Place bids in a gazillion auctions and check if everything is worth the trouble. This is what some car rebuild experts do. One of them was inches away from buying an Acura RDS. But he turned around and walked away the moment he saw the car with his own eyes.
Scott does this as a full-time job. He usually bids on a hundred or so cars every week. You can imagine that he doesn't really have time to do research on each and every one of them. He just starts checking their background if he stays involved in the bidding race toward the end of the auction.
He also estimates how much shipping, parts, potential buyer, and profit, and if everything seems to be worth it, he places the winning bid. This is how far he went with a 2022 Acura RDX, which had been crashed and listed for auction by an insurance company.
The car featured the A-spec Advance Package and was a PMC Edition, which started at around$55,000 when new, back in 2022. Involved in a front-end collision, the Acura came with a salvage title. Listed as a 'run & drive,' but also as a 'rebuilt' vehicle, the RDX was starting to raise some red flags. However, Scott of Vehcor was attracted by the fact that it was a low-mileage model. It had only traveled for 19,803 miles before the crash.
The estimated repair cost for the car painted in Solar Silver Metallic and riding on 20-inch multi-spoke alloy wheels was $14,000. What scared Scott off was the fact that the front fenders and doors had different shades of silver, which indicated that the fender had been repainted at some point. This translates to a crash prior to the one that sent the car to the auction yard with a salvage title.
Photo: vehcor | YouTube
The Acura RDX is powered 112-cubic-inch (2.0-liter) four-cylinder engine, which generates 272 horsepower (276 metric horsepower) and 280 pound-feet (380 Newton meters) of torque. The car we are dealing with is an all-wheel drive with a ten-speed auto box. When not crashed, it can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds on its way to a top speed of 147 mph (236 kph).
Right now, the Acura has its front end destroyed. The bumper, grille, and headlights are things of the past. The wrecked parts are gathered in a pile, right next to the vehicle. Only the badge in the grille is a $700 affair. Meanwhile, the hood is deformed and the fenders are pushed back. No airbags were deployed in the crash.
Scott did some research on the Acura RDX and found out that it was a three-owner car, which had been listed with a salvage title before, back in April 2023, when it had 8,155 miles on the clock. Back then, the photos showed a pile of metal and glass, with all the airbags deployed, which convinced the car rebuild expert to leave it right where it was.
The lesson here? Check the used car that you are willing to buy from bumper to bumper, go ahead and take a look at its history report, and google the VIN. It might show very precious information that will make the difference between wasting your money on a car that was severely crashed at some point and going home with it.
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