Marty wrote "You might reconsider buying the car back. It will have a branded title because it is being sold as insurance salvage."
I tried to look into the California DMV regulations. As far as I can tell, an recovered stolen vehicle does not meet the conditions for a salvage title merely by virtue of being stolen and declared a total loss by the insurer. http://www.dmv.ca.gov/otherser/eir/eir_retentions.htm Even when cars are taken over by the insurance company in the context of a constructive total loss they sometimes end up without salvage titles. I had a 1985 BMW 325e in Arizona that was totaled in 1998. The damage could probably have been fixed for about $2,000 (retail) so normally I would have tried to negotiate keeping the car but as I was about to leave the country I elected to accept a total loss settlement. Of course, the insurance company got the car in exchange. It was an Arizona car in very nice condition so I was pretty sure it wasn't going to the crusher. A few years later I looked up the VIN on Carfax. A few months after the settlement, it was registered in South Carolina and still running there. No mention of a salvage title. I suspect insurance companies have little interest in having a car they have acquired being labeled as "salvage" if they can avoid it, as it reduces the revenue they will be able to get for it. Sonny 1991 164S Baltimore -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
