Salvage title from broken odometer?

[H311RA151N]

I'm looking at a 1998 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD turbo. It has a prior salvage title and I wanted to know why so I pulled a Carfax on it and it was deemed a total loss because the odometer broke. According to the Carfax.

Car has 97,000 miles, automatic and has the 25L package if anyone cares. Bone stock.

Has anyone heard of this before? It's new to me.

[Fleetw00d]

Talk to your insurance agent about it; he may be able to shed some light on insurance company practices. Or maybe the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Sounds strange to me.

What's a dealer's cost for repairing/replacing the odometer? Iowa's rule for "total" appears to be 50% if the vehicle is worth $500 or more.

[H311RA151N]

I had State Farm like 6 months ago, I switched to Progressive after that. Still with Progressive and I'm pretty darn sure it's Progressive who won't even insure salvage title vehicles at least in my state. But I'll inquire none the less. And I'll have to have insurance anyhow so I'll find someone to insure it and will ask then if I have to.

It was salvage titled in 2003 in Aurora IL. It was totaled and fixed then. Like 32k on the odo at that point.

[Fleetw00d]

It was salvage titled in 2003 in Aurora IL. It was totaled and fixed then. Like 32k on the odo at that point.

So, it was actually wrecked and the odometer quit working at that time? Or just the odometer issue?

[deevergote]

Kinda makes me think it wasn't just the odometer. It must have been hit as well. I wonder how severe the damage was for it to be totaled. I believe that car was nearly $20,000 new in 1998, and I assume it would have retained a good portion of its value after 5 years and only 32,000 miles. If the repair estimate to total the car must equal 50% of the value, that may have been pretty seriously damaged. Even if the car was only worth $10,000 after 5 years, that's still WAY more than even an expensive shop would charge to replace the odometer!
Check it out thoroughly to ensure it's not irreparably tweaked! Unless you're getting it for an absolute steal and you don't care.

Definitely check with your insurance company (or various insurance companies) to see what can be done about insuring a salvaged vehicle.

[H311RA151N]

So, it was actually wrecked and the odometer quit working at that time? Or just the odometer issue?

The Carfax says it wasn't wrecked, flooded or anything like that. Just that the odometer quit working and it was totaled because of it. Oddly enough.

[H311RA151N]

Kinda makes me think it wasn't just the odometer. It must have been hit as well. I wonder how severe the damage was for it to be totaled. I believe that car was nearly $20,000 new in 1998, and I assume it would have retained a good portion of its value after 5 years and only 32,000 miles. If the repair estimate to total the car must equal 50% of the value, that may have been pretty seriously damaged. Even if the car was only worth $10,000 after 5 years, that's still WAY more than even an expensive shop would charge to replace the odometer!
Check it out thoroughly to ensure it's not irreparably tweaked! Unless you're getting it for an absolute steal and you don't care.

Definitely check with your insurance company (or various insurance companies) to see what can be done about insuring a salvaged vehicle.

Just under $20,000 originally as Carfax states. You have a good memory! And that's what I've read as for 50% of the value. I didn't know anything about this fact before yesterday.

I got it today for $2500. So lets hope nothing is wrong with it! I paid cash which helped immensely. And that's with the title fees, taxes, them taking care of everything like driving to the courthouse, a 30 day warranty, a free oil change when it comes time, a tank of fuel, license plates, and a 45 day temp tag. The 30 day warranty was hard to get. I haggled a lot on that one. Here is a link to the car.

http://www.deerybrotherschryslerdodg...6ac37713aa.htm

It wasn't Progressive that wouldn't insure it, I guess that was State Farm. Or, I could be mistaken and read something wrong at one time.

I'm going to do just that Mike, with the insurance company. They did let me insure it today as I did so via their Progressive app on my phone. I'm going to call them tomorrow and talk with them about it. Everything seems good as they accepted the vin and everything but just to make certain.

Pics of it when I got it home.

