A salvage vehicle is one that has been either wrecked or damaged to the point that repair would be too expensive. The determination of what constitutes a salvage vehicle may be made by an insurance company, the vehicle owner, or a bank who holds the car title. If a car has been determined a "total loss salvage," the title and license plates will be surrendered to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which will issue a certificate categorizing it as a "salvaged" or a "revived salvage" car. While a salvage car may have severe damage, it may also have many useful parts, or may still be running with only cosmetic damage. Salvage vehicle auctions are held regularly on the Internet and at locations across the United States. Once you locate a salvage auto auction, you can purchase one of these vehicles, often at a very deep discount.
Locate salvage yards in your area. You can find a list of salvage yards across the United States at ATIS (see resources) or at Auto Salvage Yards Directory (see resources.) Look for your state (or the two letter abbreviation for your state) and click the link to get a list of salvage yards in your state, arranged by city.
Click the city you live in, or the city closest to you. This takes you to a link listing all the known salvage yards in the city, with contact information for each.
Contact the salvage yards that you found in step 2. Ask each salvage yard for auction times and dates. Some salvage yards do not hold regular auctions, but may instead sell salvage parts after purchasing wrecked cars.
Visit an Internet website that hosts salvage vehicle auctions online. Options include Copart and CTAA (see resources.)
Register with the online auto auction website of your choice. You must provide a name, address, phone number, driver license number and email address to complete the registration process.
Search the website where you registered for upcoming auctions. These can change daily or weekly. The upcoming auctions are listed on the home page. In some cases, online salvage auction sites will also list local auctions. The local auctions listed will include "virtual only" salvage vehicles which only online users may bid on.
Visit a website that provides listings of government and police auctions in your area. Gov Auctions provides this service (see resources.)
Look up the type of vehicle you are interested in: Enter the make of car using the drop-down menu on the home page. Enter your zip code directly to the right of that. Click "Search" to get a list of recent salvage vehicle auctions that featured the car you are interested in, along with the prices that the car sold for.
Join the website to access a full list of upcoming government and police auctions in all areas of the United States. The registration fee as of November 2010 is $39.95. This registration fee allows users to receive a list of auctions, both online and live. Google maps are provided with exact auction locations.
