I recently ended my 14-year streak of no accidents when I inexplicably wrecked my 1996 Camry into the back of a Suburban. I’m looking to buy a 2-4 year old Honda Civic to replace it, and found one on Ebay in which I’m interested. There’s only one problem: It has a salvage title.

Reading online, the consensus advice concerning purchasing a salvage title is to be extremely cautious, pay significantly less than what the car would normally be worth, and to expect a big hit when re-selling the car. The reasoning is the car:

• won’t have a warranty,
• may have questionable repair quality, and
• will have a significantly lower resale value.

This makes sense to me, but I haven’t given up on the car yet. The first and third issues aren’t of much concern to me as I wasn’t planning on buying a car with a warranty anyway, and I expect to own the car until it dies. The second item, however, is obviously of major concern.

I wrote the seller – a small Houston dealership – to inquire as to the reason for the salvage title, and the response included the following:

• The CarFax report shows only one previous owner and accurate mileage.
• The car was originally sold in Arkansas.
• The dealership bought the vehicle from an Insurance company.
• The dealership replaced the rear bumper and trunk lid.
• The salvage title is due to a collision, not flooding or "any kind of mechanical or electrical damage."
• The dealership claims the car is in excellent running condition.

My plan forward is to:

• Inspect the car according to the Used Car Inspection process on AutoCheck.com.
• Obtain a pre-purchase inspection.
• If 1 & 2 don’t turn up anything, buy the car for not more than about 65% of the car’s Kelley Blue Book value.

Does this make sense? Am I taking enough steps to mitigate the risk? If not, is there something else I can do, or should I just run away?