Everything to check before buying a salvage vehicle -- check off each item as you go.
A rebuilt or salvage title only means a vehicle was once declared a total loss -- it says nothing about the quality of the repair. A shop that does the job right can bring a wrecked car back to a genuinely safe, reliable condition, sometimes a better one than plenty of "clean" title vehicles on the road.
A clean title isn't a guarantee either. If an owner pays for repairs out of pocket instead of filing an insurance claim, the accident is never reported, and the title stays "clean" no matter how severe the damage was. Title status alone can't tell you how a car was actually treated.
That's why the steps in this checklist -- a vehicle history report, a VIN match, and a professional inspection -- matter more than the title status printed on the paperwork. They apply just as much to a "clean" title car as to a rebuilt one.