A salvage vehicle is a vehicle that has been wrecked, destroyed, or damaged to such extent that the insurance company considers it uneconomical to make repairs to the vehicle and the vehicle is not repaired by or for the person who owned the vehicle when the damage occurred.
The California title will contain a notation identifying this vehicle as a salvage vehicle.
Please see
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/faq/faqsalvage.htm
and
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr13.htm