GuideBook

Step 1 - Define What is Fun for You

If you truly love cars, a good place to start is any vehicle that evokes an emotional response through connection with the machinery, balanced with the realities of budget. This guide focuses on one segment: mid-range sports cars and sedans. Specific models purschased include 2001 Porsche Boxster, 2013 BMW 335i, 2005 Audi TT quattro convertible, 2002 BMW 325Ci, 2006 Infiniti M45. Sure, you can get great experiences driving high end sports cars, race cars, and rented exotic cars. However, experience has shown the most fun is living with them over the course of months. It's usually about a 2.5 month window to truly explore and enjoy the vehicle at 1-hour per day. More time spent per day numbs the wow factor.

Step 2 - Define Your Risk Tolerance

Can you handle a flood damaged car? If so, your available vehicle range is much larger. This guide avoids them because of the potential electrical gremlins. On the other hand, this guide assumes comfort with buying a run and drive vehicle with missing body panels, or a car that has low mileage but will not start. Are you ok replacing airbags, and having exposed seams on the dashboard? If so, that's another huge increase in your available cars range.

Are you comfortable with a vehicle arriving different from the pictures? It will be picked up and put down multiple times by giant forklifts, tow trucks and people with no incentive to keep your salvage title dream pristine.

Step 3 - Define What You're Not Going to Fix

Youtubers can show you how to perform almost any repair. Only experience will allow you to close the gap towards professional quality. Decide now what level of panel gap tolerances, paint imperfections, and fit misalignments you're ok with. This is where the vast majority of your costs savings will be compared to full restoration by a professional. For example, I bought a 2013 BMW X3 with a front right fender that had been ripped off. I simply bought a used fender from ebay that was the same color and installed it. The hood did not fit precisely, it needed to be coaxed into place with some amateur-ish bending. The critical eye would see that it did not fit according to the repair standards. This gap of 'good enough' that I decided not to fix is what saved me $1-$3k. Are there other features you can 'fix' by pulling a fuse? On the BMW 325Ci, I decided to buy an emergency car cover, and bolt the convertible top in the open position for a few months of fun summer driving. Fixing the top hydraulics would have cost much more than the cost of the car. The cover cost $100.

The 'fun' context for me is daily driven on public roads. This means that safety and emissions inspections are required. That's a low bar, and clearly defines which parts must be purchased.

On the BMW 325ci, the dashboard was dead. Ever drive a car with no speedometer, tachometer of indicator lights? It's actually fun and not illegal. All of the other safety related systems are still fully legal and pass inspection. If you really want a speedometer just fire up any number of GPS apps on your phone and you're good to go. Save yourself a few hundred dollars of replacement on a 200k mile 20+ year old car. Fun.

Step 4 - Define Your Budget

Down here at the fun end, the cost structure is different. You're primary costs will be:

1. Fees
2. Delivery
3. Actual bid amount
4. Parts
5. Taxes, DMV registration, insurance, etc.

Of the items above, the Actual bid amount is the easiest to estimate. Just pick a number you will not go over. Click each of these links to see more details on how to configure the Copart and IAAI interfaces for searching within your budget.

Variable costs can include tools, disposables like oil, depending on what you have in your shop.

Additional Considerations:

• Delivery expenses
• Tools required for the fixes
• Parts required for the fixes
• Taxes, DMV, etc.
• Time required for the fixes

Step 5 - Bid

Actually bidding for the car should be done ahead of time. Set your max bid as early as possible, then do not check the results. Do not monitor the auction. Copart and IAAI have invested literaly tens of millions of dollars to get you to overbid. This is your one move to exercise the only leverage you have. If you put yourself in the auction 'just to see', you will probably end up biddding more.

Don't worry about it though. There is no FOMO here. We're talking about thousands of cars sold every day, no exaggeration. You will be able to find something that fits your definition of fun, quite possibly the next day. This is not 'movie auctions', where you get one chance to outbid someone on a truly rare item. These are mass produced items in a variety of conditions and locations that can meet your needs.

Step 6 - Pay for the Car

Wire transfers are generally the lowest fee way to pay for the cars. Some of the brokers and auction houses accept credit cars, but watch out for 'convenience fees' for using them. Check out 2009 Honda Accord wire transfer section for examples.

Step 7 - Wait for the Car to Arrive

This can happen as soon as next day after the auction. For example, with the 2005 BMW 545i the first notification of delivery I had was the tow truck driver calling me to tell me he was outside the house asking where I wanted the car. That was 8am the day after the auction. By the time I got back, the vehicle was delivered in the garage and he was gone.

You're going to be surprised - it will not be in the same condition as in the pictures. Just about anything can happen to it from a punctured door to a window left open leading to water damage.

With all that said, it's still a better expereince than buying from a dealer. Replace the shock and mild disappointment of the vehicle delivered with the manipulative, known-immoral and 'lets get the most out of you as possible' experience of buying from a dealer.

Step 8 - Title Transfer, Registration and Inspection

These are the rules in North Carolina. See your particular state's rules that we could find on the by-state page.

For most deliveries, the title will come in a separate mailing about 5 business days later.

Once you have the title, contact your insurance company and get it covered. I usually choose liability coverage only. These closer to junk than nice cars, and the replacement-level insurance can be added on later.

