[bityard]

In the US, firstly it is considered unfashionable by many to buy a used car altogether ("you're just buying someone else's problems!") and secondly, the only thing that can reliably affect resale value is if it condemned with a "salvage title." Which can mean a few things but usually means the car suffered more damage than it is economical to fix. But just the fact that a car was in a collision or had a claim against it does not automatically affect the car's future insurance rates or resale value.

We have a company called CarFax that produces vehicle history reports for used cars, but there are many problems with it. Starting with the fact that all reports are voluntary. I have looked at cars that were clearly in floods when you know what to look for and yet the CarFax was squeaky clean.

[sokoloff]

> But just the fact that a car was in a collision or had a claim against it does not automatically affect the car's ... resale value.

What? Accidents, even after repair, decrease the resale value of a car, significantly in the case of a young or exotic car, less so for an older, more pedestrian car.

Having been in an accident removes some possible buyers from the pool. (Some buyers will not knowingly buy a car with damage history.) That necessarily changes the balance of supply and demand for that car.

If you had a choice between buying a car that was in a crash and repaired versus the otherwise identically equipped car that had never been crashed, which would you choose? Lots of buyers prefer the latter option, which is why they're worth more than the former option.

[bityard]

I'm saying that accidents (depending on the severity) do not necessarily decrease the resale value of the car. You're saying that a car in an accident has a smaller pool or buyers. These can both be true.

There are two ways to sell a sub-prime car: 1) lower the price, and 2) wait for a less-than-diligent buyer to come along. Many private sellers and dealerships are perfectly fine with #2.

Lots of people do not know how to check for unreported previous damage to a car, and lots of people do not care if the car was in an accident as long as it was repaired, has no obvious damage, drives just fine, and has a green title. These are the people who eventually buy those cars.

[bluGill]

The majority of cars sold are used cars. Yes there are some who won't consider a used car, but they are a minority (a large minority, but still a minority). The average car last 12 years, the typical new car is replaced every 3 years with a newer one.

A salvage title is only used when someone intends to restore the car, and then it goes back to a normal title once restored (or at least that is how my state did it 15 years ago - each state is different). You get the salvage title only to justify paying taxes on the actual value of the car (sales tax on a car is for actual value not the price you paid, so a salvage title is useful to prove it isn't worth what the book says) It will show up on CarFax as restored then. (though as you note most such issues never get a salvage title as they are not sold)

[compiler-guy]

Don’t know what state or country you are in, but that isn’t the way a salvage title works in any US state that I am aware of.

A car with a salvage title stays branded with “rebuilt” or “restored” in all common scenarios. There are ways to wash them to unbranded, but most are unethical and involve retitling in different states and such, rather than simply restoring the car.

Regardless, unless dealing directly with the DMV, most people call a branded title a salvage title, or at least say something like, “the title isn’t clean”.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_title

[Spooky23]

Salvage titles are restored wrecks. Back in the day when it was easy to get clean titles, people would steal cars and “restore” wrecks… or move parts from wrecks into stolen cars to launder them.