Discussions

Be aware that if you purchase a vehicle that has had previous damage to it that there will be a certain amount taken off its value when you try to trade it in.  
I recently tried to trade my truck in and it had a $15 000+ repair job done by a accredited shop and I had two dealerships hand me the keys back telling me they didn't want it. A few others would take it but they were very open in the fact that it would be discounted $3-6000 compared to one that did not have any damage.  
Also note that it is law that any damage over $3000 must be completely and concisely described the purchaser, it's the law, not just for dealers but everyone.  
Be careful, ask a lot of questions, get it all in writing.

I thought this was common knowledge, and why it’s important to get a car fax on a vehicle if purchasing used. Never bought a used vehicle without calling in the VIN before for this reason.

Always get a proper car fax when buying a used vehicle. But from my knowledge.. most used cars in MB have some sort of accident

what if you didnt say anything to the new buyer

Carfax are good if a vehicle was damaged and a claim was made but if the owner paid out of pocket it won't show up. Obviously with a big claim most will go through insurance but there are instances when people pay for repairs and they won't or won't necessarily show up on a Carfax report. They are a good tool but not always 100% true and accurate.

When it comes to used vehicles, I am less concerned with trade-in value than with insurability after some form of even minor accident.  
 
For example, owner A or B gets into an accident or otherwise chooses to repair an otherwise totalled vehicle back to roadworthy condition. Owner C or D had another instance of damage occur which ends up in a totalled vehicle. Does this 2ed instance automatically render the VIN as irreparable?  
 
I ask this after noticing many seemingly merely cosmetically damaged vehicles listed as "2ed total loss" in the MPI salvage listings.  
I can understand why they would do this (keep the rates down). But at the same time, I haven't actually been able to figure out if this is the actual policy. People don't know (or don't understand), and the MPI documentation is no help.

Sometimes the first total loss can be from something like hail damage. My mother had a car that was a low mileage cream puff that had hail damage so light you could hardly notice it. Because of the age of the car MPI wanted to write it off. She took a payout from them and kept the car but the registration says something on it (salvage title?) and also in a future accident they deduct the money they paid for the hail damage from the current value of the car.

With a vehicle that is written off for hail damage it will not be covered for hail damage again,

that's because they already paid you out for the hail damage when the car was written off so I don't think anyone would expect it to be paid out or covered if it happens again. In fact most people who buy out hail claims never fix the hail damage anyways.  
 
Edited by BiG Mack, 2020-07-10 07:07:37

A vehicle does not need to be written off to have a diminished value at sale time.  
Example:  
2 cars are for sale: Equal in every way except 1 car shows a repair of $15000 on CarFax. Which car would you buy?  
 
Many insurance companies pay Diminished Value above the repair cost. Autopac doesn’t.  
 
A car that has been in any kind of an accident isn’t worth as much as a car that hasn’t. The bigger the repair, the more the Diminished Value will be.