Interesting discussion this weekend....

[thstone]

It depends.

I have seen 911's rebuilt literally from the ground up using a tub with a salvage title. The only thing that came from the original car was the tub since it has the VIN and the owner had documentation showing that the tub was in perfect shape and never had any damage.

Of course, many of us have also seen the exact opposite - cars that were crap with salvage titles.

So, I think of a salvage title as a red flag that requires full investigation, but its not an automatic value killer. Cars that fail the investigation or have a sordid past will take a big value hit because of the risk that the buyer is taking on. This is the stereotypical salvage car found at "Jerry's Used Cars and Appliances" in the bad part of town that is selling a nice looking car for 30% under market value.

It really depends on the details - what happened to the car, what was done to the car, and who did the work. And as you said, a clean tittle is always preferred.