Used: How to Avoid Salvage Vehicles

Sept. 21, 2009 — -- In this economy, people are buying three times as many used cars as they are new ones. Used cars can be a great value, but there are also dangerous rebuilt wrecks on the market.

Every year more than two and a half million salvage vehicles are sold to unsuspecting customers. Some have hidden corrosion from floodwaters, so buyers lose thousands of dollars when they try to resell them. But worse than losing money, you could lose your life.

Eighteen-year-old Bobby Ellsworth died when the rebuilt salvage vehicle he was riding in crashed. An auto body shop had stuffed paper where the airbags were supposed to be, then glued the dashboard back together and painted over it. While state laws require the most badly damaged vehicles to be junked, the rest are patched up and put back on the road.

To see if consumers have the knowledge to spot salvage vehicles, "Good Morning America" teamed up with Carfax, the vehicle history report pioneer, to put people to the test.

"GMA" lined up five cars at a Virginia mall. Four of them were solid vehicles, but one had been in a serious front end collision and patched up.

Dozens of passerbys turned out to try their hand at the test.

Some of the testers took normal wear and tear, like small scratches, for something worse. But some spotted key clues like paint overspray, body panels that were not perfectly flush and front windows that did not have the manufacturer's name on them -- an indication that they were replacements.

After all was said and done, of the 25 people that took the test, only five correctly spotted the damaged car.