Salvage vehicle thoughts

Beck · October 11, 2016, 02:58:52 PM

Salvage vehicle thoughts??

I'm too tight to buy a new truck. I have been looking at an insurance salvage auction truck. I can't figure this one out.

The truck is a 2015 Silverado with 13k miles. It is listed as a "salvage" so it was totaled by the insurance company. The damage is listed as "electrical". There are under hood and interior photos. There is no sign of fire. There is NO mention of "flood" or "water" damage. It also states that the truck "won't start".

In the photos I see nothing that isn't factory equipment. Why wouldn't this have been a factory warranty repair? What could be the issue causeing the insurance company paying the claim?

I jumped into the bidding and am currently high bidder, now I am wondering if it was wise.

WZ JUNK · October 11, 2016, 03:59:48 PM

Quote from: "Beck"Salvage vehicle thoughts??

I'm too tight to buy a new truck. I have been looking at an insurance salvage auction truck. I can't figure this one out.

The truck is a 2015 Silverado with 13k miles. It is listed as a "salvage" so it was totaled by the insurance company. The damage is listed as "electrical". There are under hood and interior photos. There is no sign of fire. There is NO mention of "flood" or "water" damage. It also states that the truck "won't start".

In the photos I see nothing that isn't factory equipment. Why wouldn't this have been a factory warranty repair? What could be the issue causeing the insurance company paying the claim?

I jumped into the bidding and am currently high bidder, now I am wondering if it was wise.

I bought and repaired a lot of salvage vehicles over the 25 year span when I was a Missouri licensed salvage dealer. Either be very conservative in your bid or find someway or someone to look at the vehicle. Remember that the person that enters the information in the computer, from which you are making your bid, is probably not the same person who looked at the vehicle and made the observations. I found a lot of surprises after my purchases that I did not see when I was bidding, and I always did my bidding on site. It would be difficult to buy salvage rebuilders without actually looking at the vehicle. It is much different than buying a driver and not being able to look at it.

My two cents.

John

lofat46 · October 11, 2016, 04:15:39 PM

Do you have access to the VIN? Run a Carfax check on it and it might give you a starting point to what's wrong.

kb426 · October 11, 2016, 08:00:41 PM

The real problem in my world was when I wanted to sell it and it was worth less than 50%. New vehicles are 30% as I remember.

Beck · October 11, 2016, 09:50:53 PM

GM service reports show the truck was in for routine maintenance and oil change 4 days, 203 miles, prior to a report of being towed.

There was no dealer service report written about the damage. If the vehicle was taken to a dealer for warranty repair it would not have a report. At that point the dealer COULD have said it was a non-warranty issue and given a repair estimate to the insurance company. I will be calling the sales/service dealer tomorrow to see if they recall the vehicle and situation.

If there were water or flood damage the insurance company has to disclose it. It was not stated on this auction.

I did a radar weather history search in the area the truck was from. There were severe storms the day before the tow. Immediately we think water. What about lightening? It will kill all the computers. Lightening will normally put marks on the cars finish. This does not have any. A lightening strike next to a vehicle has enough energy to fry the computers.

Would a 2015 Silverado still have an inertia switch?

It is just a guess at this point. I have run the VIN. No reports other than turning to salvage on 8-8-16 by the auction company.

kb426, you are correct a salvage titled car is half the value of a good title car. I am known to drive my stuff until near the end of it's life, so not a big deal.

I have built 4 salvage cars in the past, and as WZ JUNK says there have been surprises in most of them. This is a straight dent free truck. The pros that clean up the flood cars are so good now that until you take panels apart you cannot tell if it was water damaged. Another thing I like about this vehicle is the motor is dusty in the photos. No cleaning was done under the hood.

My bid at this point is less than half of what the insurance company paid the previous owner to settle the claim, but there would be repair bills added to my expenses.

idrivejunk · October 11, 2016, 10:19:09 PM

I bet you're onto something with the lightning hit. That might do it and pics might not show it. I don't have any sage advice though. Best of luck on it.

Beck · October 12, 2016, 10:53:03 AM

I just spoke with the servicing dealer. There records state, customer said lightning struck tree next to truck. It would not start. Service techs report there is no power and no communication with vehicles computer system.

I viewed the radar history for the 4 days between the trucks regular service and the tow date. The first day there was a major storm in the area. 2 of the other days there were spot storms. Only one of those days was storm free.

So the truck has major electrical issues, but once repaired there shouldn't be the corrosion problems of a flood damage vehicle.

I have learned that there is not an inertia switch on these. That was a Ford thing.

58 Yeoman · October 12, 2016, 11:51:44 AM

So it possibly needs a new computer?

Harry · October 12, 2016, 12:34:36 PM

Is it possible the insulation on the wiring melted and the wires are now shorted out?

