conn.rod

an hr panel I am looking at has a reconstruction title,the dealer said the rt front fender,hood/grille and ft bumper were replaced,should I be leary of this,they said there is not frame damage and it passed a state enhanced inspection.They said the engine is still the original as is the trans.

843de

Buying any vehicle with an "R" Title is a crapshoot at best, unless you can get the name and information on the body shop that conducted the repairs to verify the extent of the damage, walk away.

When a vehicle is put back on the road with a "R" Title, it means that it was repaired after being totalled by the original owner's insurance company.

A huge area of concern would be the components of the SRS(Airbag)system, and whether they were replaced properly with OEM parts due to the high instances of counterfeit parts being imported to the U.S.

prod

Also check with your insurance company, could be very expensive or even refuse to insure it.

Grizzly old man

Through the 70's and into the 80's I had a small hobby shop where I would buy wrecked cars and rebuild them.

I started my shop to keep myself out of the bars through the winter when I was laid off from my roofing job.

I did very good work. I bought the tools needed to be able to straighten frames and fix radiators and do any and all body work needed to correctly repair the wrecks. I tried not to buy vehicles I knew people had died in but sometimes the price was just too tempting for too nice of a car.

I know not all body shops are as meticulous as I used to be {even then}, and not all do as complete of a job as I did. I used to take a lot of pictures from beginning to finish on all my cars.

I'm also aware that vehicles have changed a lot since I was doing this. I hesitate to even think of fixing the newer cars with all their computers and crap on them, especially now that they have so many air bag sensors. I have no doubt I could straighten any bent tin and even frames {if I still had my frame machine} its the rest that bothers me.

Most body shops do very good work on repaired wrecks. It would be nice if you knew the shop or at least knew someone who had gone there preferably several someones.

Bear in mind you can paint a turd. It might be a really good looking shiny turd but,... its still a turd.

donbrew

Main things to look at are Camber & Caster, if they are cattywompus or there is an after-market Camber kit installed There may be unibody damage. Also look for signs of welding on the unibody, you would probably need a pro for that. Also the axle and lower control arms.
The "good" thing about unibody is it's either good or broken. The strut towers and the lower control arm mounting points are real important. Non factory welds on the body panels are real bad.

It does not take much cosmetic body damage then add in the "book" cost of the airbags deploying to total a medium mileage car. I had a near roll over with absolutely no body damage, just side curtain air bag deployment My cost (discounted) was for parts was about $1500 the insurance company paid me something like $5000. I can't find the exact figure right now. Anyway, that's almost a third of what I paid for the car.

Given that and you are satisfied with the mileage and price. I would check with my insurance company and go for it. Remember the "R" is going to stay with the car forever and pay accordingly.