Hey guys/gals, new here and I need some help. I’m trying to sell my 2006 LJ Rubicon, hard top, 4.0l, 6-speed manual, 6” lift, 35x12.5, cold air intake, Banks exhaust, 4.88 gears, Solid front diff cover, Rock Ready gear box cover, new rear main seal, clutch and few more odds and ends. I posted it for sale and had it sold, then the guy pulled a car fax and told me it has been wrote up as a ‘total loss’ in 2012. I bought it without pulling a car fax since the guy I bought it from had a clean and clear title in hand. I knew it was painted before I bought it, so I crawled all over it and didn’t find anything that alarmed me. So now I’m in a situation I’ve never been in. I want to sell it and have no idea how to proceed because I have a clean and clear title in hand, but car fax says otherwise. Car fax still says the value is $13,500 with the ‘total loss’ on the title because it has great car fax history and it’s a personal vehicle. Any idea what I could/should ask for it? Does a ‘total loss’ on car fax scare people? I’ve never pulled a car fax and now this is why I’m in this situation, live and learn I guess.
LJR for sale... sort of
- Thread starter balish81
- Start date
I don't get it... you have a clean title but the CarFax says total loss?
You need to call DMV and ask them if your title is indeed clean or not. If it is clean, it shouldn't be listed as a total loss on CarFax. I am pretty sure "total loss" means it has a salvage or reconstructed title, in which case that cuts the value of the vehicle nearly in half (most insurance companies won't give full coverage on branded title vehicles, and banks won't loan money on them either), and it does indeed scare away potential buyers... big time.
You need to call DMV and ask them if your title is indeed clean or not. If it is clean, it shouldn't be listed as a total loss on CarFax. I am pretty sure "total loss" means it has a salvage or reconstructed title, in which case that cuts the value of the vehicle nearly in half (most insurance companies won't give full coverage on branded title vehicles, and banks won't loan money on them either), and it does indeed scare away potential buyers... big time.
It is a huge deal...especially on the value. My biggest problem with carfax is their lack of detail about the accidents or amount of damage that was done. Especially now a days when the insurance companies are marketing new car replacement for any accident in the first year or more. That puts a lot more "totaled" cars on the road that had relatively little damage. I would bet 80%+ buyers would not even look at a salvage title....even if it was 40% less than a no salvage one.
I can tell you from first hand knowledge carfax is not easy to work with removing derogatory remarks from their reports.
So the Jeep was banged up, insurance totalled it, and now it has a total loss title?
Since you don't know about the accident, a potential buyer has to do an extreme amount of due diligence on the vehicle, like are the axles good, how is the engine, tranny, etc. Unfortuately this is going to be a tough sell at that price point due to the title and mods.
Since you don't know about the accident, a potential buyer has to do an extreme amount of due diligence on the vehicle, like are the axles good, how is the engine, tranny, etc. Unfortuately this is going to be a tough sell at that price point due to the title and mods.
This is definitely step one. Start here, you can't move on beyond this without the information to make a decision.
—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
That's the rub. Carfax says totaled, but owner has clear title, not salvage or total loss title. Unless the PO did some title shenanigans, or knew someone at the DMV who did, not sure how this is possible. @balish81, I'll be interested to see what you discover about the title history.
According to car fax it happened in 2012. Car fax also still has it valued at over $13k, with the total loss, because there is tons of history of it being serviced with no issues and because it’s a personal vehicle. I don’t know, this is an all new scenario to me. Finally got a little free time today to make some calls, hopefully somebody can shed some light on what’s what. Thanks for all the feed back!
It’s been my daily driver for the past 11 months, no issues at all beyond oil change, tire rotation and wind shield wipers. Drive it up on the freeway all the time and it drives awesome. Had a mechanic friend of mine look it over and says everything looks fine. No frame welding or replaced parts, no mounts busted off and rewelded or anything like that. In ‘12 it was already 6 years old, at the bottom of car fax it says an insurance company will total a vehicle if its in an accident and the repair cost is “approximately” 75% of the vehicles total value, they will write it off as a total loss. 6 year old Wrangler in a front end collision, wouldn’t be hard to get it to a $10k bill if it crumpled the fenders, hood, some steering components and it all needed painted again. (I’m speculating that’s what happened cause cf says it was front end). Whole scenario is a real bummer cause I got a nice Jeep...
