Help! Florida residents

[Jayman]

Hello everyone,
I'm considering importing a vehicle to Canada from Hollywood, Florida and have been informed the vehicle has a rebuilt title. Apparently this was due to theft, not damage I've also been told. Do you guys know if this is possible or does it sound a little 'fishy' to you.
Also if anyone is in the area I'm wondering if you would look at it and give me some honest feedback please?
PM me for details!
Appreciate it,
Jay

 

[GS Diva]

Jay,

I'm not in Florida, but I do hope that someone jumps in and volunteers to take a good, hard look at this Corvette for you!! A "rebuilt title" is reason enough to have a person who knows Corvettes look it over. What year is it? I understand that Canada very recently changed some requirements about imports...something about the fenders or bumpers having to meet some code??

Good luck!

Elaine

 

[Jayman]

It's an '01' but if I'm not mistaken the bumper thing applies to 2003 and up.

 

[GS Diva]

It's an '01' but if I'm not mistaken the bumper thing applies to 2003 and up.

I wasn't sure what years were affected by this new rule.

In any event, please be very wary of any car with a "rebuilt" title!! There are thousands of Corvettes for sale...you don't need to buy one that is questionable! Let me know if I can help in any way.

Elaine

 

[bwing]

Hello everyone,
I'm considering importing a vehicle to Canada from Hollywood, Florida and have been informed the vehicle has a rebuilt title. Apparently this was due to theft, not damage I've also been told. Do you guys know if this is possible or does it sound a little 'fishy' to you.
Also if anyone is in the area I'm wondering if you would look at it and give me some honest feedback please?
PM me for details!
Appreciate it,
Jay

According to CarFax a rebuilt title means that the vehicle was severely damaged and rebuilt. I would have to guess that if only theft was involved they must have stripped the vehicle so severely that the cost to repair was almost as much as the vehicle was worth thus the rebuilt title. In most states, a road worthiness test is required before the vehicle is allowed back on the road. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[gmjunkie]

According to CarFax a rebuilt title means that the vehicle was severely damaged and rebuilt. I would have to guess that if only theft was involved they must have stripped the vehicle so severely that the cost to repair was almost as much as the vehicle was worth thus the rebuilt title. In most states, a road worthiness test is required before the vehicle is allowed back on the road. Hope this helps and good luck.

Not necessarily,I've seen Theft Recovery Vehicles that have had No Damage but had a Reconstructed Title!! I've seen Flood Vehicles that never had any more wet than the front carpet,But had a Reconstructed Title!! (But they will usually have a Flood or Theft recovery Brand along with a Reconstructed!!)It sometime depends on the Insurance Co and if they paid off the Insured before the car was found!!I've also seen cars Hit so Hard that it had parts off of 3 cars and a Clean Title with No Blemishes on the title!! Around here the rule of thumb by Most Insurance Co's is,If the bags went off,It's a Total Loss!! But usually if a Car has a Reconstructed title with no other Brands,It's been Blasted somewhere,Look it Over Good!! Ex-Specially a Tennessee,South Carolina or Florida Car!!(They don't have to be Re-Inspected by the DMV to go back on the road!!) Here in NC there inspected at Least 3 Times sometimes more (Depending on Extent of Damages)before they can be Re-Titled to go back on the road!! The last Total I built for another Dealer,I thought I was Building a Sky Scraper waiting for the DMV Inspector to come at look at my welds and to make sure I was doing it to I-Car Spec's and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards!!!

PS Also the car is worth about 20-30% Less than one that has no Brands depending the Quality of the repairs!!
Plus,Most Banks won't Loan on them!!!

 

[Old Dog]

According to CarFax a rebuilt title means that the vehicle was severely damaged and rebuilt.

A rebuilt or salvage title is suspect right from the start. You really have no
way of knowing what you are getting. More important, that title will follow
the car all it's life through checks like Car Fax. This will depreciate the
value of your asset greatly when you go to sell the car.

I would stay away from anything like this. It will just be problems down
the road. You will be way ahead to pay a little more for a straight Vette
and be much happier in the long run. Just my two cents.

 

[edram454]

rebuilt title

Hi, I do live in Florida and there are a lot of cars sold here with rebuilt titles. These are insurance payoffs which means the insurance company thought it would be too much money to fix so they just paid the policy holder and auctioned off the car at a ridiculous price. There is no market for a rebuilt title car. it is almost worthless. The resale is futile. It also means something major has happened to this car. The best rebuilt title cars I have seen have been when it has dinged up a couple of quarter panels but the rest of the car is ok. When you replace quarter panels it is a law that the car is acquired through a auction or a dealer that it state rebuilt title. do not buy a rebuilt title corvette. it will be worthless. fyi. edram

 

[GS Diva]

As I said earlier, there are thousands of Corvettes for sale so there's absolutely no need to buy one that is questionable. Keep looking...and you will be much happier!!

Elaien

 

[vett boy]

It smells like fish.Please be carefull ,A lot of scams in Florida.You also realize your front bumper will not meet Canadian std's

 

[Jayman]

Wow, thank you all for the feedback! Awesome.
Okay I will give this a lot more thought and am obviously now leaning away from this. The dealer who has the car did say it was picked up at the auction with the rebuilt title as mentioned above.
I guess what caught my eye was the fact that this car 'looked' very clean from the pictures. It's a black on black 6 spd 01 car with 22,000 miles and they're asking $16,900 for it. Based on what I've been reading are you guys all feeling it should be worth less than this?
Appreciate it once again!

 

[minifridge1138]

That is a good price for that car.
It's the kind of deal that would make me ask "what's wrong with it?"

Like everyone said, with that title it won't be worth much at resale.
I can only think of 2 reasons to buy it:
1) for parts
2) for a driver. You want to drive it forever and don't care about resale.

1 is obvious.
2 is impossible to know without seeing the car and driving it. Even then, a lot of things could be hiding.

This isn't a car i would buy just from the pictures.
Round trip tickets to Florida is a lot cheaper than a $16,000 paper weight.

Good luck!