What does primary and secondary damage mean on a salvage report?

Primary damage is the loss the insurer recorded as the main one; secondary is anything else noted. Both are categories rather than measurements, so two cars listed with the same primary damage can need very different work. The photographs decide the extent, the fields decide the category.

Does "run and drive" mean the car is roadworthy?

No. At most salvage sales it means the vehicle started and moved under its own power a short distance in the yard on the day it was checked. It is not an inspection, it says nothing about brakes, steering or roadworthiness, and it is not a promise that it will do the same when it reaches you.

Is the estimated retail value on a salvage listing reliable?

Treat it as a reference figure for the undamaged vehicle, not as what this car is worth. It does not account for the damage in front of you, the branded title that follows the sale, or your own market. Work from what your lot achieves on comparable branded stock instead.

What does a salvage condition report not tell you?

Mechanical condition beyond whether it moved, the condition of anything behind a damaged panel, corrosion, and the electrical consequences of water or fire. The fields describe the loss as an insurer categorised it, which is a different question from what it costs you to make the car sellable.

Buying · 9 min read

How to read a salvage auction condition report

Primary and secondary damage, run and drive status, and the estimated retail value field: what each one commits to at a salvage sale, and what none of them covers.

Published September 23, 2026

A salvage listing looks like a condition report and is a different document. A wholesale condition report describes a car somebody expects you to retail. A salvage listing describes a loss an insurer has already settled, in the categories that mattered to that settlement rather than to your reconditioning estimate.

The fields are categories, not measurements

Primary damage and secondary damage are labels chosen from a list. They tell you what kind of loss this was, which is genuinely useful for sorting, and nothing about extent. Two cars carrying the same primary damage label can be a scraped bumper cover and a structural repair, and the label does not separate them.

So the fields sort the run list and the photographs price the car. Reversing that is the expensive mistake, because the field is the part that reads like a verdict.

What run and drive actually commits to

It generally means the vehicle started and moved a short distance under its own power in the yard, on the day somebody checked. Read what that excludes: brakes, steering, roadworthiness, whether it will do it again after sitting on a transporter, and everything that only appears at speed.

It is a useful signal precisely because it is narrow. A car that did not run and drive is telling you something; a car that did is telling you very little.

The estimated retail value field

It is a reference for the undamaged vehicle. It is not adjusted for the damage in the photographs, it does not carry the branded title that will follow the sale, and it knows nothing about your market or your lot. Used as an anchor it flatters every bid you make.

The number worth anchoring on is what your own dealership achieved on comparable branded stock, which is the argument in what a salvage title is worth at auction.

The photographs decide the extent

Salvage photo sets are usually taken quickly in a yard, in flat light, with the car parked among others. That makes them poor for judging paint and good for judging shape: panel gaps, a wheel sitting at an angle it should not, a door that no longer follows its own line.

Enlarge the corners of the damage rather than its centre. The centre tells you the impact happened; the corners tell you how far the deformation travelled, which is the part that decides whether this is a bolt-on repair or a structural one.

What none of it covers

What is behind the damaged panel, which is where a bolt-on repair becomes structural
Electrical consequences of water or fire, which appear weeks later
Corrosion under trim and in seams
Whether a previous repair was done to sell or to last

Our own tool reads what the photographs show and prices it, which is deliberately less than a report of this kind implies it knows. What it does and does not claim is set out on the extension page.

Common questions

What does primary and secondary damage mean on a salvage report?: Primary damage is the loss the insurer recorded as the main one; secondary is anything else noted. Both are categories rather than measurements, so two cars listed with the same primary damage can need very different work. The photographs decide the extent, the fields decide the category.
Does "run and drive" mean the car is roadworthy?: No. At most salvage sales it means the vehicle started and moved under its own power a short distance in the yard on the day it was checked. It is not an inspection, it says nothing about brakes, steering or roadworthiness, and it is not a promise that it will do the same when it reaches you.
Is the estimated retail value on a salvage listing reliable?: Treat it as a reference figure for the undamaged vehicle, not as what this car is worth. It does not account for the damage in front of you, the branded title that follows the sale, or your own market. Work from what your lot achieves on comparable branded stock instead.
What does a salvage condition report not tell you?: Mechanical condition beyond whether it moved, the condition of anything behind a damaged panel, corrosion, and the electrical consequences of water or fire. The fields describe the loss as an insurer categorised it, which is a different question from what it costs you to make the car sellable.