I am shopping for used car for my mother in law. I looked a an fairly nice Toyota Camry. It had a salvage title. I saw the pictures of the accident damage and it was really minor with the front fender, hood and bumper. The car only had 80K miles on it but due to its age (2006) it doesn’t take much of an accident to exceed the threshold for total. I considered buying it until I did my inspection of the shoddy work.
What this means is that poor people are going to struggle to find affordable cars. The insurance will simply total out a minor accident due to high shop and parts expense. This is going to effectively be cash for clunkers 2.0 where many good vehicles get scrapped.
My wife sent me a T-Bird convertible with a salvaged title (already sold), and although I low key liked it, at my age I would have to get a brand new pair of sparkling white New Balance and calf socks pulled up to drive it.
1- Paint job was obviously not done correctly. I could see small bubbles and it was just painted within the last couple of months. My guess was a salvage yard hood that was not properly sanded down and I suspect the paint will start peeling.
2- close examination under the inner fender I could see where plastics were simply zip tied back together instead of replacing cheap ass plastic panels.
3- small fender brackets under were not replaced, They were just bent back but lacked some fasteners that actually held the fender on.
4- dealbreaker for me. The main fuse box plastic was broken in the accident. The plastic housing was not replaced and would allow moisture and dirt into the main circuits.
It all added up to untrusty seller. Basically hiding the unrepaired damage that the average person would never notice. I would have considered his price if it was fully repaired but basically band aid on gunshot wound to minimize cost and maximize profits.
I also noticed unusual corrosion on the aluminum heat shield that led me to believe that car spent some time in beach area or northern state that salts the roads a lot and leads to major rusting.
Windshield replacement is the latest victim of complicated vehicles. I am hearing it is 1500-2000 for windshields due to the computers with lane departure, adaptive cruise control, and auto braking need to be recalibrated.
Autos are going the way of appliances and TVs. They are all disposable now and you simply buy a new one when they old one stops working. This is great for the automakers and terrible for consumers.
Reasons like this is why insurance premiums are WAY up. My liability only insurance has exploded from 2019. I use to insure a car with $500K liability only for $80/ 6 months. Now it is nearly $200/ 6 months. My most recent renewal is unchanged. I have never had a liability claim or charged with accident in my entire driving history. My last speeding ticket was in November 7, 2000, nearly 25 years ago.