Put $500 into a salvage title Camry and now I'm kicking myself

Bought a 2010 Camry with a salvage title for $1500 last month thinking I got a steal... the body was straight but the radio was busted and it had a dent in the rear bumper. I spent $300 on a new radio and $200 on pulling the bumper dent and repainting it. Now the transmission is slipping and the guy at the shop says it's gonna be another $1500 to fix. Should I just cut my losses and junk it or try to sell it as-is for parts?

3 comments

3 Comments

anthonymurray2mo ago

That "cheap lesson" part you said really hits home @willow407, reminds me of when my uncle bought a flood car on the cheap thinking he was slick and ended up chasing electrical gremlins for six months before the whole thing caught fire in his driveway. Sometimes you just gotta know when to walk away from a bad bet.

bennett.noah1mo ago

People do this all the time with more than just cars. They buy a beat-up house thinking they'll flip it quick, then find out the foundation is cracked and the wiring is from the 50s. Or they hold onto a bad stock hoping it'll bounce back and lose twice what they should have. It's like that old saying about throwing good money after bad - once you realize you made a mistake, the smartest thing is to just stop digging.

willow4072mo ago

Hold up, are we really calling a $500 lesson on a $1500 car a disaster? You already sunk $500 into a radio and a bumper dent, which is basically just cosmetic stuff for a beater like that. The transmission is the real heart of the car, and $1500 to fix it on a car that's maybe worth $2000 if it ran perfect? That's a tough sell. I'd say just sell it as a parts car on Craigslist for $500 and cut your losses before you throw good money after bad. It's not the end of the world, man, just a cheap lesson in why salvage titles are risky.