Title brands explained: salvage, rebuilt, flood, lemon

The brand is printed on the title document, recorded in the state's database and - for cars titled in the United States - reported to the national title database that every state feeds. This guide explains the brands you will see most often in a PriorMile report, what each one means in practice, how to read the title section when the brands and the current title disagree, and - below - the damage threshold each state publishes for declaring a car a total loss, with a link to the statute or DMV page for every row. Each brand also has its own page, linked below, and the title check page is the index.

Where brands come from

Three kinds of organizations put brands on titles. Insurers declare a car a total loss when the damage passes the threshold that state sets, and report it as salvage. State agencies brand titles when a rebuilt car passes a post-repair inspection, when a car is reported flooded, or when an odometer discrepancy is found at a transfer. Manufacturers brand lemon buybacks when they repurchase a car under a state lemon law. Each brand in the report names the state that applied it and the date it was issued.

The threshold is the part buyers get wrong most often, because there is no national number. Some states set a percentage in statute; several set none at all and use a "total loss formula" instead, which compares the cost of repairs plus the salvage value against the car's actual cash value. The table further down gives the published position for each state, sourced one state at a time.

The brands, one by one

Salvage. The car was declared a total loss - by an insurer, or in some states by the owner - because of collision, flood, fire, theft recovery or vandalism. A salvage-titled car usually cannot be registered or driven on the road until it is repaired and inspected. When you see a salvage brand on a car that is now being sold as drivable, the next thing to look for is a rebuilt brand and the inspection date.

Rebuilt (also "reconstructed" or "prior salvage"). A car that carried a salvage brand, was repaired, and passed the state inspection required to return it to the road. Rebuilt cars are legal to drive and sell. Valuation guides discount them against the same car with a clean title, they are harder to insure for full coverage, and the quality of the repair ranges from excellent to dangerous. A rebuilt brand is a reason for a thorough inspection by someone who knows what repaired structural damage and replaced airbags look like - not automatically a reason to walk away.

Flood (also "water damage"). The car was submerged or took on water above a certain level. Flood damage corrodes wiring harnesses, connectors, sensors and control units from the inside; faults appear months or years later, and repair shops struggle to trace them. For most private buyers a flood brand is the brand to avoid. Hurricane and flash-flood seasons are followed by a wave of flooded cars moving to states far from the water, often with the brand left behind.

Fire and hail. Less common. Fire damage raises the same wiring and structural questions as flood; hail is usually cosmetic (dents on every horizontal panel), and a hail brand on a car with a straight body means the panels were replaced or refinished.

Lemon (manufacturer buyback). The manufacturer repurchased the car under a lemon law because a defect could not be fixed within a reasonable number of attempts. The car is then resold, usually with the defect repaired and with the brand on the title. Ask what the original defect was - it is on record with the manufacturer - and whether the repair has held.

Junk (also "non-repairable", "certificate of destruction"). The car was declared suitable only for parts or scrap. In most states a junk-branded car can never be titled or registered again, in that state or any other. A junk brand on a car that is being offered for road use is a stop sign.

Not actual mileage (NAM) and odometer brands. The odometer reading on a transfer could not be trusted: the odometer was replaced, rolled back, broken, or the seller declared the mileage unknown. Once a title carries this brand, the mileage on the dashboard is legally meaningless for valuation. The sample report on this site carries exactly one brand, and it is this kind: a state brand recorded by Virginia on 26 March 2019, which the report's timeline shows the same day as "Vehicle is branded: Odometer: Not Actual" from the title registry. The car's four flagged odometer drops are in the odometer section - the brand is what a state agency did about them.

What each state counts as a total loss

There is no national threshold. Some states set a percentage of the car's value in statute; others set none at all and use a test instead - repair cost measured against the car's value, or simply the insurer's own determination. The table below gives each state's published position with a link to the statute or agency page it came from, so you can check the wording yourself rather than take ours.

Read it with three cautions.

