it and not selling it unless it was crashed and the insurance company totaled it.

 

Salvage titles are now issued on anything that is / was insurance company owned. On top ofthat the depreciation on a Fit is very low so someone will go buy one at auction for 5k or 6 K and then go fix it for another 3K. Now you have a car that someone has 8 to 9 K in and they go ask 11K to 12 K for it. This is the reason I have a hard time finding one in a junk yard.

If you are looking at a salvage / repaired title car, get the VIN and search it on the Internet. Usually you can find where it was auctioned off and see pictures of the damage before it was repaired. I have looked as several of them. You will be amazed at how little damage is on some of them.

One of the large insurance companies (I will not say who) got sued for not marking some cars as salvage and had to pay a hefty fine. So now if there is any doubt the insurance companies just apply for a salvage title.

Salvage / repaired title cars can be a good deal if you do your homework. I almost bought one out of California where the state would not issue a repaired title on it. I checked and my state would issue a repaired title on it. The seller already repaired it and now thought he was going to have to export it. I finally gave up on it because I was going to have to trailer it home and I did not want to go through all of the effort for a few thousand dollars. If I could have drove it back I would have gone after it.

Getting a repaired title here is simply going through a state inspection and showing receipts for all of the major components used in the repair.

I once bought a Chevy Colorado that the only thing wrong was a smashed bed and rear bumper. I picked it up in New York and stopped at a junk yard in Ohio on the way home. I picked up a used bed, bumper, trailer hitch, and trailer wiring harness for $1,000. The bed was even the correct color. They next day i replaced the three items and ran it through a State inspection. So I had about 3 hours repair time plus 2 days of travel and $6,600 in it. After I got the repaired title I sold it for $11,500.

So do not necessarily write off a Salvage / Repaired title vehicle if the price is right.

 

The fact that a car has salvage title does not mean it is bad. But I think that it should be bought only if the price is much lower than the price of the same clean title car. I've got my 2 wrecked autos at car salvage, apart from having a salvage title they were also severely damaged so I had to repair it but they still turned out to be cheap.

 

DING! DING! DING! WINNER!!!!

 

Although I agree with a lot of your post, I find this statement to be untrue and/or misleading. The only way a title gets stamped SALVAGE is if it was totaled AND the insurance bought it from you, as many others here have stated. "Totaled" meaning cost of repair exceeded cost of vehicle's value.

I may be splitting hairs on your point but just thought clarification was needed.

 

I hit a deer with my Fit last year. Popped the fender in, bent the hood, broke a light, broke a fog lamp, scuffed the plastic under the wiper blade, and cracked paint on the bumper. That damn near totalled the car. I can tell you it would have been done if the car had more miles on it. I wouldnt write off a Salvage car unless you look up the damage and or just plan on selling it in the near future. Ive had a few salvage civics. The older they get the more likely to be salvage.