Live Fast

My uncle owns a 2007 Silver on Black S2000 that he purchased with a branded title. It was totaled due to "excessive water damage" due to water getting into the trunk and damaging the top motor and the trunk pan. The engine runs strong, all electronics work, suspension and frame are all perfect.

The car is a two owner (uncle is a dealer so 2 before him) with 60k miles. Top is in great shape & it has an intake/exhaust bolt on with a new factory cat converter.

Would it be a bad purchase for $9200?

I also have a 2006 Cayman S

captain slowly

depends. Was it salt water? Selling this car down the road will be a pain in the rear and it'll have to be cheap. If you plan on being the "last" owner, then why not.

Car Analogy

Flood cars can have issues with shorts inside the wiring harnesses, and of course inside any electronic modules. The parts cost and especially the labor to tear apart a car that wasn't built to be disassembled that far would be beyond prohibitive.

Unless the car was very basic and simple, and actually was built to be worked on, and used parts like harnesses and modules could be found relatively cheaply, which describes an S pretty well.

And I would be more worried about muddy water than salt water.

If you are good with diy, you could strip an S down to bare chassis, hose it down thoroughly, and replace all the affected harnesses and modules, and address most any flood issue it might have.

But make no mistake, that is no small effort. And if the engine took on water, well that is a whole other issue.

Live Fast

Well it's had roughly 25k miles on it since totaling and it has seen a few autocrosses. It's in decent shape but the title issue is what makes me weary as far as resale, insurance, etc

Chuck S

Resale will have the same doubts you have. Insurance will be "interesting" as this type car rarely has a blue book value which insurance companies use to determine value. Car will never be worth more than it is now and $9,000 for a 60,000 mile S2000 is still a good price especially if you intend to autocross it.

-- Chuck

GuthNW

If resale is one of your main concerns then I'd suggest taking a pass on this particular car.

IA-SteveB

A good rule of thumb is to never buy a car with a title like that unless you plan on keeping it for the long haul. Potential buyers don't like to hear about what happened and why it wasn't that bad. They just want it cheap and you will have a limited pool of buyers.

rpg51

Everything in the world has a fair price. I'm not sure what it is for this car. But, think of it this way - if you keep it sound what can you lose? Maybe 5K? Seems like you can sell a sound S with a bad title and full disclosure for at least 4K, no? At 9K there just isn't much risk.