What's the most expensive lesson you've learned?

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Don't buy salvaged vehicles unless you are dead sure you gonna keep it for life. And don't cotumise it if you intend not loosing that money. I've bought my Harely salvaged 10 years ago, put a lot of work and money on that. Now I want to sell it and I just can't, even taking a 20% loss on the market price. And that is without adding the parts money I've spent. Bike original goes for 40K. I've put around 12K on parts and upgrades. I'm asking 32K and can't sell it. Furthermore, the dealership don't accept that bike on a trade cause of the salvage mark it has.
- Frame swap it.
  The VIN is on the frame. If you swap it to a new frame that doesn’t have a salvage title, it’s not the same vehicle anymore. You need to make sure you get a clean title with the new frame, but that’s actually not as hard as it sounds.
  There are also ways to launder rebuilt vehicles. Some states don’t track rebuilt title, and will give you a clean title (but a digital check will reveal that it’s rebuilt)
  
  Whasing it is Highly illegal where I live. Furthermore, it's extremely unethical. I'd not like to buy a vehicle that was salvage without knowing it previously.
  Changing frames would be OK, but I'm pretty sure that a new legal frame in good shape plus documentation and labor swaping it would be more expensive than the amount of money I'd be able to recover upon selling.
  
  Oh you have to do the swap yourself. On an older bike it’s a day or two. Newer bike, twice that. Just look for bikes for sale with blown engines etc.
- Explain salvaged vehicles to me pls.
  
  Salvage vehicles are those that wore at some point Involved in some kind of accident that has inflicted considerable damage to it. It has different degrees of damage, going from minor to severe. Although the vehicles are able been repaired to it's full functionality and safety, they'll have it's documentation marked as salvage forever. Mine was marked as minor damages, I got it already repaired, if one is curious.
  
  Anything that's been damaged past where insurance would pay to have it fixed. Water damaged/flooded vehicles, frame damage etc. Serious damage that was more costly than insurance wanted to deal with.
  It's pretty well known not to touch one. Which is why this person is having trouble unloading it.
  
  The insurance will figure a value for your car if it's been involved in an accident, stolen, or gets damaged by some crazy storm or something. They use the cars age and mileage to figure this out. If the appraiser looks at the damage and sees that fixing it (parts and labor and paint) is going to cost more than the value they gave it...well then it is totaled.
  A totaled car will retained by the insurance company and they pay you out according to your policy.
  Those totaled cars can be sold for a residual value (see copart.com). And be built back up and driven. But the title is now branded as a salvaged vehicle. Anyone who buys a totaled car will get a branded title either salvage, flood title, idk what all different states have for the name of it. That branded title is tied to the vehicle by its vin number forever. That's why you see the commenters saying they should frame swap the motorcycle to get a different vin number on it.
  
  Cheap, problematic, difficult to sell.
  Think flooded cars.
  
  No most of the time it’s a car that got hit by hail and the body work totaled the car, or something like that. I’ve owned two.
  
  It’s possible to wash a title by registering it in certain states. I think Georgia is one.
  
  Yes I mentioned that in my other comment.
  Bought a car with a clean NY title a few years ago, drove it for 4 years. Wonderful car. Sold it because I was moving overseas, buyer did a vin check, and it was salvage but washed. Wound up selling for the same amount anyways, found a buyer who didn’t care.

202 comments