Salvaged 2014 Ferrari California

If you like to while away the hours paging through salvage car auctions looking for that one misplaced gem you could buy for a song, you can't help but rubberneck at the misfortune of supercars. At any given moment several new Ferraris or Lamborghinis sit in salvage yards, typically because they were either caught in flood waters or fell victim to their owners' lack of control behind the wheel.

But this 2014 Ferrari California, sold new for $278,000, tells a different, and more unusual, story. It's only been driven 430 miles; it's bone dry, and if you walked past it on the street you might think it was in perfect shape. Yet it's been totaled and cast into the salvage yards for the economic burden of its repair costs, estimated at a shocking $89,000.

Salvage yards are under few obligations to list the damage to a vehicle, so aside from "front end" and what's in the photographs posted by Copart, there's no way to tell exactly what's wrong without an inspection. But we can gather a few hints; while the visible aluminum bending in front was minimal, both driver and passenger air bags deployed. That could mean a hit hard enough to trigger some kind of subframe damage — because even at Ferrari parts prices, it's hard to see how a bumper cover and two air bags add up to $89,000. (You can see the rest of the available images here.)

This California was set to sell today, and had already been bid up to $138,000. In the United States, a car like this will have permanently lost a sizable amount of resale value due to the salvage title. The right owner could try to fix the repairs and enjoy a bargain Ferrari, but it's just as likely the car could be bought and shipped overseas, where the salvage-title brand can't follow. The salvage-yard scavengers won't have to wait long for the next unlucky Ferrari.