Salvage vs Rebuilt Title: What's the Difference and What's It Worth?

Salvage Title

A salvage title means an insurance company declared the vehicle a total loss — the repair cost exceeded a threshold (usually 60-80%) of the car's value. You can buy it but you CANNOT legally drive it until it's repaired and inspected.

Impact on value: -15% to -25% from clean title value depending on the car's desirability. High-demand cars (Hellcat, Supra, Wrangler) lose less. Commodity cars (Camry, Altima) lose more.

Rebuilt Title

A rebuilt title means the car WAS salvage, has been repaired, and passed a state inspection. It's legal to drive, register, and insure. This is what flippers aim for — buy salvage, fix it, get rebuilt title, sell.

Impact on value: -10% to -20% from clean title. Less stigma than salvage because it's been inspected and approved. Some buyers don't care at all — especially at the right price.

Non-Repairable Title

Worse than salvage. The issuing state says this car cannot be titled for road use. However — you CAN export it to another state that allows re-titling (Texas, Florida, Georgia, Alabama are common). Once rebuilt and inspected in the new state, it gets a rebuilt title.

Impact on value: -25% to -35% because of the extra hassle and cost of cross-state titling.

Insurance on Rebuilt Titles

Most major insurers offer liability coverage for rebuilt title vehicles. Comprehensive and collision are harder — some companies won't cover it, others will at standard rates. Shop around: Progressive and GEICO are generally rebuilt-title friendly.

The Flip Math

The title discount is your profit margin. Buy a car at salvage auction for 40-60% of clean value, spend 10-20% on repairs, sell at rebuilt value (80-90% of clean). The spread is your money.

sendit scan calculates all of this automatically — title impact, repair costs, market value, and profit projection. Paste any listing and see the numbers.