I am interested in buying a salvaged harley I saw on e-bay. The price seemed reasonable for a 09' road glide with very low miles and with cosmetic damage. I would like to hear from riders who have the experience buying a salvaged harley.

 

I would never by a bike sight unseen, especially one with a salvage title. Way too many scammers out in the world. That's just me, though.

 

It means that the title will say salvage.

A salvage title means a vehicle was totaled, bought, and repaired, and now sold as being road worthy.

No one wants to buy a car, truck, bike that was damaged so bad that it was totaled. Cosmeticly the vehicle will look ok but there can be unseen mechanical issues, maybe minor, maybe major that can't be fixed, in short a lemon. However there is no lemon law in place for these vehicles.

This makes these vehicles have a low resale value. Many people will only pay half for a salvage titled bike of what an equivalent bike would sell for that never was in an accident.

In short you have to get it dirt cheap because if you have to sell it you won't be able to get your money out of it.

You get what you pay for. In this case your paying to take the chance you can get screwed.

Can't afford new buy used.

Can't afford an electra glide, then ride a softail, then a super glide, then a sportser, then a 883 sportster, then sit on the new bikes at the dealer and go blub, blub, blub, blub..... as you save your money for a nice down payment.

 

for me it would depend on how beat up it was, the price, and how many usable parts were on it that I wanted/needed

But yes like ia2189 said never without being able to look at it

 

Salvaged bikes that are rebuilt right can be a good deal, if you get a price of at least half off of the same bike that isn't salvaged and rebuilt. The drawback, is you really need to plan on keeping it, and not reselling it later, it's hard to get your money back. I have saw many rebuilt bikes that work and run perfect, but you really need to check out the potential bike well. Your title will say salvaged or rebuilt though.

 

I'd suggest you do a search - there have been other threads in the past where you will find better answers.

 

You might want to check out www.crashedtoys.com they list lots of bikes, and it seems they shoot straight from the hip, with what they see is wrong with the bike. As with any purchase, buyer beware! I thought I could buy a wreck and make it rideable for less money, Ha Ha, unless you're interested in building something radical you won't come out on top rebuilding a wreck, to factory specs at least. IMHO, better money spent on a good used ride.

 

 

I got a heck of a deal on my 2007 FLSTC. It was a salvage title in VA. It took less than $2500 to repair it.

I don't know about others but Tennessee will not acknowledge salvage titles.

The title for my Heritage does not have salvage on it.

 

I would not buy salvage at all period...YOU must look out for your own best interests in the future becuz if you are like a lot of us...you will have to sell it eventually and go thru the same thing with others that you are going thru right now...get you a Harley that you can ride right now and feel good about it ....you will not regret that ...and later you can sell it for whatever and know about everything about the motorcycle....bigal v