I recently picked up an '05 STi with a salvage title a couple months ago, and unfortunately had bad luck with it. Drove it about 300 miles, and then it decided to spin a bearing. Dropped a substantial amount to rebuild it and get everything right mechanically, and just got it running this past Saturday. Everything was going well until Tuesday. Tuesday I got a letter in the mail from the DMV with my certificate of ownership (bank holds the title), along with a letter saying "Your vehicle is not legal for road use until it has passed inspection". Unfortunately one of the requirements to pass inspection and apply for a new registration is that I have receipts of all the parts replaced on the car, and where they came from. The seller doesn't have any contact info from the guy he bought it from, so I'm trying desperately to find info from him. Also, the car was repaired with parts from Craigslist, so no receipts or anything. I had assumed that it was legal to drive and register because the seller was driving it around (and let me drive it), but I suppose that's just ignorant. Unfortunately I did not look deeply into salvage titles (I knew it had been repaired), and did not know this car had not been inspected and registered since repair. Right now I am trying to weigh my options: First trying to get the car inspected and registered somehow Otherwise I'll have to sell it as a parts car or part it out Needless to say, I'll never buy a salvaged vehicle again, and I certainly won't trust sellers as much as I have (one of my weaknesses is that I expect people to be decent/reasonable).
Yeah Nuke, sorry i should have contacted you. No tune this weekend. Priority now is to make this thing legal or sell it as a parts car/part it out.
Do they have any documentation on the damage to the car originally? Being that you rebuilt the motor, do you have receipts to that? you may be able to argue insurance totaled it due to engine damage from an impact to the oil pan.
I have all the receipts for the rebuilt motor, but the car was salvaged because of an accident (before I got it) and repaired 2 owners ago. Unfortunately that makes things very difficult for me to track down the required paperwork/information to try and re-register the car. The previous two owners must have just been driving it illegally and decided to pass it off onto the next guy.
It took two owners for the state to catch up with the title, or did the previous owner never title the car?
The car is titled "Salvage", but the car must have never been registered while the owners had it and were using it. They must have stuck some other car's plates on the vehicle to drive it. Supposedly once the car passes inspection and the state gets all the paperwork they need, a new title deemed "Rebuilt" will be sent, and the car can be registered. I did not know that this was the case (until the other day), and just assumed it was legal to drive since the seller was driving it.
Oh, that sucks. I rebuilt a bugeye and went through the inspection. They really only care about major pieces for reconstruction. For me it was receipt of the rear clip. They only glanced at receipt where i had work done. They didn't care about bumpers, Trunk or other misc stuff and only checked my vin in various places. On dash/b pillar tag, had me pop the hood. You will have a much harder time i am afraid with no receipts at all showing where major pieces were obtained. I needed original receipt signed by person i obtained rear clip from which included the vin of the car where the parts came off of. It was pretty easy inspection provided you have the paperwork. What does car fax say about accident that resulted in salvage? Location of hit/etc? Good luck
You'll be fine, just say it was replaced with used parts. I've had inspections before. They don't care. The check the vin on the car and that's about it.
who's name was on the title that was signed over to you? was it the person you bought it from? Mine was flagged a few days after I transferred the title to myself. Hindsight is 20/20 but it sucks you can't trust that people these days when it comes to cars. If it were salvage and the seller didn't have the title in his name that should have been a flag that it wasn't cleared as prior salvage. It doesn't help though if you have no experience with salvage titles. all you can do is try to get it inspected. bring receipts for work you've had done. hopefully you don't have to part it after putting work/money into it.
While I would never condone such behavior, a computer can generate receipts from the private sellers on Craig's List that you used to completely replace all the parts that were replaced before.
In the end what realy matters is that the car is safe to be on the road. How you go about achieving that, IMO, shouldn't matter as long as the state of MN says it is safe! Keep us posted and I hope it all works out for you!
^^agree on making it safe, the state inspection doesn't check this, it is up to the owner. You could rebuild a car with duck tape and paper machet and if it looked ok you'd still pass state inspection. They even tell you it is not a safety inspection. Kinda scary i you think about it. With all the sketchy home mechanics/body shops that are not honest or hide crap you have to wonder what unsafe crap makes it on the road.
I don't know if it matters, but maybe if you can find a mechanic to inspect and sign off on it that the work looks to be correct - might help, couldn't hurt. The problem would be to find a mechanic willing to stick his neck out in case of liability purposes. But then if the work looks to be done correctly there shouldn't be anything to worry about. I drove a salvaged and registered '95 neon from high school up until my wrx - my sister was in an accident with it. Airbags deployed and everything worked as it should have in the accident. So some salvages turn out okay (well, adequate).