Go to the DMV. Here in central NC you actually have a good option. The privately run license agency in Cary, NC has a group of people who are easy to work with. I've been there more times than I can remember. The line sometimes stretches out the door, but it moves. The place is staffed appropriately, there is nowhere to sit. They are professional though, even with the public and all we bring to them. I've been treated with nothing but consideration.

Bring Cash - at least $200. This way you can have a backup plan if credit cards don't work. For some reason, there is one portion of the process that requires about 17$ in cash, every time.

Based on the reactions from the DMV professionals, salvage title transfers are shady. Start the conversion with something like 'Bought this salvage title car from auction to fix it up for fun.', that makes things go smoother. Apparently they have had some behind the scenes training about the malfeasance of salvage title transfers and rebranding. Make it clear that you are keeping the salvage title, and not trying to increase it's value, just having fun fixing it. Do not use the words 'rebuilding' as that has a specific meaning in this context.

You may get a temporary registration tag so you can drive it to the inspection station. Once it is inspected, you'll come back to the DMV to get the permanent tag.

In some cases, the vehicle you bought had it's yearly inspection already done, in which case you'll get the real tag in one visit.

At this point you may be thinking - that sounds miserable, I'd rather not go to the DMV ever. The alternative is what the dealership gives you. Many of those papers you sign are limited power of attorneys so they file all this in bulk for you. That's the value-add you're paying for at the dealership or used car lot. Most of my 'family' cars are purchased from Carmax, which generally speaking has the least-bad of all the experiences. You're still paying thousands of dollars for that convenience in various forms of markups, doc fees, etc. What you get is a drive-off experience after 4 hours and a plate that comes in the mail later.

Step 9 - Drive for Fun!, Decide When to Sell

You made it - as soon as you put that temporary tag on you're ready to go. Drive wherever you like, don't get it safety or emissions inspected if you don't want, just have fun. The tag will expire in 10 days, but you've got until then to make a decision.

What I like to do here is gradually expand the sphere of comfortable action with an unknown quantity. Cruise down the driveway. Then around the block. Up to 45 on a back road, into town, then back. You never really know what's going to happen at this stage. On the infiniti M45 for example, there was a loud thunk from the rear differential and the engine shut off. Started right back up and never happened again. The Audi TT Quattro had a huge backfire under hard acceleration indicating a bad coil pack that needed to be replaced before emissions tests. The BMW 545i had 90% of the oil leave the engine once it got up to pressure. If you're doing this for fun, and you love cars - this is really quite enjoyable.

Joy has a financial component in this context. That M45 was so much fun, but would not pass inspection without new catalytic converters which cost nearly double the wining bid. That one meant I sold it immediately without further work.

Coil packs are about as easy as it gets, so I dropped that one in and got it inspected.

The BMW 545i was a learning experience. I should have let it get up to temperature and pressure before getting the temporary tag. Then I would have had more information before getting the temporary tag. As it was I ran out of time and the tag expired, so I had to go back and get another one now that it could move and hold the oil. Totally worth it though as that car was amazing.

What really helps here is a mental framework that you can execute when it comes time to sell. Each vehicle has a variety of inputs that cannot be pre-determined until you truly experience the vehicle. For example, your joy level on a surprising feature or in-person viewing can offset a repair cost. The same repair cost on a uninspiring vehicle changes the calculus

Selling it while it's running is generally more fun. Being able to drive it out of the driveway and into the street to have it picked up by a tow truck is generally a more fun experience that limp mode-ing it to the shop and waiting for a few days to get an estimate then having it towed from there.

Step 10 - Sell It

Peddle is actually a great experience - at least compared to the alternatives: LKQ, Copart, various other cash for cars type operations. With peddle you'll get a equivalent or better price with drastically less hassle. That will probably change as the margins shift, but right now peddle gives you hundreds and turns around and sells it right back to copart anyways. You can sell direct to copart, but expect a hassle.

I have sold one salvage title vehicle to a individual. All of the others I did not feel comfortable with handing off a known broken vehicle to a private party. I just did not trust that they understood what they were getting into. In contrast, the questions from peddle are 'Which part is damaged?' and 'Does it run and have the catalyic converters?'. Moreover, the tow truck guy just picks it up and takes it away, he doens't start it, drive it etc. He literally does not care. It's also a salvage car and looks like it's been for a while, so everybody is relaxed about the value invovled. They literally pick it up from your house and drop it at a junkyard or auction hosue. It's all professional and everybody knows what the risks are. Fun at the end - we're not trying to extract every single piece of value out of the experience, we're trying to have fun with cars.

Step 11 - Repeat

Automotive engineering is the nexus point of so many of our technological developments. It's truly a joy to experience them from an operator perspective, all the way down to the technician level. Having it arrive slightly broken just ups the fun factor as you'll have no choice but to get in there and evalute your options. The fact that these vehicles can be made road worthy and fun based on your mechanical skill and mental cleverness is extremely rewarding.

Next time you're in there - feel that gasket material around your door frames. That stays pliable and resilient for 20+ years on the entire north american continent. It cost virtually nothing to make - just amazing levels of development after basically all of modern history leading to a -20 + 150 degree range for that one part. Where else can you find for $400 a turbocharged air pump, vaccum reservoirs, 40k volts, real time computer operating systems, 5-95% body size ranges ergonimic decisions. Couple all of that with a desire for design, utility and performance that resonate with their market realities. And then you sit in it and absorb all of that. What a joy.

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