Calling in all Rebuilt Subarus!!

[Anton]

Well for those of you that had bought leggy's with a salvage title/ or damage of such and rebuilt it, please chime in. What I'm interested in is how much you spent on the car itself, the body work/engine work, and just give your final thoughts. Pictures/threads or a timeline of your car would be great to see. Thank you. Hoping to join the Subby family in late summer- early fall :)

[blakout]

You probably wont want to hear this but I am not the best example on subaru's behalf.

 

Purchased my 2005 LGT Ltd 9/1/09

9/5/09 was brought to subaru to have an oil leak fixed. Subaru said it was a faulty oil feed line and replaced it. Was also informed that they had put a new short block in the car end of august right before I bought the car. (The dealership I bought the car from just so happen to fail to mention that to me)

12/?/09 Alternator went bad resulting in having to replace alternator and battery.

1/3/10 Turbo took a dump on me. Car has been sidelined since but will be back on the road in a few weeks when I have all of my stage 3 parts.

[B-Power-B]

There is a member who was involved in an accident a couple of months ago. I believe he bought the car from the insurance company. Search "wrecked". I think that was in the thread title.

[Anton]

Alright, thanks i'll take that into consideration.. Also considering modding, so i'll have to look into the regulations of my state, if i need certified subaru parts and reciepts..

[B-Power-B]

You may want to contact the OP of this thread. I know he bought it back but not sure if he repaired it or not.

 

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/my-spec-got-smashed-and-130504p2.html

[mustangendsley]

It is not reasnonable to buy a new car that has been totaled. One reason is that it will cost you way more to fix it than to buy a new car.

[joeblow]

The only reason I would buy a totaled one is to do what GiroDisc did and rebuild it from scratch with a stronger engine and components. But I don't have the mechanical prowess or money to take on a project like that.

[NJLGT]

agreed, bad idea... theres are probably more problems that you fail to realize and cost will go up quick. also the car will never be the same again once its been in a bad accident

[Mickeytl]

Also, salvage vehicle are more difficult to sell even if you have invested $10k into the car. You won't even get close to the total amount invested into car plus parts.

[jagcars26]

Salvage title = you would be buying a bag of snakes.

[B-Power-B]

Everything said is true. I have way too much experience with this subject, please learn from experiences and only buy one if you can repair it yourself and will either:

-Drive it till it dies permanently

-Use it as a race/off road car only

 

There is ABSOLUTELY no way to make money buying a salvage, then repairing to resell. I dont care who you are, by the time your done you could have worked a minimum wage job and made twice as much. Too much time, too many costs, too little resale value.

 

Dont get me wrong those who do repair salvage titles. It does have a shitty reputation but they can be repaired respectfully. Not EVERY salvage title was pasted together in a back alley. Yes, they will never be the same again but there are exceptions. Few...but they are out there

 

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box now.

[Chameleon]

now with all the bad talk surrounding salvage titles please keep in mind not only cars in accidents fall victim to such branding... in certain states if your car is stolen the title can then be branded as salvaged even it no repairs are needed to be make to the vehicle. Just my 2 cents

[rouar]

I don't have input for salvage titles because my car was never totalled, but it did have $22k in bodywork.

 

Here's the summary.

First accident pictures and repair.

Second accident pictures and repair.

 

The rebuilds have been impressive, and I got compliments from the shop regarding how easy Subarus are to work on. There are some small quirks after the second accident, but it drives straight and controlled. No alignment issues.

 

I have 51k miles on the car now and have had no long-term consequences. Nothing has failed, both before and since the accidents.

[Chameleon]

oh wow rouar.....glad your ok and everything is ok after all that.

[SpdRcrWrex]

I rebuilt my 2005 LGT from a salvage title.

It is not my first car I purchased from auction and rebuilt.

I will say it was the most damaged and most difficult, but only because colorado has recently made it much more difficult to put rebuilt cars on the road (there was a terrible problem of rebuilts being sold as new). The process for rebuilding the car was not so bad. Time consuming was really about it. It all comes in the selection process of the car. the idea is get get a car that has only exterior damage, not air bags blown, a good engine (ideally one that runs). If all you have to replace is exterior parts and suspension, then it's all bolt on. My car needed:

Bumpers

Fender

Lights

Grille

Doors

 

I obviously had to have the car repainted.

Car was purchased for $4200

Parts paint etc, ran me $3500

Registration, title, emissions ran around $350

 

All in all a $25k car ran me $8k. Not bad.

Did i do it planning on reselling it? Like those from above...no. You will only be able to sell it for just a bit more than what put in to it for $ value. Essentially your time would be wasted. how much does your time cost...that's up to you. With three kids and two jobs, i worked on it every night after everyone went to bed. I didn't sleep much for months, but it was important to me to get this car done. I plan on driving it into the ground. That's how you get your money out of these kinds of cars. Call your motor Vehicle and ask what the steps are in getting a salvage title to be a rebuilt title. Work from there.

 

total time frame from purchase:

2 months getting stock parts from forum and salvage yards

2 months fitting all parts, getting secondary parts after the first were for the wrong years

and finding and fixing the break in my wiring harness (at subframe)

2 months jumping through hoops for the DMV to get the car rebranded. They were not very

helpful here...but got it done.

 

The car has 20k and 2 years on it. no problems since purchase.

hope that may help. pm me if i can help.

[Anton]

Well thats nice to know.. So i have a $3k budget for the car, and the money needed to fix it will be how much needed. Mind if i ask, did you buy your salvaged legacy in copart? because that's where i'm shooting at in early fall.