What is a salvage auction record?

Salvage auctions are where damaged vehicles are sold on, often by insurance companies after a claim. The buyers are often traders and repairers, who either fix the vehicles up or take them apart for parts. A salvage auction record shows that a particular car was listed at one of these auctions, usually with the date and some details from the listing.

What it means for a buyer: it usually means the car was damaged badly enough at some point to be sold as salvage. Plenty of these cars are repaired and go back on the road, but it's a more serious history than a car that's never been through salvage, and it's very likely to affect what the car is worth.

A salvage auction record and an insurance write-off category don't always appear together, so the two are worth checking separately. If a car you're looking at has either, ask the seller what happened, ask to see evidence of the repair, and consider having the car independently inspected before you buy.

Our Confidence Report checks for salvage auction records, and shows the listing details where they're available. See the Confidence Report →