buying a SALVAGE tahoe or yukon !! any opinion ?

[yates ™]

I have owned and sold salvage vehicles as have many I know. They are not the end of the world but I would make sure you can get into it reasonably.

 

[doubletapdrew]

Salvaged? After Hurricane Sandy? I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
At least run the VIN through here https://www.nicb.org/theft_and_fraud_awareness/vincheck/vincheck
The Oregon Dealer Advisory Committee has found over 100 sandy-damaged vehicles showing up here.

Please be aware of the following:
• New York does NOT brand a title as flood related. All of these vehicles will come with a generic “salvaged title” but there is no way to distinguish the flood vehicles from other means of salvage branding.
• Flood damaged vehicles may be refurbished to a point that show no outward affects of damage but contain hidden issues that will surface at some point: electrical, mold and mechanical problems.
• As a dealer you will have no recourse with the seller after purchase.

 

[busterw]

Back in 2005, I bought a 2004 salvage Tahoe Z71 with every option. I had a friend with a dealer license that could buy on insurance auction sites and he bought a lot of flood damaged vehicles and would repair them himself. He convinced me that you could scope out the right vehicle and be very safe with it. I had my eye on this one for an upcoming auction, spent $150 to send a fella out to inspect it for me and he said all seemed legit with it. As I said, it had every option offered and only had 6900 miles. but, it had a flood title. The sticker on that truck was 48k and some change. I ended up getting it for 23k and spent $750 to get it delivered via 18 wheeler. All said and done after taxes, etc, I was just under $25k. The day it arrived, I opened the door and it still smelled like a new vehicle. it had never been wrecked and the only sign of water inside was that 2 of the 4 door speaker grills had dribbles of rust on them. I still own the vehicle to this day and it now has over 110k miles on it. The only thing I've had to do was replace the water pump around 60k miles which is just general maintenance as far as I'm concerned.

At the time, had it not been a salvage vehicle, I would have had a warranty. But, I never did have one and never needed one. After the factory warranty would have run out, it shouldn't matter to a potential buyer anyway because they're not forfeiting something they could have gotten. I have actually considered selling mine recently as I just bought a 2010 LTZ. In talking to various dealers about how I should price it with a water damage title, every one has told me the same thing: They've all said that since I've owned it since it had 7,000 miles on it, and it now has over 110,000 on it, AND a factory warranty would be void by now anyway if it had one, the value is the same as a non-salvage vehicle and a potential buyer should not fret with the purchase.

All that being said, if you play your cards right, order a 3rd party inspection from someone in the area and the vehicle seems to check out well, you can safely buy a salvage vehicle, depending on why it was salvaged.

I will say that I almost got burned on one that looked good in the pics but after sending an inspector out, he told me they had masked a lot of stuff for photos and it was in really bad shape with frame damage. Had I not gotten that inspection, I would not have know this and would have been screwed.

 

[felixgun]

Wow that's crazy. First salvage story I've heard that went well. Good looking z71 too!

 

[busterw]

Yeah I figured I was lucky. But, it helped having someone that purchased salvage vehicles all the time that were either burned or flooded and could help me not get a bad deal.

Oh, and thank you! My wife drives it now. She's not digging the AEM intake and Magnaflow exhaust on it. She says it isn't cool for a chick. WTF?!?!?!

Wow that's crazy. First salvage story I've heard that went well. Good looking z71 too!

 

[yates ™]

A friend of mine that fixes salvages a lot bought an Infinity for his wife with flood damage and had to nothing with it and had no issues or smells.

 

[busterw]

Yeah we even pulled the carpet out of mine and there was no sign water has been in the carpet. Nobody could ever figure why it got a flood title. Oh well, my gain!

 

[fiatdale]

As a body man, I can tell you that we all HATE flood jobs. You'll constantly be tracking problems down. Even if it works now (airbag modules, etc), it wont work in the near future. Not to mention unless you replace the carpet and pad, no amount of baking soda can get rid of the stench.

Now a wrecked salvage is another thing. Frames are generally easy to fix (when you know what you're doing), and body work is never a problem. But you have to weigh out - do you want aftermarket parts on it or OEM? Aftermarkets will fit like crap, but will save you money. Personally I wouldn't mind owning one if I did the work, but Id rather have a higher mileage vehicle that wasn't wrecked / stolen / flooded for around the same price in the end.

 

[busterw]

You can't say that it "airbags, etc. WON'T work in the near future". I bought my flood at 6900 miles and it now has over 100,000 miles. I've never had a single electrical issue whatsoever. As a matter of fact, as I previously said, the only thing I've replaced other than tires and brakes is a water pump. So, all floods are not created equally. Yes, I admit I was lucky, but so was the friend of the poster a couple of replies up that bought a flooded Infiniti.

As a body man, I can tell you that we all HATE flood jobs. You'll constantly be tracking problems down. Even if it works now (airbag modules, etc), it wont work in the near future. Not to mention unless you replace the carpet and pad, no amount of baking soda can get rid of the stench.

Now a wrecked salvage is another thing. Frames are generally easy to fix (when you know what you're doing), and body work is never a problem. But you have to weigh out - do you want aftermarket parts on it or OEM? Aftermarkets will fit like crap, but will save you money. Personally I wouldn't mind owning one if I did the work, but Id rather have a higher mileage vehicle that wasn't wrecked / stolen / flooded for around the same price in the end.

A friend of mine that buys floods and fixes them all loves floods. He knows exactly what to look for on all of them and based on how high the water was, looking for certain things first. Maybe he doesn't hate them because he is indeed really experienced and knowledgeable with troubleshooting and repairing them. Who knows.

 

[fiatdale]

That's just it though - you do NOT know how bad the flood was. Its all a gamble. Just because you and the other gentleman got lucky doesn't mean this guy will too.