'03 Corolla LE Salvage- should I buy?

[dcdude68]

I just saw an '03 Corolla LE this morning. It has a salvage title, but it's all of the VIN stickers are present. A body shop is selling it and they say they only replaced the bumper cover and a tail light. It's pretty much in new condition and has less than 30K miles. It drove pretty well. Seems like a little "whirring" noise at speed, but I think it's from the crappy stock Firestones. They're also a little hot plastic smell which I think is from where the muffler heats the body filler used to seal the area they replaced around the gas tank. The filler seemed soft- probably hasn't cured yet. Frame rails are all straight and unaffected.

They're asking mid $8K, but I'm thinking about offering $7,000 or $7,500.

Sweet deal or do I pass entirely? Please weigh in soon!

Thanks in advance!

[djmixmode]

IMO i would pass. You can find the same car just about for slightly more with a good title. The only time i'd buy a salvage title is if it was stolen previously and being auctioned or used for drugs or something of that sort. I wouldnt buy it if its been in some sort of an accident or something.

[dcdude68]

OK, thanks for the input.

Dude sez I could take it for $8300. Comparable clean title version in my area is running about $14,500. So "slightly more" is almost double! Thing is, I'm not liking other things that $8K buys- mostly previous gen stuff with 50K miles and no alloys.

Hmmm...I'm still not sure.

[REN69]

Ask dude if you can take it to your mechanic before you comit to buying it.. tell him you just wanna "make sure" nothing else is wrong with it.

[djmixmode]

Holy cow, thats the price of a used 05 LE on eBay! If you would really want the car, i would haggle him down way more. Salvage titles are worthless and hard to get rid of unless you take a huge loss. They know this. I'd arm myself with some information and try to get down to 6k.

I am looking at used 03's and 04's on autotrader and see about 4 in the 10-11k price range and thats S's and LE's with low mileage.

[dcdude68]

Yeah I just found a ton more at the "$9,999" price point. That price really opens up a lot more possibilities. I can only believe the some of them have clean titles- naturally, I'll confirm.

Oh, one more thing- I'm really hung up on low miles, 'cuz I plan to keep the thing as my workhorse until like 200K. At that point (10 years later?), miles and condition will matter a whole lot more than clean vs. salvage title. Plus, I'll have a folder full of receipts and over 100K under my belt, all of which will testify to the solid condition of the car (hopefully ). That's why I'm open to salvage, cuz I'm not too concerned with re-sale. I am still looking at clean title cars. For a '99-'02, that's a mandatory.