i have been an insurance adjuster lisenced in many states for 10yrs now. most all states total vehicles by %. most states are at 70% to 75%. if bike was totaled, insurance company will not relese a copy of estimate.(this is a possibility why they dont have one). they will not give that to you because this confuses the total loss process. owner sees a est for $25,000 worh of damages, and the bike is only worth $20,000, owner sees $25,000 and thats what he wants paid. most all states now require title be branded as salvage title after being totaled. there are not many ways around that. if bike has salvage title, bike will always be hard to get full coverage or to sell someday. if u can get full coverage, and u ever total bike again. u will never recupe because salvage title will effect value no matter how nice repairs are.
Beyond that, if the bike was totalled and the bike was bought back from the insurance company, it's still a total loss and a salvage item. At least in PA, when you purchase a salvage vehicle, you must have it repaired and then inspected first, then in order to obtain the reconstructed title, you must submit the proof to the state. I think that there are many states that operate in a very similar manner. Until then, you can't actually put the vehicle on the road. Now, look at what you are paying for and putting into the bike and realize that you have to get a really good deal for it to be worth it. If you take 2 vehicles side by side, identical in every way, and one had a reconstructed title and the other doesn't, the reconstructed vehicle will demand a MUCH lower price, and you can expect that again when you go to sell it to someone else. In PA, we still released a copy of the damage estimate to the insured, regardless of whether it was a total loss or not. It just took some explaining that the policy doesn't pay out more than the value of the vehicle minus salvage value for repairs.
Let's take an example here for the offer to sell. Let's assume the bike books for $28,000 and salvage value is $8000. This would mean that they would total the bike is the insurance company is spending more than $20,000 to repair it. Now the insured buys back the bike for the $8000 salvage value. He gets a check for $20,000. He's now lost about $16,000 in a year on this bike and has a damaged bike on his hands. If it weren't totalled, and he has a repair check in his hands, I could see someone with a lot of money deciding that they just didn't feel comfortable with the bike being repaired, taking the check, and eating a huge loss. HOWEVER, if it was totalled and he decided to buy the bike back as a salvage piece, why did he even bother? If he took the check for the value of the bike and let it go, he now has a check for $28,000 in his hand. Instead, he is taking the chance of spending the $8000 on the salvage, in hopes that he can sell it for $12,000, and end up with $32,000 total in his pocket. If he can pull this off, power to him, cause he just made out like a bandit. Obviously, these numbers are all made up, and if the book value is actually higher, he may end up getting all or most of his original investment back out of this bike. Hmmm. Smart guy if he can pull it off at your expense. But more to the point is that we aren't talking numbers even close to any of these with a little over $2000 in parts needed to repair this bike. I just realized that I could go round and round with more and more numbers and it's still hard to convince someone that something is seriously wrong with this deal (and I use the term "deal" loosely in this case). It's hard to convince someone when too many people want to believe that maybe they are the lucky one. That's what internet scammers rely on...hopes and dreams getting in the way of common sense.
I've got an 09 SEUC that I purchased new and after almost 6 months, I'm still trying to get everthing on the bike working correctly. I'm sure you will have NO WARRANTY on a salvage bike. Has the head enhancement been taken care of on this bike? My guess is Harley won't even take care of that on a reconstructed bike. For what it sounds like you may ultimately have into this bike, and the time and effort beyond that, have you considered just buying one used, or if you are so comfortable with the reconstructed title, look for one of those that's already been repaired, and then beware of what you may be getting. There's obviously reasons why none of this makes sense and it doesn't sound to me as though you have gotten enough answers for anyone to really be able to answer your question fully and accurately.
If you are still thinking of going forward, do as the other have suggested...get it to a dealer and have them go over it THOROUGHLY and get an estimate for repairs. Have the dealer run the VIN and see what has and hasn't been completed on the bike. Find out if you will have any type of warranty whatsoever and whether normally covered product enhancements such as the head repair and ABS update download, etc will still be available to you, or whether these are things that you will need to pay for down the road.
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Topic: CVO DAMAGED OWNER SAYS SALE (Read 5697 times)