[Nuno789]

Hey Chevrolet Malibu team!
Hope you all are doing well, thanks for having me here, straight to the topic, I'm interested in owning a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu LT, This car has a SALVAGE TITLE! here in my location, before ending the deal, I really want to make sure that I'm getting a good reliable car for what I pay, I want to know that what I should be looking for when purchasing this car, anything to take into consideration, what to look for or any suggestion you guys have, please share it with me,

Some things that I will be looking out for during my inspection day:
noises in the engine
check transmission for slips jolts etc
verify all electrics / features / lights,
coolant or oil leaks
They are asking for the price of $11,500 and it has 60000 Miles with a Salvage Title. Is it worth it or not?

**UPDATE**I am grateful to all who have contributed to my previous post, while on my personal research I wanted to know more about the vehicle. in the past, I have heard of some individuals purchasing vehicles with loans and liens, police marks, or even stolen vehicles, I do not want to fall into this category, I obtained the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and ran a VIN check at Detailed Vehicle History Report For any Vehicle - 100% Accurate and the result was nothing but an eye opener! I found that, this vehicle was involved in accidents, This helped to think twice that is the asking price is overpriced for salvage title, what do you guys think?
Look at the report for more details, Thank again guys.

Here is the link to the report: Get Instant Vehicle History Report

 

[campb292]

Do you know if this was crash or flood salvage? Everything you mentioned are good things to check. I would be looking for water damage - under front seats, in the trunk spare tire area, under the front floor mats, headliner, excess rust on brake rotors. You will want to drive it a bit to see how Auto Stop/start functions. If it isn't functioning within a minute or two of driving, there is either a hidden code or the negative on the battery was recently disconnected. If I were looking at this car I would bring a code scanner, drive for 10 minutes then scan.

I would never touch a salvage - be skeptical and cautious. The previous owner didn't want it for a reason. Trade in value on a fair condition 2017 LT with a clean title is $12,000. Private party is $13,000. The asking of $11,500 is obviously high considering the salvage title but that is their starting point. Think <$7,500 at most if you want to gamble.

 

[cp-the-nerd]

Don't pick up a salvage title unless you're ready financially for it to be disaster repair job.

 

[tdbowen1969]

Hey Chevrolet Malibu team!
Hope you all are doing well, thanks for having me here, straight to the topic, I'm interested in owning a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu LT, This car has a SALVAGE TITLE! here in my location, before ending the deal, I really want to make sure that I'm getting a good reliable car for what I pay, I want to know that what I should be looking for when purchasing this car, anything to take into consideration, what to look for or any suggestion you guys have, please share it with me,

Some things that I will be looking out for during my inspection day:
noises in the engine
check transmission for slips jolts etc
verify all electrics / features / lights,
coolant or oil leaks
They are asking for the price of $11,500 and it has 60000 Miles with a Salvage Title. Is it worth it or not?

If you guys have any suggestions on what to look at.
thanks
View attachment 72912
View attachment 72913

I just bought a 2017 with a rebuild title and 28 days later it leaked coolant out . I'm now replacing the waterpump housing as a unit. I found most of the shields underneath where either missing or zip tied up and a horrible job that was done fixing it up. I paid 14,000 for mine . I also owned the 2009 and in 10 years only had to replace wheel bearing and exhaust manifold twice. I love driving the 2017 just very disappointed I didn't notice the poor job done on it. Oh and surprisingly it had 65000 miles on it. I sold the 2009 it had 190000 on it. Spend a few hours with it looking everywhere I even found the trunk was leaking easy fix but just adds to all the things I found after getting it home.

 

[1966tbird]

Get images of before to see where and how much damage.
Know what your buying BEFORE the pretty paint job.


For simple bumper covers and a fender, I wouldn’t worry much about it. With an air bag deployed…ok, that means they should have replaced/rebuilt at least one seat belt and the impact sensor,/ sensors, replaced the airbag and reset the SRS errors.…. Just a little more to worry about but again no big deal, that much happens every day in the Walmart parking lot.
Now if it ripped out the suspension or 1/2 of it, it can take a few thousand miles for the transmission to let you know it was hit hard enough. Now a new AC condenser is a $120 problem and it it was dinged, the. The entire AC was serviced. Same with the factory radiator. That should do for another 20k-60k miles.
With 60k on the clock, you can count on needing new shocks and struts…did they replace any? You will want them replaced in pairs.
So the going price of a 1 or 2 owner accident free is somewhere in the $20k-$25 retail less a few $k for normal wear & tear, parking lot thank yous and such.
As far as a good deal??? Ya pays your money and ya takes your chance.
New Cars and slightly used cars have their infant Mortality. What you do know is. It was running before the car was salvaged.
You must find out why it was totaled. It could very well give you many years of dependable service. Then again there are some of the exact same machine that have never been quite right. For a flood or water damaged, unless you know your electrical engineering and have a full set of schematics and test equipment, you will/could be at the mercy of your local GM dealership for many years chasing the gremlins that swam into the electrical.

just know it has California plates on it, if it was an original Ca emissions car, some of those parts are very specific. In years to come, Some may have a challenge to replace them.

