I found a 87 monte carlo that is in great shape, but he tells me it has a rebuildable title. Apparently he sold the car a few years ago, but the buyer never switched the title to thier name, so a tow company called him and said they had his car, so he went and picked it up. Its a nice car and and he's not asking alot, i'd like to have it, but it sounds weird.
Whats a rebuildable title? What would it take for me to start driving it legally?

 

isnt that when a car was a salvage car and was repaired? my friend bought a rebuilt cobra from nc i believe but we dont do that here so the new title relabled it as a salvage car.

 

mine has the rebuilt salvage title. it depends what state it comes from. mine came from PA so it had light damage and was considered a salvage title. here in michigan, the airbags have to be deployed. for instance when my truck got slammed into, it wasnt labeled as salvage even though it had the same amount of damage as the monte carlo did. you have to go to secretary of state and have someone look over the repairs you did to it and sign off saying it is repaired and road worthy. if the repairs are done right, the car can have more strength then when it was brand new according to an old body shop teacher. id look the car over and UNDER to check frame and other structural parts. hope this helps

 

It's a salvage title. Basically, even if the car runs/looks fine, it's worth less money because at some point in time the car was deemed "totalled".

 

A Rebuildable title is different than a rebuilt title.

A REBUILT title is a vehicle that was issued a salvage title and refurbished to acceptable condition per the state the rebuilt title was issued.

A REBUILDABLE title is a salvage title. You cannot legally drive the vehicle. It could be re certified but usually this has to be done by a licensed re-builder. This could be a body shop or some dealers. There are a lot of hoops to go through to do this and it isn't amateur night. Get some advice from local body shops...they may be able to help you.

 

It's something I would avoid, is what it is.

 

well anyway you look at it if the only thing the car has going for it is a straight body and interior just keep looking around the a/g bodies were around for 10 years. they had to have made millions of them. im sure you could find one that doesnt have weird **** going on with the title in better shape for the same price or better.

 

Each state is different in what they consider rebuild and salvage. My truck was deemed totalled by my insurance company and was given a salvage title. I bought the truck back and fixed what needed to be fixed minus the body and keep driving it. My state has inspections once or every two years depending on what you want to pay for. The truck passes the safetly inspections and I keep driving it and the state has not said a word to me yet so...

But on the sidenote, most insurance companies will look at the year of car/truck and miles and the damage. If say the car has over 200k and is 18 years old and is worth 2k and there is only say 1500 worth of damage they will still total it because of the miles and how old it is and they just don't want to mess with it anymore. I had it happen to me. So depending on what all was damaged it might be a good deal just have it looked over very very well before you decide to buy it.