Alberta Vehicle Rebuild Title

[lund17]

Has anyone bought a vehicle with a Rebuild title on it? Anything i should be watching for?

I am looking for a older used truck and found one but it was repaired after an accident. Now the repair cost was only for $1500 in parts which does not seem a lot to me so I am keen on getting it.

[AndrewM]

I have bought a couple. Both were good to me. Just make sure it wasn't done cheap. If the person you bought it from did the rebuild they should have documented everything they did to it.

[57charlie]

If the vehicle is being sold with a rebuild title, I would have a hard time believing there was “only” $1500 dollars damage. That’s the first red flag.

Check the “carfax” to confirm extent of damages. Have a close look from the top & bottom of the supposed damaged area. Look for any wrinkles, creases or buckles in the surrounding metal. Pay attention to the hood, fender & door gaps, are they all the same? Take it for a spin, & if drives well, then have a very reliable mechanic go over it with you.

[cocktail]

My understanding of a rebuilt title is a vehicle that has been written off by insurance company. if someone repairs a written off vehicle if has to go to a certified inspection facility to get a thorough inspection of repairs, if it passes inspection then a rebuilt title is applied. however vehicles can be written off for cosmetic reasons (hail) as well as physical damage. but would still need inspection to put back on road.

[Drewski Canuck]

Our new system of inspection and notification of rebuild status is pretty good. The Mechanical inspection is pretty tough, but there is ONE THING you can do to protect yourself, above all else.

Take it to a Frame and Alignment shop, have them put it on the alignment rack, and have them check the frame height and wheel alignment. Modern alignment systems are amazingly accurate as lasers are used for vertical and horizontal on each wheel. The Computer printout will tell you what is going on.

A rebuild vehicle may track true at 60 km / hr. At 130 km / hr it is a totally different experience.

If the alignment is true, you can do 170 km / hr (on a race track with a professional race driving instructor of course!!!) and the vehicle will be stable.

Sad part is alot of the vehicles on the road that are NOT rebuild status, can't do this because of wear and tear due to our bombed out roads. This sinkhole / pothole problem is just going to get worse with the budget cutbacks yet to come.

Drewski

[RandyBoBandy]

Originally Posted by Drewski Canuck

Our new system of inspection and notification of rebuild status is pretty good. The Mechanical inspection is pretty tough, but there is ONE THING you can do to protect yourself, above all else.

Take it to a Frame and Alignment shop, have them put it on the alignment rack, and have them check the frame height and wheel alignment. Modern alignment systems are amazingly accurate as lasers are used for vertical and horizontal on each wheel. The Computer printout will tell you what is going on.

A rebuild vehicle may track true at 60 km / hr. At 130 km / hr it is a totally different experience.

If the alignment is true, you can do 170 km / hr (on a race track with a professional race driving instructor of course!!!) and the vehicle will be stable.

Sad part is alot of the vehicles on the road that are NOT rebuild status, can't do this because of wear and tear due to our bombed out roads. This sinkhole / pothole problem is just going to get worse with the budget cutbacks yet to come.

Drewski

I'm asking for a friend, can you explain how a vehicle can track true at 60kmh OK and NOT track true at 130kmh? How does the geometry change? We are talking going straight here not going through a chicane

[Savage Bacon]

Originally Posted by RandyBoBandy

I'm asking for a friend, can you explain how a vehicle can track true at 60kmh OK and NOT track true at 130kmh? How does the geometry change? We are talking going straight here not going through a chicane

High speed wobble. Alignment issues exaggerated at higher speeds.

[Bushrat]

Lots of vehicles get written off with little or no structural or mechanical damage. Depends on the value of the vehicle before it is in an accident. Have seen nice clean vehicles only a few years old with little damage written off regularly. If a 10 year old vehicle worth say $10,000 gets $7000 worth of damage with broken headlights, grille, bumper and a few easily repaired minor dents written off because a few cosmetic parts need to be replaced and painted. I would buy one in a heartbeat. On the other hand have seen many newer vehicles less than a year old worth (lets say for argument sakes) $80,000 dollars with extensive mechanical and structural damage of say $40,000 to repair get repaired yet there is no rebuild status, no mechanical or safety inspection required. I wouldn't touch one of them with a ten foot pole. Lets pretend that same vehicle didn't have an accident until it was 10 years old and only worth $15,000 has a $10,000 accident consisting of a damaged bumper, grille, radiator, condenser, oil and tranny cooler, headlights and some trim pieces, a new hood and some paint, all minor damage get written off and subject to inspections and the dreaded rebuild status.

