Thinking about buying a branded title Journey. Thoughts?

[Stephen Cassity]

Thinking about buying a 2013 Dodge Journey SE with 73k miles for $6750.00.  It has a salvage title due to damages it incurred in a wreck.  The link below shows the damage:

 

https://www.copart.com/lot/23460306/

 

The damage was assessed at $10k (seems excessive), so they totaled it out and put a salvage title on it.  It was able to be driven off the scene of the accident and into the auction, so no mechanical issues.  It has since been fully rebuilt and looks fantastic (some pics attached).  Only thing they worries me is suspension or frame damage.  

 

What do you guys think?  

[2late4u]

if it was fixed properly no problem,thing is when they do that it has no real resale value and because it was so expensive to fix that it why they totaled it so WAS it fixed properly? to be honest my son in law bought a salvage that had been fixed and whoever repaired it did take a lot of shortcuts on the repairs, it drove okay, but you wonder what toll it took on the frame. good luck.

[Steven Harshbarger]

I would have your own mechanic look at it and the work done to it.  If that checks out, and you plan on driving it into the dirt, then I say go for it.  Otherwise, if you plan on selling it in a few years, the R-title will make it worth nearly nothing because most people will be afraid of it.

 

It does look nice from the photos but those can be deceiving sometimes.

Edited January 20, 2017 by Steven Harshbarger

[OhareFred]

I wouldnt touch a salvage with a ten foot pole, buts that me.  You get what you pay for....

[Neto]

In general I would be pretty leery of a modern uni-body car that had been wrecked, because there can be all kinds of hidden tears & stress in the metal that might compromise its normal & proper performance in another accident.  (Older uni-bodies were more like integrated chassis - the body itself was not so much of the actual structure of the body as a whole.  Now even the windshield is considered structural.)  But all that said, this one appears to have been damaged only behind the rear axle, so it might not have any of these problems.  So if the doors operate correctly on the right side, maybe there is no damage to the main body structure.  But as already said, I would also think that it should be regarded as a long-term purchase, possibly to be driven until it is totally spent (because of limited resale value due to the salvage title).

[mfeel]

If i were you it would be a simple and quick : no.

 

[Stephen Cassity]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.  Ended up not going with that and buying a non-wrecked 2012 Dodge Journey SXT with the 3.6L engine and AWD.  This car is amazing!

 

On to the next issue of figuring out how to add bluetooth!  Thanks again for the help!

[bramfrank]

For what it's worth I think you made the right decision in skipping the salvage vehicle.

But adding OEM Bluetooth is . . . . . difficult.

What I did with my last DJ was to buy a Garmin unit that had Bluetooth and I installed it with the power cable routed through the headliner, down the right side roof pillar to the fuse box behind the glove box.

That have me navigation with traffic and Bluetooth - and because the unit I had (a 3790) had voice recognition, there was no real need to ever touch the unit - I spoke the activation phrase and went from there.  The only drawback was that I had to manually mute the radio to make a phone call.