Salvage Inspection Process

Jeffc15

I have recently bought a salvage 2010 hyundai genesis coupe from new york. I live in massachusetts. I was very aware of the headaches that would come with the car but I loved it so much I decided to take on the challenge. The car was totaled according to the insurance appraisal after suffering a left front, left, and left rear collision. T bone accident I assume. The car repair costs from the appraisal totalled to nearly 80% of the cars value. My questions is do all the repairs that the insurance appraisal says need to be done in order for the car to be back to value, have to be done in order to pass the salvage inspection. For example I replaced the front bumper and front headlights on the vehivle. Those two parts were listed as needing to be replaced on the appraisal but many other parts are listed as well. These include the left door, left tire ( the rim to be exact ), the front left fender, the fender liner, and the hood. These are all listed due to dents and scratches. I was able to fix these as they were not terrible and were able to be buffed out and bent back into shape. All parts of the car on the damaged side allign well. There is still a small, barley noticable dent in the hood, and a quarter sized dent in the left door. There is also no fender linner installed. My MAJOR question since I have this inspection in 3 days is, if the report lists the hood, door, fender, ect. as needing to be replaced, do I need to replace those items with new parts, or will they accept that I was able to fix them as long as they are safe and when inspected are fine.

qbrozen

I have no formal knowledge of this stuff at all, but insurance appraisal is geared to make the owner happy. Therefore, if it has minor damage, it gets replaced. Safety inspection is totally different. My logic says you’d be fine with a ding or scratch.

xwesx

qbrozen said:

I have no formal knowledge of this stuff at all, but insurance appraisal is geared to make the owner happy. Therefore, if it has minor damage, it gets replaced. Safety inspection is totally different. My logic says you’d be fine with a ding or scratch.

I think the same thing. Insurance appraisals are geared toward "as new" when it comes to replacement of parts versus repair. I would think the inspection for a salvage vehicle would be geared toward safety. So, if you have equipment in working order such as lighting, mirrors, wipers, glass, airbags, etc., it should be fine.

oldfarmer50

From what I’ve heard the salvage inspection itself is mainly to determine if you have used stolen repair parts. Drivability is ascertained at your annual safety inspection which I assume in MA is similar to NY. If you’re confident that you can pass those two inspections you should be good to go.

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/salvage-inspections

Jeffc15

Thank you all for feedback, I have been preparing for this for months getting all the paper work as I know it is a pain. I too feel like I would be fine but I was just unsure if they would go 100% off appraisal. I assume they only wood if the appraisal said something like airbags need to be replaced and then theyd check to make sure you replaced them. I believe I should be ok was just worried as I am paying $300 to get the car towed there and back since it cannot be registered yet, and I would hate to have to pay that again.

oldfarmer50

Interesting thing, in NY non-functional air bags won’t fail you at a safety inspection but a horn that doesn’t work will.