Originally posted by: RedGSR
You guys make it sound so complicated. A salvage title means it costs more money to fix the car than it's worth. It's as simple as that. The insurance company can pay $4001 to have the car fixed or they can pay you $4000 which is the price of the car itself. Obviously, they choose the latter and a salvage title is slapped onto the car. Now, to fix up this car does not necessarily cost $4001. It costs that much because all the parts being replaced are new. Op's brother's purchase is a perfect example of how a car can be fixed cheaper. There is no way the state can determine whether the car was repaired correctly or if corners were cut so it just gets a salvage title.
It is a bit more complicated. The determination of whether or not a vehicle requires a Branded Title varies by state and may depend on a myriad of individual factors, including but not necessarily limited to: the age of the vehicle; the state in which the vehicle was originally titled; the extent of repairs required for the vehicle; the type of repairs needed; the actual cost to repair the vehicle; and the cause of damage to the vehicle, e.g., hail, theft and other factors.
Here's a table that shows how the laws vary from state to state:
Link
I live in a state that lets the insurance company determine whether the damage to a vehicle is repairable.
A few years ago my wife totaled (per our insurance company) her car in an accident. All the damage was to the rear, the frame was not bent, it had only 30,000 miles on it, so I had it repaired. The estimate to repair it was $4800. My insurance company paid me $7600. retail. The repair cost was only 63% of retail. I bought it back from my insurance company for $460., the salvage price. I had to re-title it (salvage title), and get it inspected by a state inspector, which was no more then him checking that my driver side air bag was functional.
They did a great job repairing it, I made a few bucks, but it has a salvage title.