I bought the car, took it to DMV, they registered it and gave me plates and even said I could drive it home (albeit without insurance.) According to the law, salvage cars cannot get plates or registration. Is that true?

I just need to confirm this because my insurance is telling me it is salvage even when I got all the paperwork done. I've trad the law book but I don't know if it's current to 2023.

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nbwajdr t1_jd1msgc wrote on March 21, 2023 at 4:23 AM

Ssalvage cars can be licensed. Do you have the title in hand? Is it 'branded'? Buyer beware...

BeKindDontBlind t1_jd1n02d wrote on March 21, 2023 at 4:25 AM

We have a salvage title, and we can only have liability insurance. BF totalled the truck, and insurance said we could have $X and give up the truck, or a bit less and keep the truck with salvage title. It was almost all cosmetic, so we took the check and a salvage title. The resale value is now nil, and you can't have full coverage insurance on it, as it has already been declared a total loss once before, as far as I understand.

unchow t1_jd4k749 wrote on March 21, 2023 at 8:01 PM

Yeah we were in a similar situation with a previous car. It got hit by some serious hail that left a lot of dents in hard-to-repair places, so insurance paid it out as a totaled car but we were able to keep it as a salvage title. We could drive it legally and had insurance (I believe you're right that it was just liability insurance).

It was literally all body damage so it ran fine for years, until an accident totaled it for real. We even got a second (smaller) check out of it, since it was "totaled" twice.

BeKindDontBlind t1_jd4lvmq wrote on March 21, 2023 at 8:12 PM

I kinda want to shop insurance to see if we can get full coverage from another provider. The truck would still cost us $22k to replace it at this point.

ForlornRepublican t1_jd1qdvo wrote on March 21, 2023 at 5:02 AM

Always get the Carfax before buying a car.

LiveNet2723 t1_jd3jb8j wrote on March 21, 2023 at 4:08 PM

From the DOL (not DMV) website: Salvaged vehicles.

ApartmentOrganic3390 t1_jd31247 wrote on March 21, 2023 at 2:05 PM

I buy cars from auction/salvage, quite often and I always was able to insure and register with no issues for years

AceCoolie t1_jd3mdrb wrote on March 21, 2023 at 4:28 PM

My sons BMW Z4 was totaled and we considered rebuilding it. When I checked with the DMV, they had a process to re-certify after we rebuilt it that would enable us to get plates and drive it. The only issue I found was most insurance companies didn't want to have anything to do with it so we decided not to rebuild it after all.

Long story short, salvaged cars are legal in WA.

uberpop t1_jd3xmur wrote on March 21, 2023 at 5:39 PM

Oh — you can get the salvage flag removed from a title? This is good to know

NoMoOmentumMan t1_jd59pil wrote on March 21, 2023 at 10:46 PM

It's called title washing, and it is shit behavior. Once a title is branded, that's it. It needs to be known and disclosed.

A couple had such a car, and it was repaired incorrectly. A traffic accident occurred, and the husband had to listen to his wife burn to death because of that incorrect repair. Passing something like that along to unsuspecting buyers should be considered criminal.

shq13 OP t1_jd6cc12 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 3:36 AM

You have to get it inspected into rebuilt. Title washing is he illegal version

Capable_Nature_644 t1_jd390jq wrote on March 21, 2023 at 3:01 PM

Yes this is true. You'll probably need the dmv to process some paper work to get it removed.