Looking for info: black Evo 8 with crashed back

[kamil]

Do you know black 2003 Evo 8 with trashed back which is for sale in California auction? It has some "GT Fabrication" stickers.

[EVO GRIM]

You're gonna have to give a little more info bro. California is big, 163,707 square miles to be exact.

[kamil]

It was registered on 1/12/04 in Lakewood, CA.

I know it's little data but just trying to get any info possible from here in Europe.

[Buzzard]

Lakewood is in Southern CA. Is this a salvaged car? What kind of auction site did you find this car? I have had some experience with car/bike auctions and salvage vehicles. My advice is to not bother unless you have inside info on the car and have a contact with whom ever is running the auction. If the car is a good deal, then it wouldn't even be made public, someone local would have gobbled it up by now. Unless you have the ability to inspect the car or have someone knowledgable to do so, buying a damaged vehicle is very dicey. This is most probably a salvage title, that means the car had sufficient damage that the insurance company wrote it off as a total loss instead of repairing it.

I would be very cautious about buying such a vehicle. Unless you plan on doing a total tear down and build up, this car is probably more trouble than it's worth. It might make a good base for building a dedicated race car though. My friend and I went a similar route when we built his SCCA '80 RX-7 many years ago. We tore the car down to the frame and rebuilt the car from scratch, the frame had to be straightened anyway.

Anyway, this just my opinion based upon my experiences. Good luck if you decide to go forward and pursue this car but be prepared for a larger out of pocket cost than you expect. If you send me a link, I could try to find out if it's a salvage car or not, that's the first step you should take before deciding.

[kamil]

No, this Evo is not salvaged. It has a clean title. No damage to wheels or drivetrain, just body panels. Even rear glass is unharmed. Car goes and drives. It still has manufacturers warranty (excluding damage) but it will be useless in Europe. I've checked it's VIN info and everything seems clear.

Unfortunately I do not have any links or more detailed info, it's my buddy who found it and runs the whole thing over there.

[vtluu]

I'm curious as to why you would want to bring a crashed US-spec (read: watered-down) Evo from CA all the way to Europe when you can buy perfectly good Evos, not crashed, not watered-down there? :?:

[Buzzard]

I'm confused why a non-salvaged car would be up for auction then, that makes zero sense. If it as you say, why was it not repaired? Insurance companies are not in the habit of wasting money, if the car was repairable cost effectively, they would do so. Is this a individual auctioning his car instead of repairing it? That makes even less sense. I have been to enough auctions to know that nobody gives anything away with out a very good reason. I will only caution you again to be very cautious, this sounds like the standard "too good to be true" auction story that I have heard about all too often. I would be looking for a Makkinen edition if I could get one and get it registered.

[kamil]

The reason is very simple - money. New Evo's price in US is 30kUSD while in Europe average price of this same Evo (Euro Spec) is 44kE which makes 55kUSD. Lucky you out there who can buy Evos so cheap.

[CollinsT]

check my post, it had info about a balc evo that crashed
http://www.norcalevo.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1504