Not only possible, but not that hard to do. Theft recovery, interior stripped out. Takes awhile to locate and recover. Insurance pays out full insured value. Insurance sends it to auction, winning bidder takes it to a shop to get rebuilt. Owner doesn't pay bill, car gets lien, goes to midnight auction, shop owner winds up with clean clear title after jumping through a couple easy hoops.
AtlWrangler99
TJ Enthusiast
I'm no expert here, but it sounds like the previous owner knew it was a total loss and some how was able to "doctor" up a clean title to sell to you. Nowadays you can do so much with adobe. Then they probably knew someone at the DMV and paid them to process the "altered" title. I'm curious what did you pay the previous owner for the truck? Also, for future references ALWAYS pull a car fax report and myself being a female I also go a step further. If I am interested in purchasing a vehicle I will also take it to the dealership and pay them the $75 to $100 or whatever the cost is to run the diagnostic on it. It's all worth it in the end because the last thing you want to have is to be stuck with a lemon/money pit.
No doctoring needed. Lien sale for storage and midnight auction will clean up even the most dirty of titles or as in my case, no title at all.
I would start by contacting the PO and be stern, but keep in mind they might be as in the dark as you.
How many owners are listed on the Carfax?
Any idea who did the respray? Contact them.
Definitely contact Carfax to get as much info as possible and question them on how it’s possible that you have a clean title and a total loss showing on the Carfax report. Carfax is DEFINITELY difficult to deal with.
I like the advice of contacting your insurance company to assist. When I was a claims adjuster I had access to a database called ISO Claims Search where I could search for claims (both previous or current). One of the search criteria I could use was VIN. In theory they could run the search and come up with a claim number and the insurance company. HOWEVER, chances are you would call your insurance company and the person you would talk to would just be someone who enters the data and they’d tell you unless you were calling to report a claim they couldn’t help you. Only a claims adjuster would be able to do this. Adding to this, if you did get the information on the prior claim there is a good chance the previous insurance company wouldn’t disclose any information to you.
It’s definitely worth your time to do some due diligence on this, as it will obviously crush the resale. I didn’t know Carfax did valuations, but I’d throw their valuation out the window.
Run the build sheet. I don’t know if it could provide any insight into anything, but it couldn’t hurt
https://jeep.custhelp.com/app/jeep/eqlisting_detail
How many owners are listed on the Carfax?
Any idea who did the respray? Contact them.
Definitely contact Carfax to get as much info as possible and question them on how it’s possible that you have a clean title and a total loss showing on the Carfax report. Carfax is DEFINITELY difficult to deal with.
I like the advice of contacting your insurance company to assist. When I was a claims adjuster I had access to a database called ISO Claims Search where I could search for claims (both previous or current). One of the search criteria I could use was VIN. In theory they could run the search and come up with a claim number and the insurance company. HOWEVER, chances are you would call your insurance company and the person you would talk to would just be someone who enters the data and they’d tell you unless you were calling to report a claim they couldn’t help you. Only a claims adjuster would be able to do this. Adding to this, if you did get the information on the prior claim there is a good chance the previous insurance company wouldn’t disclose any information to you.
It’s definitely worth your time to do some due diligence on this, as it will obviously crush the resale. I didn’t know Carfax did valuations, but I’d throw their valuation out the window.
Run the build sheet. I don’t know if it could provide any insight into anything, but it couldn’t hurt
https://jeep.custhelp.com/app/jeep/eqlisting_detail
Absolutely nothing. Nobody knows crap about it, nobody can tell me crap about it. It’s a ghost, we’re all ghosts apparently or at least thats how I felt trying to get info out of people. Got a guy looking at it this weekend. Just been honest, so we’ll see how he feels and if he wants to buy it. Thanks for all the input and sorry for not getting back around to reply to all the suggestions and help.
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