Hi All... newbie here. Looking for a mini for my wife. Thanks for all the informative posts so far.

I found a MCSC online with a great initial price... called to find out more info and confirmed my suspicion that the car has a salvaged title. The dealer is a person who buys cars involved in accidents and fixes them to sell... question of the day: how much do these usually sell for compared to kbb and what is resale value.

I'd appreciate some help in valuing this car... one main concern is resale value in the future. Some of you might already be thinking "it's worth as much as the buyer wants to pay" but hopefully there are some who have experience with salvaged titles that can chime in.

Specs:
asking price: $22,500
2005 Mini Cooper S Convertible
Light blue/purple (looks like periwinkle)
6-sp
Sport, Premium, Cold
~9000 miles
owner states manufacturer warranty still in effect until 9/2009
free maintenance service in effect until 9/2007

KBB:
trade-in = ~$27.500

Info on the accident - car was involved in a head on accident - bumper, radiator, headlights, airbags, hood - all replaced with oem dealer parts and repainted

any help is appreciated
thanks

 

Depending on where you live the salvage title thing can be problematic. Some states will retitle with a non-salvage title, but most won't. As long as the car has a salvage title, your resale is going to be diddly-squat ( a technical term for 'in the crapper').

FWIW, if I was going to build a track car I might consider buying a salvage car, since I'd be stripping it and remeasuring and straightening/replacing much of it anyway, but there's no way that I'd pay anything like the asking price for that car for it. As a cabriolet, it's not going to make a track car and IMO opinion it's worthless as anything else.

YMMV, of course.

 

Keep looking, it's not worth the headachs you'll have down the road getting reg. & never knowing just what really happened to the car to get a salvage title in the first place, I'm sure the seller will tell you something or other but is it the truth, one can never tell. Safety First...........

 

worth may be 12,000.00 if that.

 

I would also steer clear of salvage titles. Sure, it could be fine and dandy, BUT you could also have bent framing, etc. No way I would buy one.

Keep looking.
-Cody

 

thanks for the feedback =)

 

I agree with the others on this post, don't buy it for that price.
But I have had a salvage title car, found out after the purchase, and it was great. The car was stolen when almost new and totaled. The repair was first rate and the car was better than most (I had it for 100,000 miles).
Just some "other side of the story" information to think about.

 

I've also had a salvaged title car - Mine is a little different in that I owned the car before it became salvaged. Car was totaled, I bought it back from the insurance company - some frame work and a respray and it was good as new.

A couple of key items: Quality of the work & how long do you plan on keeping the car? In my case I kept the car for 15 years and by the time resale came around the fact that it had a salvage title didn't carry any weight at all.

But I agree the seller is asking too much. Body parts for these cars are very reasonable and you know he didn't pay very much for the car.

Since it's for your wife, I'd keep looking. You don't want the big headache that could follow little headaches with the car!

 

The salvage title only hurts the value when you want to buy or sell it. We have bought several wrecked MINI's and fixed them. As for how the car will be? You'll have to really check it out, but if the work was done right it could be fine. Even my race car was a roll over, and a couple of my customers are driving cars we rebuilt, no problem out of the norm yet.

 

my last car was salvage title, it's not worth messing with, imo.

 

If you are seriously considering the purchase, you may want to run it through a local car wash and make sure that the top doesn't leak. I doubt that MINI would do any top repairs under warranty if it was leaking because of the prior damage history.

 

thanks again for all the feedback - i've decided not to go this route - I love working and fixing my own cars, but one of the main goals of this purchase is to look for a car under warranty so to reduce stress from any potential problems - thanks again

 

A new one with a great pkg set up is only $8,000 more. You never know it may be a Katrina car full of mold and such. I was once foolish enough to ny a very nice Eddie Baure s10 that was from Florida it was a great lil truck but I spilled a drink once and never in my wildest dreams smelt something so bad. I had to park it with the windows up all summer. I suspect it was a retitled salvage after that.

 

I find it hard to believe that Mini would honor the warranty on a totalled out car.

Also Minis rarely sell at KBB anymore. KBB values are unrealistically high. There is some dealer wholesale blackbook out there that has more realistic values in it.