Rebuild status is a subjective term that often has little meaning when determining amount and type of damage to a vehicle. What it comes down to in the end is that rebuild status is pretty much a function of the value of the vehicle vs the value of damage vs the $$ the insurance company can recover selling it to a third party for salvage or rebuild. It's all about numbers$$. A vehicle flagged with rebuild status can be a great reliable long lasting vehicle that only had minor damage or it can be a total piece of crap that had heavy major damage. A rule of thumb is that if the vehicle is only a year or two old with rebuild status is probably one to stay away from as it was likely heavily damaged, on the other hand if it is several years old and rebuilt might not be so scary as nobody is going to fix a vehicle worth $10,000 with $40,000 damage. On the other hand lots of people will fix an $80,000 vehicle they bought as an insurance write off for $10,000 and put $30,000 worth of used and aftermarket parts, possibly fixing parts that shouldn't be fixed and doing other shoddy practices to keep costs down so they can sell it at a discount and still make thousands of dollars.

As always there are exceptions. Also be aware that most certified rebuild inspectors are mechanics which may not be aware or even see structural defects in the body of the vehicle as most have no auto frame or unibody structural inspection training, don't know what to look for and can be easy to deceive. Many vehicles can have structural or frame damage that make them unsafe in the event of an accident yet they can fly through a chicane at 150 kmh smooth as butter. Buyer beware.

[Drewski Canuck]

Bushrat makes a good point on damaged - repaired vs. rebuild status.

However, if a vehicle had major structural damage, it would have had to go to a frame shop for the repair anyway. Frame repair is not the realm of a backyard handyman, and frame shops will not risk the liability of a poor or questionable repair.

Hence my suggestion of taking the vehicle to a frame / alignment shop in the first place.

What is very frustrating is that the Owner's Insurance company is the one who decides whether the vehicle is a writeoff, or a repair.

If it is damaged - repaired, that is easily identified, and makes it harder to sell. Typically damaged - repaired sells for 20 % less than non damaged in the used market.

This is part of the claim for losses against an at fault driver that is often overlooked.

Drewski

[Grizzly Adams]

What is very frustrating is that the Owner's Insurance company is the one who decides whether the vehicle is a writeoff, or a repair

A lot of perfectly good vehicles get written off these days because of cosmetic damage. That's a design fault.

Grizz

[huntinstuff]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams

What is very frustrating is that the Owner's Insurance company is the one who decides whether the vehicle is a writeoff, or a repair

A lot of perfectly good vehicles get written off these days because of cosmetic damage. That's a design fault.

Grizz

True

[Sooner]

Originally Posted by cocktail

My understanding of a rebuilt title is a vehicle that has been written off by insurance company. if someone repairs a written off vehicle if has to go to a certified inspection facility to get a thorough inspection of repairs, if it passes inspection then a rebuilt title is applied. however vehicles can be written off for cosmetic reasons (hail) as well as physical damage. but would still need inspection to put back on road.

If it was flagged as a write off, it has to be inspected by a licensed shop and the inspections are very detailed on the body and mechanical side.


As a ex journeyman body man, I would not be afraid to buy a "write off" if it passed this inspection. Hail generally won't flag a vehicle but you can't get hail coverage again until you prove it was repaired. Switch ins companies and I am not sure they would know about the hail from one to another.


$1500.00 is a bumper on an older truck. Today it is a power mirror on some lol. A bumper can go over 3G. The wifes car is 10 yrs old and got rear ended, if you looked at it, you would guess 3G. It's creeping 7G. Crazy what parts cost these days. It is not the labor side making the claims so high, as body shops don't even get paid $100.00/hr to fix your car if it is a claim(70 to 80/hr is the norm). Can't even get your lawn mover fixed for under a hundred bucks.


Lots of vehicles get wrote off these days that shouldn't be because the salvage side is very lucrative and the Ins side makes good $$$ on the salvage.