I’m in the market for the infamous S2000.

As we know with the upcoming recession, prices for the S2000 overall are slowly coming down. I’ve Had the opportunity to check out a couple local S 2000s and I am intrigued by this one in particular however it does have a rebuilt title. I’ve always been told to stay away from rebuilt titles. I just wanted to get peoples thoughts on this and a rough idea of how much lower a rebuilt title for S2000 would cost versus a clean title if everything else between the cars were exactly the same. $1-2k cheaper versus $3-5k cheaper? It is unclear as to what damage was originally done to the car in order for the car to have a rebuilt title. Current owner is unsure, car was bought from an auction 30,000 miles ago.

Thanks!

 

They wont come down much from a year or two ago. But yeah, the ridiculous priced ones have certainly come back down. There was some seriously overpriced ones out there for a bit. Still some.

Hard to say on how it affects the value. One thing though is to check insurance where you are. There are insurers that will not provide full coverage on rebuilt titles and I would not want to buy one without full coverage unless it was really cheap and just going to be a track car. I would just go straight to asking Hagerty if they will insure a rebuilt title if you want full coverage. Or other agreed upon value places. With the values on these cars, I just do not see a "normal" insurer giving you what it would cost to replace one.

And of course, make sure that car is looked over very thoroughly if rebuilt. May be a great car, just more to look over before purchasing.

 

^Prices have gotten out of hand over the last year especially but the days of a clean S2k for <$15k is probably over. I think $15k is going to be the absolute bottom for any decent condition < 150k miler at this point if it even gets that low again.

Price cuts due to rebuilt titles depend on the nature of why it was rebuilt and the overall market. Personally, I would not buy one for any reasonable fraction of market value until I know exactly what happened. I'd have happily paid 3/4 market value for a rebuilt title due to a chopped top and stolen seats in 2012. I also wouldn't take one that had significant frame damage. There's no set amount that it's discounted. If there's a 10k mile car but it had a tree fall on it, it's not going to be $50k minus $3k. Your amount of discount is basically a factor to monetize the risk that it may have issues, be structurally compromised, have visual imperfections, and be harder to sell in the future. I think you need to do some investigation to figure out what happened to make an informed decision. Otherwise, it's all just a guess.

Also...

 

It depends on what you want to do with it? Garage queen collectible, daily driver, weekend warrior, track car? It does help to know what damage was done and most importantly, how long ago? With that said, rebuilt or salvaged vehicles should cost at least 30% less than a clean titled vehicle depending on the mileage and overall condition. I purchased my rebuilt titled 02 AP1 - 7 yrs ago with 80,000 miles for only $9,000. It was a 2 owner from the Tennessee area and for the most part, well cared for. The car only had moderate damage to the driver side door and the front fender which was replaced and or repaired. The 2nd owner purchased it from the insurance salvage in 2013 when the prices had pretty much bottomed out, thus causing the total loss. I only use it like I use my motorcycle - minimal miles a year, nice weather, avoid rain, etc. Looking back, I feel that I got lucky with what I got at the time. Hope this helps & good luck with your search!

 

To me biggest issue is not being able to insure it with collision. Most insurers won't cover that.

So then you're liability only, and sol if you have any costly mods.

 

How much does rebuilt/salvage title affect price?

at least 25%.

personally, I would never buy a rebuilt title unless its being converted for track only use...or its been salvaged for seats. Collision salvage is a no go for me.

darcy

 

My s2000 is a rebuilt title but it was not involved in any accident. I bought it 8 years ago for 8k. It had 32k miles and its in showroom condition. If this is a car you plan to keep forever its not a bad option. If it was in an accident just make sure the damage was not too bad.

My friend on the other hand bought a s2000 with a rebuilt title. After buying it he found that the sub frame was bent.

If you Google the vin u can sometimes see how the car looked when it was wrecked.

 

I agree with everyone saying that a car with a rebuilt title is one you are going to want to hang on to. It is too much of a pain to try and sell it because everyone is going to be asking the same questions you are, i.e., what happened to it, if it was in an accident, are there records/pictures? Then people are going to want to lowball you on resale not to mention you are looking at dealing with a much smaller selection of people who will buy a rebuilt title car. Again, I am not against rebuilt titles as long as one plans to keep it to avoid headaches when selling it on. THere are good deals out there.

 

I was talking to a friend that works at a body shop about this same thing. He said he actually has had several cars come in being covered by insurance that had rebuilt titles. So there are companies that will cover them, but definitely something you need to look into if buying one and want to carry full coverage. And even for the ones that will, they likely are going to limit how much they will pay out vs a non rebuilt title.

 

It gets pretty dumb why some are totaled to begin with. Another shop I know of has a 2021 Toyota. It had a minor accident and needed a fender and a hood. No major damage, insurance was paying for it. Due to supply chain issues, it has been sitting 2 months waiting on the hood, which they did not have a good ETA on yet. Insurance company decided that the rental cost they were covering for the customer was adding up to an amount that they decided to total the car. Perfectly good, near new car, totaled with minor damage mostly due to the cost of the covered rental fees.