Arizona salvage title rules: Salvage, Restored Salvage, Nonrepairable and Dismantle

Arizona titles vehicles through the Arizona Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division, ADOT MVD. When a vehicle is stolen, wrecked, flooded or damaged so badly that its owner or insurer considers it uneconomical to repair, it needs a salvage certificate of title. If it's rebuilt and passes ADOT's inspection, it gets a title branded Restored Salvage, and anyone who later sells it knowing that has to tell the buyer.

These notes sum up ADOT MVD's published rules as of October 2026. They aren't legal advice, so check with ADOT MVD before you buy, repair or register a vehicle.

Arizona's title brands

ADOT describes a salvage title as "branded/marked as salvage" and a rebuilt one as "branded as restored salvage". The law requires the word "nonrepairable" on the front of a nonrepairable certificate. Go by the words printed on the title you're shown.

How a vehicle gets a salvage title

Most start with an insurance claim. When an insurer settles a total loss and takes the vehicle, it has 30 days after the owner signs the title over, with any liens released, to apply for a salvage or nonrepairable certificate. An owner who keeps the vehicle has to get the right certificate before receiving the settlement or getting rid of the vehicle, and any other owner of a salvage vehicle has to apply for one too.

A recovered stolen vehicle that wasn't wrecked or stripped can get an ordinary title again on the insurer's sworn statement, which also says whether an airbag deployed or was removed. The insurer has to give the buyer a copy. If parts were removed in a way that compromises the airbag system or the structure, it can only come back through the restored salvage route.

Buying a Salvage vehicle privately

You can. Asked whether you can buy a salvage vehicle, ADOT answers yes, and Arizona puts the duties on the seller:

• Anyone who sells a vehicle knowing it has a salvage title has to disclose to you, clearly and conspicuously and in writing or by electronic means, before the sale is complete, that it's a salvage vehicle with a salvage title. The same applies to a Restored Salvage title.
• The seller signs the salvage certificate of title over to you, or gives you a title transfer form, and tells ADOT your name and address.
• The seller has to tell you that the inspection requires ownership papers for certain replacement parts.

Before you pay, read the brand and the VIN on the certificate and compare that VIN with the plate on the dashboard and the label on the driver's door frame. If the title shows a lienholder, get the release. Ask for every receipt for parts already fitted: ADOT wants each one to show the donor vehicle's VIN, year, make and model, the seller's name, address and signature, the seller's driver license number or a company's tax ID number, and the title number for the certificate of title. If the ownership papers for a component part aren't submitted, the law lets ADOT seize the part. Then run the full VIN through an NMVTIS vehicle history report, which shows information from the current title including the brand history, the latest reported odometer readings and any insurer's determination that the vehicle is salvage.

Getting it back on the road takes repairs, a Level III inspection by an ADOT officer and an application for a Restored Salvage title. The Arizona rebuilt title inspection guide goes through it step by step.

Nonrepairable and Dismantle titles

A Nonrepairable vehicle's registration is canceled when the certificate is issued. Ownership can be reassigned no more than twice on that certificate or a title transfer form, and ADOT performs no further title transfers and issues no further paper title for it. Arizona's restored salvage rules don't reach it, because the law defines a salvage vehicle as one other than a nonrepairable vehicle.

A Dismantle title is the one a buyer or owner applies for to scrap, dismantle or destroy a vehicle, and it lets the holder move, keep or sell the vehicle. ADOT won't issue a title for a vehicle once it has been dismantled or destroyed. But Arizona's law defines a restored salvage vehicle as one restored after a salvage or a dismantle certificate of title was issued, so a vehicle on a Dismantle title that was never actually dismantled can be restored through the restored salvage process.

On DNF, Nonrepairable and Dismantle listings are for parts only. If a Dismantle vehicle looks rebuildable to you, ask ADOT MVD before you buy it.

Flood and fire: Arizona's brand and DNF's rule

Arizona lets a flood vehicle come back. When ADOT finds that a flood or water damaged vehicle was a total loss insurance settlement, it may issue a flood or water damage salvage title, and if the vehicle is rebuilt or restored, a flood or water damage restored salvage title. When a vehicle arrives with another state's flood or water damage brand, ADOT may put that brand on its Arizona title.

The statutes cited here give fire no brand of its own. A vehicle burned so completely that nothing usable is left can be Nonrepairable, and the salvage definition covers a vehicle otherwise damaged to the point that its owner or insurer considers repair uneconomical.

DNF adds its own rule. A listing with a flood brand, or with flood or fire damage reported by the seller, keeps Arizona's brand and shows a high-risk notice: water and fire damage can hide in wiring and safety systems, and Canada won't accept a US flood vehicle as a vehicle. Its Score stays in the Parts only band. That's our rule, not Arizona's.

Who can buy, and buying to resell

Anyone with a free account can make an offer on an Arizona listing on DNF, and ADOT's answer to whether you can buy a salvage vehicle is yes. Buying and selling in volume is different: Arizona's law counts someone who buys, sells or offers seven or more used vehicles in a continuous 12 months as a used motor vehicle dealer. The guide to buying without a dealer license in Arizona covers the thresholds.

Every Arizona listing on DNF shows the title brand as the seller reports it, the damage, the condition and a Score. See salvage vehicles for sale in Arizona.