As many of you know, on April 20 I was in a car accident where I was taking a left and some young guy with a Dodge Charger (having more horsepower and less patience, I guess) came up and tried to pass me and the utility truck behind me on the other side of the road, resulting in my front left corner of my car getting hit. Thankfully there were no injuries, but I'm not a rich dude and my car was a cheap old Chevy Cavalier which means the value is low in the eyes of the insurance company, which declared my car a total loss, paid me a couple thousand, and hauled it off. With help from my deal-hunter mom, I got a new car that's decent and way nicer then the old Cavalier. You'd think this would be the end of it...but maybe not.
Out of curiosity, I tracked and found where the old car ended up, which is in a nearby salvage yard, where it was being sold under a salvage title in an auction. There was no minimum bid. No one else had bid on it. The car seems like it could be repaired fairly easily to be drivable, and it's available cheap at auction, and the parts are cheap. I know more about the car than any other bidder, like that it has a good engine, good interior, etc. A plan started to form in my head...what if I just bought the old car back cheap and fixed it up over time as my beater/backup car? Since I have a new car already I could take my time and spread out the expenses so I could afford it. I might even be able to do it for well under $1000.
I was wondering if some of you guys are into car repair or car buying and are interested in seeing more of this story. If so, I can go into more detail about how the post-accident claims process worked, how I'm hoping to get the car back, and how to fix the damage, and how to get a "rebuilt" car title. Also, this thread is going to be my notes to self where I post useful stuff I found like links to the car parts I need, YouTube videos on how to fix the damage, etc.
Out of curiosity, I tracked and found where the old car ended up, which is in a nearby salvage yard, where it was being sold under a salvage title in an auction. There was no minimum bid. No one else had bid on it. The car seems like it could be repaired fairly easily to be drivable, and it's available cheap at auction, and the parts are cheap. I know more about the car than any other bidder, like that it has a good engine, good interior, etc. A plan started to form in my head...what if I just bought the old car back cheap and fixed it up over time as my beater/backup car? Since I have a new car already I could take my time and spread out the expenses so I could afford it. I might even be able to do it for well under $1000.
I was wondering if some of you guys are into car repair or car buying and are interested in seeing more of this story. If so, I can go into more detail about how the post-accident claims process worked, how I'm hoping to get the car back, and how to fix the damage, and how to get a "rebuilt" car title. Also, this thread is going to be my notes to self where I post useful stuff I found like links to the car parts I need, YouTube videos on how to fix the damage, etc.