[encantotom]

let me put it differently, as a salvage vehicle.....

i was going to go to look at a newell in a neighboring state when i was shopping for the one i have now. it looked nice and appeared to be well taken care of. it was a 99 if i recall. when i did the VIN check it showed up as destroyed in a fire. i called newell and they said it was shown as destroyed in a fire. it had been in several states and originally showed that on the title in the midwest. when i talked to the owner, who either was a car dealer or his buddy the car dealer was selling it for him, i dont remember, he got quite upset when i brought up what i had found. at that point i was no longer interested, not because of the vin issues, but because i never could get the straight story.

one of our gurus has told me about salvage newells. from what i can tell, the newells and most particularly the ones worth well north of 100k, the insurance companies are in a tough spot. it is hard to get major damage repaired without taking them back to the mother ship in miami, and i would assume that major restorations take a LONGGG time to get done and may even take a LONGG time to even get on the schedule there. (speculation on my part), so my guess is that more of them get salvaged then other brands....(my guess again).

then, there is a limited audience by far to sell a salvage vehicle to, like really small, so the values are extremely low.

add in the fact that you have no idea how much money and time you would need to put into a coach like this one. could be a little, could be a ton.

my coach had been neglected and needed more work than i expected (but i kinda knew what i was getting into.....i say kinda because there were some things i didnt expect). but it worked out in the end with the deal i got. and mine was not a salvage vehicle.

one of the newells that i was told about had hit the drivers front side just at the front cap. popped windows out and some fiberglass/alum damage but that was it....it sold at auction for a song if i recall right.

richard has had a salvage title car, as have many others i know. you just have to know what you are getting into.

for me, if it was a good deal, and i was prepared to put the time and money in it, a salvage coach wouldnt scare me. but the deal has to reflect the potential time, money and resale value.

many of us keep our coaches for a long time. and by the time they get to be in a certain price range it probably wouldnt change the price much if it was salvage or not. for example, take an early to mid 80's classic. fine coaches and there are many on this forum that are time machines and look nearly new. if it was a salvage title and still looked that way, the value is probably not much different.

but a 2008, that is a whole different ball game. that has a HUGE impact on all of the above.

this is all just my personal experience and opinion. mostly opinion, so take it for whats it is worth....

it will be interesting to see what happens. rvtrader has same year newells listed for as low as 647. even newell list price is less.

i suspect the 907 was the insurance payout.

my two cents worth

tom