Secondary Damage
A second impact-area description recorded by the auction in addition to the primary damage code.
Secondary damage is the auction’s supplementary damage code describing a second area of impact on a vehicle that already has a primary damage designation. Not every lot has a secondary damage code — single-impact accidents (a head-on collision into a stationary object, for example) often have only primary damage logged.
Common secondary codes mirror the primary set: Side, Front End, Rear End, Undercarriage, Hail — with the addition of Minor Dent/Scratches, Interior and Suspension, which are more likely to be secondary than primary observations.
The presence of secondary damage materially raises rebuild risk because it usually indicates the vehicle rotated or moved post-impact, suggesting energy absorption across multiple structural points. A salvage car with Front End primary plus Rear End secondary, for example, is often economically beyond rebuild even though either damage area alone might be tractable.