 

[1966tbird]

They Will have before pictures and a record of when and where they purchased it. Even the car fox will tell you when and where. By tracking down the vin, you can find the auction house it passed through.

now if you get a salvage titled car and you total it AGAIN, the insurance conmpany will give you some guff trying to get full value/ replacement cost out of it. For some reason insurance companies don’t seem to wish to pay…….ever….not alone twice for the same car. So you will be in for some aggressive negotiations. Have an attorney with you at that time.

 

[Nuno789]

They Will have before pictures and a record of when and where they purchased it. Even the car fox will tell you when and where. By tracking down the vin, you can find the auction house it passed through.

now if you get a salvage titled car and you total it AGAIN, the insurance conmpany will give you some guff trying to get full value/ replacement cost out of it. For some reason insurance companies don’t seem to wish to pay…….ever….not alone twice for the same car. So you will be in for some aggressive negotiations. Have an attorney with you at that time.

Yes, I will be getting the car report for this vehicle, I will share it with you guys, I might consider a clean title car, I don't want any headache. Thanks again for you suggestion.

 

[Nuno789]

I just bought a 2017 with a rebuild title and 28 days later it leaked coolant out . I'm now replacing the waterpump housing as a unit. I found most of the shields underneath where either missing or zip tied up and a horrible job that was done fixing it up. I paid 14,000 for mine . I also owned the 2009 and in 10 years only had to replace wheel bearing and exhaust manifold twice. I love driving the 2017 just very disappointed I didn't notice the poor job done on it. Oh and surprisingly it had 65000 miles on it. I sold the 2009 it had 190000 on it. Spend a few hours with it looking everywhere I even found the trunk was leaking easy fix but just adds to all the things I found after getting it home.

I'm sorry that happened to you, thanks for sharing your experience, I have to reconsider this deal, I would rather have a clean title than a salvage title, thanks again for your helpful suggestion.

 

[Nuno789]

Do you know if this was crash or flood salvage? Everything you mentioned are good things to check. I would be looking for water damage - under front seats, in the trunk spare tire area, under the front floor mats, headliner, excess rust on brake rotors. You will want to drive it a bit to see how Auto Stop/start functions. If it isn't functioning within a minute or two of driving, there is either a hidden code or the negative on the battery was recently disconnected. If I were looking at this car I would bring a code scanner, drive for 10 minutes then scan.

I would never touch a salvage - be skeptical and cautious. The previous owner didn't want it for a reason. Trade in value on a fair condition 2017 LT with a clean title is $12,000. Private party is $13,000. The asking of $11,500 is obviously high considering the salvage title but that is their starting point. Think <$7,500 at most if you want to gamble.

Yes, I don't want any headache, I will be sharing the car report with you guys, Thanks for your suggestion again.

 

[Nuno789]

**UPDATE**I am grateful to all who have contributed to my previous post, while on my personal research I wanted to know more about the vehicle. in the past, I have heard of some individuals purchasing vehicles with loans and liens, police marks, or even stolen vehicles, I do not want to fall into this category, I obtained the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and ran a VIN check at Detailed Vehicle History Report For any Vehicle - 100% Accurate and the result was nothing but an eye opener! I found that, this vehicle was involved in accidents, is this worth paying for $11,500 for a salvage title?, what do you guys think?
Look at the report for more details, Thank again guys.

Here is the link to the report: Get Instant Vehicle History Report

 

[1966tbird]

Ok it’s a CA emissions Feb 2017 mfg date. CA emissions, not my favorite. It looks like a light fender bender. I see a few repairable cuts on the bumper cover or just replace the bumper cover. One fender damaged the looks cheaper to replace than repair. Aside from a few parking lot dings one can’t see well in the images. While it’s a unibody construction, this accident would not put me off. The biggest stigma is the branded title. Righ wrong or indifferent, this is a end user stigma and causes the perceived value to drop significantly. $2k-$7k for the 2017.
The car has 53k miles on it.
So what is the going price for a 2017 Malibu LT with 50k-60k miles worth to you?
One can assume the body shop fixed the damage and it looks good. I bet it looks as good as any other 50k mile 2017 Malibu on the lot.
Since it states no air bags deployed….this is a good thing”. It probably means the drives seat belt didn’t fire and the SRS is ok with no errors that had to be fixed.
I would expect to see this for sale for $10k-$15k. There is a red one with 40k miles very similar damage and it is a Malibu Premier for $14k and it has the 2.0L LTG turbo. Leather, leather and and and. With a salvage/rebuilt title. In Mi. About $1k to transport to left coast. Then pass Ca emissions.

again this is a silver 50k mile car and will start requiring normal maintenance items, tires, brakes, belts, hoses. And naturally the gear shift, parking switch. $10 DYI or $150-$300 dealer repair.
YMMV

BTW you say it now has 60 k miles on it? If so they have tested it for ~7k miles