Buying damaged American cars is a legitimate trade that supports thousands of workshops from Klaipėda to Tbilisi. The buyers who do well at it read the auction record better than the sellers. This page is about reading it.
| Code | What it usually means for a European buyer | |
|---|---|---|
| Front end / rear end | The common collision. Check whether airbags deployed (photos) and whether "undercarriage" or "mechanical" is the secondary code. | |
| Side | B-pillar and floor damage are structural and expensive; look at the door-gap and roof line in the photos. | |
| Undercarriage | Suspension, subframe, and on EVs the battery pack. Often the secondary code that turns a cheap repair into an uneconomic one. | |
| Flood / water | Electrical damage that appears later. Not worth repairing on a modern car; exported precisely because it is unsellable domestically once branded. | |
| Burn / fire | Usually engine-bay fires; on EVs, pack fires. Rarely worth the freight. | |
| Hail | Cosmetic, sometimes extensive. The cars are mechanically sound and popular with repairers. | |
| Vandalism / theft recovery | Often light damage and a clean mechanical history; check the theft record cleared. | |
| Mechanical | Engine or transmission failure with no collision; check the odometer and service records. | |
| Normal wear / minor dents | Fleet and dealer lots; clean titles are common here. |
Intake photos are taken to document, not to sell, so they show damage plainly, including angles a dealer would never publish. They hide what is under the car and what was already repaired before this sale. A car on its second auction appearance is the case to study: compare this listing's photos with the previous one's. Deployed airbags last time and a perfect dashboard now means the airbags were replaced, or the dashboard was, or a cover was fitted. Deciding which is the buyer's job, and it cannot be done without the earlier photos.
In Georgia and some neighbouring markets, cars are cut in half in the US, shipped as parts to avoid vehicle duty, and welded back together on arrival. The weld disappears under paint and underseal. The only reliable evidence that a car arrived whole is the original auction photo set showing it whole, matched to the VIN.
Clean, salvage, rebuilt, flood, junk. Issued by a US state, invisible in every European registry.
How it is checkedCopart and IAAI intake photos, damage codes and sale price, from every sale the car went through, not only the current lot.
How it is checkedReadings at US titles, registrations and inspections in date order. A reading below an earlier one is a rollback.
How it is checkedNo. Both sell fleet, lease-return, dealer trade-in and repossessed cars with clean titles alongside insurance write-offs. The title type and damage codes on the lot page say which; the VIN history says whether the car has been through auction before.
The car started, moved forward and reversed under its own power at intake. It is not a statement about roadworthiness or the condition of anything else.
Enter the VIN on this page. Where the car went through Copart or IAA before, the report includes each sale's photos, damage codes and price.
Enter the VIN to see which US and Canadian records exist. The preview is free; the report is $19.99, once.