heckler56
Active member
My mechanic has been making a killing on buying insurance autos (Subarus) with minor damage because after a certain point they have to buyout the claim. He has built an inventory of badly damaged ones and swaps parts as needed. Last summer daughter needed a vehicle ASAP. She picked one and he had it “built” in less than a week! He said he had something like 100 transmissions, engines etc.. Genius really.I think Mezz has hit the nail right on the head. The other big problem that I hear is going on is parts for cars are so far backordered that cars that wouldn't be a total are being totaled because of how long it takes to get the parts to fix the car. Basically they would have to pay so long on a rental that it's cheaper to total it but costing the insurance companies a lot more money then if the car could of been repaired at a timely manner.
He showed us a Subaru sedan he just bought with 5k miles for $3k for an engine fire. Turns out it was a melted battery cable and the adjuster looked in the truck and it was all black. Turns out the former owner was an asphalt guy and kept his equipment and clothes in the trunk! He swapped out the battery cables, tested everything and replaced the trunk lining.