"No percentage" is an answer, not a gap. Where a row says the state publishes no percentage, that is what the state's own law says: the trigger is a test rather than a number. Texas, California, Ohio, Vermont, Montana and several others work this way, and a car can be totaled in those states at a damage level that would not reach the threshold next door.

"Not published in a source we could reach" is a gap - and we would rather show it than fill it. Twelve of the fifty-one rows say this. In most of those cases the state's own website refused our requests rather than published nothing: a number of state legislature and DMV sites block automated access. We will not print a threshold we did not read in the state's own material, and we will not copy one from a summary site, because a wrong number on a legal question is worse for you than a blank. For those states, follow the link and ask the DMV.

The last column is thinner than the others. Whether a state carries another state's brand forward is usually not addressed in the same document as the threshold. Where the state's own source does not say, the cell says so - which is not the same as "no". Percentages are percentages of the value each state names (retail, fair market or actual cash value, before the damage); the exact wording is in the linked source. Verified as of 28 August 2026, and worth re-checking against your own state's page before you rely on a row.

Why a brand can disappear - and why the report shows it anyway

Brands are supposed to be carried forward when a car is retitled in another state. In practice, states use different brand vocabularies, some older brands have no equivalent elsewhere, and some titling systems simply do not print brands from other states. A car that was branded salvage in one state in 2021 can receive a clean-looking title in another state in 2022. This is called title washing, and it is the single most common way a seriously damaged car ends up on a lot with a "clean title" sticker.

Two things in the table above make it possible. The thresholds differ, so damage that forces a salvage brand in one state does not reach the trigger in the state next door; and the vocabularies differ, so a brand that arrives from out of state may have no box to go in.

A PriorMile report lists every brand ever reported for the VIN, in date order, with the state that applied it - and, separately, the status of the current title. In the sample report the current title status reads "Unknown" while the brand list is not empty: those are two different fields, and the second one is the one that matters. If the current title is clean and the history shows a salvage brand two states ago, the brand still happened; the current title is simply not carrying it. Treat the car as branded.

What a brand means in money terms

• Price. Dealers and valuation guides price rebuilt and branded cars well below clean-title equivalents. If a seller asks clean-title money for a branded car, they are either unaware of the brand or hoping you are.
• Insurance. Many insurers will write liability-only cover on a rebuilt car, refuse comprehensive and collision, or value it at a steep discount in a claim. Ask your insurer before you buy, not after.
• Financing. Some lenders will not finance a branded car at all; others cap the loan-to-value.
• Resale. The brand goes with the car. Whatever discount you get today, the next buyer will ask for the same.

How to read the title section of the report

1. Count the brands, then read the dates and states. One brand with a matching rebuilt inspection shortly after tells a coherent story. A brand in one state followed by a clean title in another with no rebuilt inspection in between is title washing. The free preview tells you how many brands and title records exist for the VIN before you pay; the VIN decoder confirms the number belongs to the car in the listing.
2. Compare the current title to the history. "Clean - 0 brands" in the current-status line and "1 salvage brand, 2021" in the history are not a contradiction in the report; they are the report doing its job.
3. Match the brand against the accident and auction sections. A salvage brand should line up with an insurance total-loss record and, often, a salvage-auction listing with photos of the damage. Those photos are the best evidence you will get of how bad it was. In the sample report a total-loss record dated 24 August 2018 sits seven months before the brand - the sequence is normal, and the gap is where the car changed hands.
4. Check the odometer readings around the brand date. Cars that pass through salvage auctions sometimes come out with a different mileage than they went in with.

When to walk away, and when to negotiate

Walk away from junk and from flood unless you are buying for parts or know exactly what you are doing. Treat fire similarly. For salvage/rebuilt, lemon and hail, decide two things before you see the car: whether you are a buyer for a branded car at all (insurance, financing and resale considered), and what discount makes it worth the extra risk. Then have the car inspected by an independent shop that puts it on a lift and looks at frame rails, welds, airbag modules and paint depth - not by the seller's mechanic.

The short version

A brand tells you that something happened. The report tells you when, where and who reported it. The inspection tells you how well it was fixed. You need all three.