Vehicle Services: Declaring a Vehicle as Salvage

A salvage vehicle is a late model vehicle that is either:

• acquired by an insurance company as part of the claims process; or,
• damaged to such an extent that the estimated cost of repair exceeds the actual cash value minus the current salvage value.

A salvage certificate may be requested from DMV by an insurance company or by the owner of the vehicle, depending on specific conditions.

If not a late model vehicle, the vehicle owner or an insurance company may still apply for a salvage certificate, provided that it is not a nonrepairable vehicle.