How to Sell a Salvage Title Car
If you're worried about getting stuck with your salvage title vehicle, don't. There are many options available for you to find the right buyer.
What’s a salvage title car? It’s a car that’s been determined by an insurance company to be more expensive to repair or replace than the worth of the vehicle. This can happen after an accident, or if the vehicle goes missing for about one month, which is when an insurance company replaces the car monetarily.
If the car is found, the insurance company may offer it to a salvage yard, and then it will be issued a salvage title. It can also happen if the car has been damaged in an accident or otherwise, and the repairs to bring the car back to what it was before the damage took place costs more than it’s worth.
You may have found cars online with salvage titles and avoided them for that sole reason, which makes the idea of owning one a worrisome prospect. There’s a lot of negative connotations associated with salvage title vehicles.
While this might seem bleak, by no means are you stuck with your salvage title vehicle. There are many options available for what you can do with a salvage title:
- Sell It To A Junkyard
- Sell It Privately
- Donate It
- Part It Out
Check out each one and decide which works best for you.
Sell it to a junkyard
One easy way to get rid of your salvage car is to sell it to a junkyard. This requires some preparation, but when you’re all done it’s as easy as calling up junkyards and selling it to whichever offers the best price.
You’ll need all your paperwork in order, and depending on which junkyard you’re selling to, make sure the car is operable.
Paperwork needed:
- Title
- Registration
You’ll need to know what’s damaged on the car and the value of the car from to KBB or NADA. Some junkyards will pick up your car for you, others will require that you bring it to them.
Sell it privately
This is more difficult than selling to a junkyard, but if you have a unique collector car it shouldn’t be too hard to sell your salvage title vehicle. This is all about finding the correct buyer, as not everyone will care about the title status.
Some people just need a cheap car for a few months. Regardless, it’s worth a shot to try and sell it privately, whether through an online classified ad or some other medium. You’ll probably get more money out of it than selling to a junkyard.
Skip the dealer. Sell it yourself and get thousands more than a trade-in.
Donate your salvage car
Assuming the car is in good working order and doesn’t have a massive amount of problems, you can donate it to a charity, like Make-A-Wish, Cars For US Troops or Kars4kids. You not only get to help a community in need but also you may also take advantage of tax deductions.
Sell your salvage car for parts
This option is far and away the most effort for you. Parting out your car means dismantling it and selling the parts individually (or in groups). It takes longer overall and requires more effort on your part, but in the end, it’s possible to get more money than what the car was worth. Or, if you really don’t want to go through all of that and don’t want to talk to a junkyard, you can try selling it as a parts car. This is where a buyer will want nearly every part of your car and decide to buy it as a whole.
Selling a salvage car takes patience above everything else. The patience comes in finding the right buyer, which can take a while. That's if you're going to sell it to someone, of course, otherwise, there are plenty of available options. There's no reason for you to be stuck with your salvage title car.
The Instamotor TeamNot your typical used car salesman. Our team is here to provide honest and transparent advice about car buying and selling.