Beck · October 12, 2016, 01:59:36 PM

The computer modules are the suspects. I believe there were 23 or some such crazy number of them on this truck. That included everything down to window and seat controls. There are the big ones also like the body control module. With the can bus system they are all tied together. It could have fried one or all of them. The repair could be very expensive. The module that controls the side air bags is in the passenger rear roof. If it took a hit on the roof that one is probably fried. It is unbelievable what todays auto radios control.

We all know how much voltage is required to make a spark plug spark. How many volts does it take to make the path from cloud to ground? The old points ignition and carburetor wouldn't have been effected. Today's computers can't take it.

That is why the government research is done on the EMP weapons.

Arnold · October 12, 2016, 02:24:00 PM

Quote from: "Beck"GM service reports show the truck was in for routine maintenance and oil change 4 days, 203 miles, prior to a report of being towed.

There was no dealer service report written about the damage. If the vehicle was taken to a dealer for warranty repair it would not have a report. At that point the dealer COULD have said it was a non-warranty issue and given a repair estimate to the insurance company. I will be calling the sales/service dealer tomorrow to see if they recall the vehicle and situation.

If there were water or flood damage the insurance company has to disclose it. It was not stated on this auction.

I did a radar weather history search in the area the truck was from. There were severe storms the day before the tow. Immediately we think water. What about lightening? It will kill all the computers. Lightening will normally put marks on the cars finish. This does not have any. A lightening strike next to a vehicle has enough energy to fry the computers.

Would a 2015 Silverado still have an inertia switch?

It is just a guess at this point. I have run the VIN. No reports other than turning to salvage on 8-8-16 by the auction company.

kb426, you are correct a salvage titled car is half the value of a good title car. I am known to drive my stuff until near the end of it's life, so not a big deal.

I have built 4 salvage cars in the past, and as WZ JUNK says there have been surprises in most of them. This is a straight dent free truck. The pros that clean up the flood cars are so good now that until you take panels apart you cannot tell if it was water damaged. Another thing I like about this vehicle is the motor is dusty in the photos. No cleaning was done under the hood.

My bid at this point is less than half of what the insurance company paid the previous owner to settle the claim, but there would be repair bills added to my expenses.

Used to be that vehicles got a clean bill of health automatically
just as soon as they crossed U.S To Canada..all kinds of people got burnt with U.S flood damage cars..
There also used to be an insurance loss on a vehicle could only be a total loss 3 times.My truck was hit 3 times and total loss each time. They just paid me no big deal and I bought it back from them and fixed it. The last time they said when anything else claimwise happened to that truck or I sold it it had to be taken off the road as in scrap. I told the new owner when I sold it to him..he could not believe it..right to the ministry we had to go and the ownership turned in..so much for that vin

He got the truck..partswise he did ok..body..structurally..safety inspection wise this thing would easily pass any Inspection..3 write off's bye bye vin
I hear and read about quirky problems now and again with salvage vehicles up here that are..basically..you bought it you aint ever gonna register it. Then there are the problems you can run into when the insurance company runs the vin..ministry might say it's ok..your insurance company might say you aren't insuring that here.

Airbag writeoff's were huge up here for awhile..

Crosley.In.AZ · October 13, 2016, 07:56:22 AM

Likely you know this... and it may have changed too.

On salvage vehicles I bought , fixed decades ago: I recieved ''restored salvage'' titles on, the insurance company would only insure for liability not for collision in Arizona

YMMV

Arnold · October 13, 2016, 12:08:04 PM

Quote from: "Crosley"Likely you know this... and it may have changed too.

On salvage vehicles I bought , fixed decades ago: I recieved ''restored salvage'' titles on, the insurance company would only insure for liability not for collision in Arizona

YMMV

Insce.co I am with now..good so far..rates..etc.,
I cannot even imagine they would insure other than perfect titles..me..personally...I dunno..guess if I thought about buying a salvage vehicle I would have to ask them..

Beck · October 13, 2016, 02:04:57 PM

The truck wound up selling for $24,700. I was not in the bidding at the end. There were 3 others that thought it was worth more than me.

It was a loaded truck. The insurance company paid out $45,500 to the owner. I agree with kb426's statement that a salvage vehicle is worth about half the value of a clean title. Add the replacement part cost and labor to the purchase price and it doesn't work out. I expect the buyer is a salvage place that has several similar trucks to pull parts from so their expenses will be minimal.

The selling price of this type of vehicle is proving others don't agree with my half value theory. The selling price of most of this type vehicle is putting the final pricing well over half the value of a clean title car.

So there is good and bad. The good is I don't have to repair it. The bad is I'm still shopping for a late model, low mileage truck, I can afford.

UGLY OLDS · October 13, 2016, 07:12:10 PM

QuoteSo there is good and bad. The good is I don't have to repair it. The bad is I'm still shopping for a late model, low mileage truck, I can afford.

The best that I have found are from the Texas area ... Watch close for flood damage in Houston though..... My buddy just got one from the DFW area ...
From a dealer..Nice truck ..Low miles .....

Bob..