Don't know about you but I'm tired of jacked up insurance rates and here's yet another cause of them.
After every storm, auto insurance companies "total" cars, paying the owner and sending the vehicles off to salvage yards. And every time, some enterprising person rehabs some vehicles, fakes a title and sells them. The problem is that isn't legal so whoever buys them is getting ripped off. I feel really bad for these folks that are getting ripped off but there's a precursor story in there.
If someone was able to rebuild this car and it runs, passes inspection, etc.; why was it totaled to start with? Why do I care? Because we all pay into the insurance pool and, if it's easier for the insurance company to "total" a car because they can just jack up all our rates to cover it, that's exactly what they are going to do. And it adds to the cost we ALL pay for insurance.
And why should a vehicle that can be put back into service, saving on some trash and environmental damage from yet another rusting car, not be put back into service anyway? Very probably because insurance companies lobbied for the right to permanently junk them, reducing the number of low cost vehicles on the road, and (again) increasing income from premiums on higher priced vehicles (which, of course, means higher premiums).
Yes, yes, we should all be promoting more efficient, less polluting modern vehicles. I'll be happy to as soon as someone puts some on the US market! And, no, tiny, flimsy throw away models that will last half as long while getting a meager 2-5 mpg increase does NOT qualify!!! Do I need to point out that the repair costs skyrocket for poorly made vehicles and THAT jacks up our insurance rates too?