Buying a totaled MME

[Zephrant]

I'm looking at buying a wrecked MME from an auction site. I'm fairly confident about repairing the mechanical damage, but am wondering if Ford will refuse updates on a car that was previously totaled.

Also, if the previous owner (unknown to me of course) has not deregistered their car, will that be an issue, or will Ford help me there?

Anyone have any issues with updates or recalls being denied on a repaired, totaled MME? Any issues getting insurance?

I've fixed a few wrecked cars, and as long as the frame and motor/batteries/charger/electronics are not damaged I should be ok, and will save $10k or so.

I keep my cars forever, so am not concerned about the salvage title hurting resale value. My newest car is 17 years old.

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[ChrisO]

The @TheBaldFox might be able to answer some of your questions.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...factory-salvage-mach-e-rebuild-project.47895/

 

[HuntingPudel]

There are a few other people who have bought totaled MMEs, two just recently (hail dmaged cars). iIRC, Ford does not care if the cars have been titled as salvage for updates. If you are going so fr as to repair and make road worthy the car you might want to look into putting together a rig to run the Ford Diagnostic and Repair System software so that you can perform updates yourself (Among other things).

Regarding de-registering the car with Ford’s services, you should be able to perform a full reset from the center screen if you have the physical keys, i forgot to reset the 2021 that I traded in and the dealer was able to reset it the next day.

 

[TheBaldFox]

As mentioned up thread I did exactly what you are wanting to do and I have no regerts.

So far Ford has completed all of the updates and recall work that was needed, though I haven't gotten the 12v battery update, but I don't think it's gotten down to the '21s yet.

However, don't expect any warranty claims. Recall work, though, is required to be completed by law.

Good luck.

 

[Mach1E]

As mentioned up thread I did exactly what you are wanting to do and I have no regerts.

So far Ford has completed all of the updates and recall work that was needed, though I haven't gotten the 12v battery update, but I don't think it's gotten down to the '21s yet.

However, don't expect any warranty claims. Recall work, though, is required to be completed by law.

Good luck.

The lack of the 8 yr powertrain warranty would give me pause. Is that right that a totaled car would have no warranty?

That’s not the case for a normal wrecked car at least. Warranty is still intact as long as the accident and/or repair isn’t what is causing the warranty claim.

 

[TheBaldFox]

The lack of the 8 yr powertrain warranty would give me pause. Is that right that a totaled car would have no warranty?

That’s not the case for a normal wrecked car at least. Warranty is still intact as long as the accident and/or repair isn’t what is causing the warranty claim.

So, warranties apply to wrecked cars, but not salvaged vehicles. In my case the car is already halfway through its warranty period and in the research that I've done regarding MME batteries having an actual BATTERY failure is incredibly rare. Typically it's the hvjb contactors and or the motors that go bad.

But considering how cheap I got into my MME I'm more than willing to roll the dice on that.

YMMV.

 

[Zephrant]

I was hoping to keep the warranty on the battery and power train, definitely a negative to lose that.

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