As vehicle market shifts, some dealerships are retailing salvaged titles

As the vehicle market shifts, some franchised dealerships are retailing branded or salvaged titles, an issue that an Automotive News opinion piece says should bring forth standardizing and codifying the post-repair safety and roadworthy state-level inspection process. 

The piece follows an Automotive News article that explores the shift in the market. 

“Once, insurance companies totaled cars because of body and frame damage from severe crashes, but now they write off easily repairable cars because of lesser impacts that impair expensive electronics,” the article says. “That leaves franchised dealers facing a stark choice: Expand into once-untouchable inventory or watch budget-conscious buyers disappear​ to Facebook Marketplace, independent used-car dealers, and national chains specializing in repaired branded-title cars.”

According to the article, the percentage of new-vehicle dealers retailing branded-title vehicles isn’t tracked and is likely still small. 

Dealers are also seeing fewer $10,000 to $15,000 used vehicles, leaving dealerships with a choice to expand into the “once untouchable inventory” or watch consumers use Facebook Marketplace or independent used-car dealers and national chains that specialize in branded-title vehicles, the article says. 

About 2.5 million vehicles were declared totaled by insurers last year and returned to U.S. roadways, the article says. 

“If those vehicles were the output of a single automaker, they would roughly equal the 2025 U.S. sales of Toyota Motor North America, the second-largest automaker in the market last year behind only General Motors,” according to the opinion piece. “But unlike the annual output of Toyota, GM, or any other automaker, these vehicles are reentering U.S. roadways under vastly different levels of scrutiny and regulation across the country, driven by their attractive prices relative to used vehicles with so-called clean titles.”

The piece notes that franchise dealers seem to understand that some salvage vehicles can be restored to factory specifications for operation and safety for their next owner. However, it adds, that’s not easy. 

“But if it can be done, such vehicles can present an opportunity for desperate consumers who might otherwise be priced completely out of the market,” the piece says. “Unfortunately, that baseline requirement isn’t universal across the vast network of repair shops and used-vehicle retailers whose livelihoods depend on returning once-totaled vehicles to the road through the least expensive and most profitable means.”

Federal regulations would be impossible, the piece notes. Yet, work could be made on the state-level inspection process. 

“Consumers considering vehicles returned to operation from salvage need information not only on how the automobile was damaged and repaired, but also how it functions compared with one that has a clean title,” the article says. “Does the repaired vehicle sacrifice some functionality? Are all the safety and sensor systems working to specification? If not, open and prominent disclosure of remaining deficiencies should be required from the seller and acknowledged by the purchaser before any branded title can be transferred to a new owner.”

Franchised dealers also could offer low-cost inspections and certifications that the vehicle has been repaired and restored for operation, the piece says. 

“Dealers can do that today, even if they don’t want to sell branded-title vehicles themselves,” the piece says. 

In 2024, a Michigan TV station, 8 Wood TV, investigated the sale of salvaged-titled vehicles in the state after a woman purchased a $17,000 vehicle from a used car dealer, only to learn later that it had a salvaged title and needed $13,000 in repairs. 

Because the vehicle’s owner signed paperwork to purchase the vehicle “as is,” the Secretary of State’s office found no wrongdoing in the case, the report says. However, the vehicle seller agreed to repurchase the Rogue after state regulators started investigating the transaction. 

The article notes that the seller has been cited for multiple rule violations in the past and placed on probation. 

“When you buy a car ‘as is,’ it doesn’t matter whether that car is unsafe,” Adam Taub, a consumer attorney, told the news station. “It doesn’t matter whether that car is worth one-tenth of what you paid for it. ‘As is’ means you fix it, and you may not be able to afford that.”

A lawsuit was filed in 2024 that alleges Destiny Byassee, a mother of two, was killed in a June 12, 2023, collision when a counterfeit front driver-side airbag exploded. The suit says the vehicle was in a prior collision before Byassee purchased it, and the airbag was installed during an improper repair at that time.

The Collision Industry Conference Industry Relations Committee also reported during a 2024 meeting that it found significant frame damage, totaled vehicles, and a lack of OEM-recommended procedures, such as alignments and calibrations, in its review of 26 improper repair cases. 

It found that 90% of the vehicles were totaled after having an independent post-repair inspection. About 50% of the vehicles had significant frame damage. 

“We looked at 26 of these vehicles,” said Ron Reichen, Precision Body and Paint owner. “That is just a fraction of those vehicles that are still out there on the streets. It should be terrifying because those vehicles are coming at us and they’re coming at our families.”

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