Ugh...avoid used cars for the next 2 years

[Fritzo]

I just thought about the huge amount of flood damaged cars that are going to show up on the market. They should put one of those water stickers they use in cell phones on the engine blocks of cars.

"OOoooo...was going to buy it, but the sticker is all red..."

 

[FearoftheNight]

 

[PottedMeat]

...sure the electronics don't work, there could be water in the engine, and it smells like old shoes but i wouldn't mind having one of these for the right price...

 

[PricklyPete]

I definitely would be cautious.

 

[Ferzerp]

How many fiskers when up in flames from being submerged and battery issues?

 

[Arkaign]

We had a "flood" of these, hahah, in Texas after Katrina.

 

[bamx2]

With "washed" titles .....

http://www.vehiclehistory.gov/nmvtis_consumers.html

We had a "flood" of these, hahah, in Texas after Katrina.

 

[hans007]

on the other hand, if they do scrap a lot of these cars, thats probably a lot of cheap alloy rims to be on the market.

 

[Sluggo]

Even worse it will really tighten up the market for used cars in the NE. Expect unreal prices, even on pieces of crap.

 

[satyajitmenon]

Even worse it will really tighten up the market for used cars in the NE. Expect unreal prices, even on pieces of crap.

Hmm... Maybe I should sell my cars there. :hmm:

 

[yottabit]

I feel like used car prices are already ridiculous, particularly on fuel efficient cars ever since gas prices went up again

Plenty of deals on Crown Vics and 4x4s though

 

[hans007]

Hmm... Maybe I should sell my cars there. :hmm:

I am hoping I get more for my car because of it . It awd and has never left the warm states I'm sure it'll sell there

 

[phucheneh]

Flood cars aren't exactly hard to spot.

...then again, I've seen people obliviously buy cars with bad engines and transmissions.

But if you actually look, you'll see the signs. Unless someone went through the trouble of A) finding flood cars with clean titles and B) doing a shitton of cleaning and replacing parts. People who unknowingly buy flood cars are not being fooled by geniuses; they're just not bothering to examine the title properly and/or taking a rudimentary look at the car.

Pull back a corner of the carpet. Look under the dash. If the interior actually got flooded, especially to a major extent (above the seat bottoms), you'll see signs of it everywhere. And again, there's not a lot of profit in buying a flood car, stripping the interior, and cleaning/replacing everything.

Engines can be a little trickier, though. But if all that happened was that the engine sucked down water, it's not so much a flood car as a 'drove through a huge puddle and crammed lots of water into the airbox' car. And that can happen without a flood.

 

[Vic Vega]

Title washing is big business - never buy a used car from Miami over the Internet, most of the crappy cars are from there. Your car has a salvage title? Register it in a state which does not issue salvage titles, then re-register it in the state you want and it will have a clean title. This is why title history and other factors are important. Carfax is your friend.

 

[pcgeek11]

The worst part is it may run fine for a while, but all the electrical connectors etc have salt water residue in them and they will eventually corrode. You will start to see all sorts of little issues at first that will grow...

Be very cautious of " New Vehicles " also. I imagine a bunch of dealerships were also flooded and a few wormy dealers could pass those along also.

 

[phucheneh]

Title washing is big business - never buy a used car from Miami over the Internet, most of the crappy cars are from there. Your car has a salvage title? Register it in a state which does not issue salvage titles, then re-register it in the state you want and it will have a clean title. This is why title history and other factors are important. Carfax is your friend.

Did not even know such a thing existed.

Also Carfax is pretty laughable. I mean, it catches suspicious things sometimes; but far from all the time, which pretty much renders it a worthless piece of shit.

Wanna hire me as your bodyguard? I'll totally protect you from angry buttrape...when I feel like it.

 

[Meghan54]

Did not even know such a thing existed.

Also Carfax is pretty laughable. I mean, it catches suspicious things sometimes; but far from all the time, which pretty much renders it a worthless piece of shit.

Wanna hire me as your bodyguard? I'll totally protect you from angry buttrape...when I feel like it.

Damn, and here I thought you were the be-all/know-all of automobiles. Didn't know about title washing? Seriously?


And while CarFax won't catch every single thing, it's damned good at tracking a vehicle's title history.

 

[Jimzz]

Harder to sell newer cars that have been flooded due to all the electronics and also they are more sensitive since OBD2 times.
But as said you still have to check a car out fully, not just for flood but all issues.

Good thing is there will be a lot of used parts on the market. Electronics will be bad mostly but good way to buy hard to find/costly hard parts like intake’s, heads, body panels, etc…

 

[Vic Vega]

Did not even know such a thing existed.

Also Carfax is pretty laughable. I mean, it catches suspicious things sometimes; but far from all the time, which pretty much renders it a worthless piece of shit.

Wanna hire me as your bodyguard? I'll totally protect you from angry buttrape...when I feel like it.

Car fax will always have the complete title history which is what it's good for.

 

[phucheneh]

Damn, and here I thought you were the be-all/know-all of automobiles. Didn't know about title washing? Seriously?


And while CarFax won't catch every single thing, it's damned good at tracking a vehicle's title history.

Right, because I've totally claimed to be an expert on car thievery and related acts.

Actually, I don't think I've ever outright claimed to be an expert on anything. You just have warped perceptions that apparently make my posts out to be claims that I am the authority on everything car-related. In the context of this thread, I've just shared my experience with flood-damaged cars, and how something that was truly underwater to any decent extent is not very hard to spot if you know what to look for.

And my comment was that I didn't know that salvage or rebuilt titles were majorly different from state to state...why the hell would a state NOT have salvage titles? Does every random piece of crap have a 'clean title?'