Eh, mobile phone, need to get tapatalk. Now that i know ^^^ bother you, i'll be sure to use them more.
Unfortunately, I can no longer get a hold of the previous owner, and I assume he doesn't want to deal with helping me find information since it is not his problem anymore. I honesty don't know what all was replaced, maybe the engine, I know front bumper, fenders, hood. Because the repairs were done two owners ago, and taken from a front clip bought on Craigslist, I don't know how I can prove where/who the parts came from. Still trying to contact the guy who rebuilt it, but without knowing even a name, it's tough. Right now I'm going to try and pursue some avenues of information and registration, as well as seeing if anyone wants to buy the car as a "parts car" or to try and register it (if they have more experience with Salvage vehicles).
Seriously just take it and get it inspected you'll be fine with out receipts. I've done it a couple times with a civic hatch I had and a celica gts.
would have to agree with the last 2 post just go and see what they say the worst thing that could happen is they sat no. if you explain the situation they will work with you and with some luck pass it or atleast point you in the right direction
Like a few people have said here, take it in for inspection with the motor receipts and tell them that the body parts were sourced from craigslist if they ask. That should actually be more than you need. I have done a few like that. They mostly check out the car and verify the VIN. The worst they will do is tell you what you need to do it if there is still something they do not like.
Still need receipts to prove you "bought" the parts. The DMV inspections are ran out of my shop every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month. One of the first few questions are, "Do you have the receipts." I've been here where they sent people on there way because they didn't have a receipt for some part. The few times I have heard, where you don't need any receipts, are usually because of hail damage. Then you just say you are driving it as is and the inspector signs off on the paper work and away you go. Once a car is fixed you can license it for a year without inspecting it. But once that year is up you will not be able to buy tabs for it. Maybe the kid bought it, drove it for a year, then sold it to you. Ever car faxed the VIN? Maybe there is a little history about it in there and you can work from that.
Just take it in with the motor reciepts. My brothers car is a salvage I bought him through an auction. Cosmetically its ugly, but mechanically sound. I took it in with busted tail lights and everything. Got my slip to take to say it was inspected and it was good to go. I bought head lights off ebay, that was it. I told them that and they just said alright. You'll be fine.
Sorry to keeping this thread alive. I would rather have people understand this slightly better then what I have been reading. ^You, did something like this. "The few times I have heard, where you don't need any receipts, are usually because of hail damage. Then you just say you are driving it as is and the inspector signs off on the paper work and away you go." The car is "cosmetically damaged" but still is capable of driving sorta "legally". You say you didn't do anything to it, drive it as is, they sign off, you go on doing whatever you do finding parts and fixing it. The inspectors know what damage they are looking for. If you walk in there saying, "All I did was fix the motor." But the car was salvaged because the rear was smashed to the back seat. They are now going to wonder how you have this brand spanking new rear end just by fixing the motor. Who can I speak to about making a quick sticky about Salvage/total loss/repairable vehicles?
I bought the car from KungfuJerry. Now im trying to get it to pass inspection in MN. Like Jerry, I have all the paper work for the engine, but no receipts for the body work. Im starting to wonder if the fenders and bumper are orginal because the fenders and hood seem to have bondo on them
sorry i didnt mean to poast that above^, but does anyone think if i say they are repaired originals, which imho they could be, would they pass me with what I have? there seems to be alot of different experiences with passing inspection. Im just trying to figure this out since my inspection appointment isnt untill the end of January, and any help is much appreciated. Thanks Babaganush
It's not very common for a car to become a salvage vehicle just because the motor blew or something along those lines. Usually when you have to replace the motor it has to do with flood damage or damage from a collision. If the car you purchased had a hail damage and they fixed it with bondo. You can usually go in say I am driving the car as is. They sign off and you can go get your tabs and what not. But if you say you replaced something you have to have receipts. Figure out what the prior damage was and go about it from there.
Yep, my brothers car was the middle car in a 3 car bump. Nothing was hit hard, I just pounded the trunk base out so the trunk lid closed, and tossed in two new head lights. Didn't say anything about the trunk work because you could (And still can to this day) See the damage that was done. They asked for all the reciepts and did just that and said It was being driven as is, it's a 16 year olds first car and is mechanically safe. He's put 45k miles on the car now, and he works exactly 1 mile from home so he doesn't do much driving for work.