[H311RA151N]

The dealer got the car as part of someone defaulting on something. Some shop. Like the dealer accepted it as payment. The PO had $2800 worth of work done on it and I have all receipts. 5 pages worth and it's from this dealership as they preformed all the work on it. This car would have been long gone but they marketed it poorly being as the salesman, Trent was the guys name, didn't make a penny of commission on it. So there was no incentive for the sale. I found the car on Sunday when pulling over to put water in my 1993 Accord. It was way overheated. Badly. It creeps up in temp super fast now due to the headgasket. It skyrocketed by the time I was able to pull off the road and into this dealership. I get the radiator cap off to add water and look over to see this Eagle Talon. I look at the back of it while waiting for the Accord to cool down and I'll be damned it was a TSi AWD.

[F22Chris]

Nice! If it turns out to be a pile, you can boost the accord.

[H311RA151N]

Nice! If it turns out to be a pile, you can boost the accord.

I'd prolly just get something else honestly. It seems solid. Only driven it 15 miles so far though so we'll see.

[bigpoppa694lyfe]

I'll give you some advise from the dsm world... no mater what mechanical, electrical, or whatever problem you might encounter... boost leak test and ecmlink are the only way to possibly fix it. Even if it's a flat tire... boost leak test and some datalogs are all you need to fix it. *Note* Read this with as much sarcasm as you can possibly muster. You'll find out soon enough as soon as you start asking questions on the forums.

[H311RA151N]

I've already got my eye on the STM Boost Leak tester priced at right around $50. The ECM Link is $550. That will have to wait a while. I'll take your advice very seriously.

If I can avoid crankwalk I'll be doing well also. My fingers are crossed that everything goes well.

[deevergote]

The general rule of thumb is that if it doesn't crankwalk by 100k miles, it never will. Granted, that thing is a LONG way from 100k!

Looks fantastic. That funky spoiler has always been one of my favorite features on any car.
Sucks that it's auto, but that's likely the only way you'd ever find one so clean and unmolested. I'm finding the same thing is true with Miatas. Clean manuals sell for twice the price of clean automatics. Cheap automatics can be clean... but cheap manuals are falling apart.
If it turns out to have problems, you'll be able to part it out for a profit EASILY.

What are your plans? If that were mine, I'd keep it 100% stock. At 18 years old, it's already a unicorn in that condition. Imagine in another 10-15 years!

[H311RA151N]

I've heard that before and I'm close enough where I'm not worried about it too much. But it is in the back of my mind.

I've read that 1998/1999 got a different set of thrust washers. Idk if the story holds any water but that would be a plus. Either way I'm not too overly worried about it. Being an automatic helps too from what I've read as with a manual the clutch/pressure plate and such push on the crank.

I'm glad it's an auto in one way being as I don't have to physically shift it. Which is nice sometimes. But when you want to really pour the coals to it it's not nearly as much fun as a manual.

I figured I couldn't get hurt on it. Being as it was marketed poorly I was actually able to get my hands on it. When I showed up for it someone was looking at it. Scared the shit out of me. I hauled ass back to the dealers office and almost barged in asking for the guy I spoke with on the phone. It worried me when it took so long for them to bring the car up front. The battery ended up being dead but all I could picture was the guy looking at it buying it right out from under me.

I plan to keep it stockish. A wideband and boost gauge on the column, 1G BOV, V3 ECMLink, and an MBC. I plan on pushing the little T25 to 15psi, fuel pump rewire kit and replacing the fuel pump. Other then that just bringing everything up to the very best condition I can get it. It's meant to be a daily and there is no way in hell I'm staying in Iowa so it needs to be reliable. If/when I move it will have to make a trip possibly across the country. Being AWD is so nice. If I moved to some place where it snowed a lot then it would still be usable.

The car hurts my back to drive. I've got to do something about that. And I almost hit my head on the ceiling and I'm only 5'8".