When you sell your used car to a reputable dealership with an effective in-house DMV department, you are assured that the title of the car and all liabilities for it will be transferred over at the point of the sale. With such a service, provided by dealerships such as Cash for Cars in San Diego, any outstanding payments can also be reckoned up in the final price, meaning that the moment you walk away from the dealership, cash in hand, the car is no longer your responsibility in any sense, legal or otherwise. If you happen to find yourself wanting to sell a used car in San Diego or the Southern California area, Cash for Cars in San Diego and comparable companies will offer this and much besides.
Any contact with the DMV will reveal a vehicle’s history, including all irregularities that could affect the car’s selling price. While, in the majority of cases, this can all be worked out and possibly ameliorated through restoration, things could become a little complicated if the car has ever been stolen. To be clear, we are not talking about whether the car has been stolen by you, but instead whether the car has ever been stolen and how exactly it was recovered and returned. As long as you are the rightful owner ahead of the sale, the car will certainly still be purchased. Nevertheless, the question arises – does a stolen car lose any value?
Stolen but Not Damaged
According to the DMV, cars that have never been stolen have a so-called “clean title.” The title is something that must be transferred from buyer to seller at the sale and this is something which the DMV must be notified of. Accordingly, the standard DMV paperwork to validate your sale will always reveal whether or not your car has ever been stolen – there is no hiding it.
Yet we might ask whether a car loses any value purely on account of its having been stolen – whether it would be worth less than an identical car that has not. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is yes, as long as this is a fact reflected in its title. So that’s bad news then for sellers, but good news for anyone wishing to pick up a bargain and purchase a car for less than the model and condition would normally suggest.
Why Does a Stolen Car Lose Value?
The reason a stolen car loses value, despite being otherwise unharmed, is usually to do with insurance. Once reported stolen and recovered, the insurance available for the car can be compromised, especially if the car’s insurance policy was involved in that car having been recovered and restored to its owner.
In some cases, of course, the theft will have left the vehicle in a lesser condition than it was in before it was stolen. In such cases, the value of the car is obviously reduced, and the theft is recorded in the title.
Stolen Vehicles Which Retain a Clean Title
But what about vehicles that have been stolen and then recovered in identical condition? Surely some of these cars may retain their clean title and avoid losing any value? Well, there is more than depreciates a car in value than simply the title, but yes – an insurance policy will normally specify a time limit within which a car can be returned in the same condition and thus not have its title affected at all.
If you are trading in such a car, it is more the fact that the buyer will not be able to tell the car has been stolen, which will leave the value unaffected.
