r/Cartalk • u/ConnorDColeman • 1d ago

Safety Question Did I Screw Up?!? (Salvage Title)

About 5 months ago, I bought a salvage title car, (e85 bmw z4), from someone locally. He didn't know why it was salvage, says it ran great. I got an inspection, and everything seemed fine. Looking up the carfax, it's supposedly a salvage due to vandalism. Anyways I bought the car, and apart from some general maintenance there have been no problems so far. I decided to try to trace it's history, and so reached back out to the seller. I discovered that he purchased the vehicle off copart. Using autoauctionhistory.com, I got a auction report. According to the report, the damage was from vandalism. There are a couple pictures, but they must be from after repairs because nothing is amiss. However, the repair price is listed at almost 15,000 dollars. Almost the same as the listed value of the vehicle. Contacting copart directly, they refuse to put me into contact with the seller because I am not a member. If there are no problems so far, it seems like the car was repaired well. However, how could they have sold the car at half the declared repair cost? Something seems off. Any suggestions? How could i reach the seller? Do you think the car is fine if it's been 5 months without problems?

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u/x-psycho 1d ago

Where’s the part where you got screwed? If it drives fine you’re good.

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u/ConnorDColeman 1d ago

I'm sorry, I have worded this poorly. I am moreso curious how it could have been so damaged and sold so low despite the fact that I can't see any issues. I'm mostly looking for advice as how to contact the previous owners. If there haven't been any issues yet I assume I'm fine, and it's a great car. 

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u/imothers 1d ago

It was sold at auction, if there was only one bidder then they got a good price. That's how it goes sometimes.