BIG discounts!!!

[mcgusto82]

right now is the time to get HUGE discounts on insurance write off on flooded cars. ohh man. sorry that all these people have to endure katrina. but from what the news are saying.. every car in the LA, MS coast line must be flooded.all those cars will make their way into a auction near there.

[Kari]

How would you feel if your Vibe was one of those flooded cars and someone was waiting for it to come to auction for dirt cheap?Not to mention, buying a flooded car doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do, cheap or not, due to the fact that hidden moisture can produce dangerous mold in the vehicle, which wouldn't be good, not to mention things like rust...seems like it'd be just buying a pig and a poke to me.

[ColonelPanic]

That's very unfortunate. And probably, many of those cars were cars that their owners may have loved. That's sad. None of us here would want to see our cars have to end up with such a fate. My Vibe sucks (removed) bigtime, but even I would probably cry if I saw it die such a painful death.I can actually speak from experience on this one, you guys DO NOT want a car that has been salvaged from a hurricane. Back in the '90s, dad bought an Oldsmobile Eighty Eight with 12,000 miles from a local car lot for my sister. He knew what he was getting, sorta. It was "flood salvaged" but was actually in pretty damn good shape. The lot told him that it came from St. Louis but in all actuality it came from Florida and suffered the wrath of Andrew. Shizzle.The car was reasonably clean, but there were a few issues - the seat tracks were kinda rusted - had to replace the power seat motors, seat tracks, etc to get the seats to move. Replaced a few power window switches, can't remember what else but it wasn't a whole lot. Other than that, the car was in reasonably good shape. Mechanically, it was fine for the most part - ran pretty good (3800 V6, good engine.) Water may have made its way up to the headlights from what it looked like.The car was dirt cheap, practically brand new, and had practically everything on it. It didn't take much to get it back up and running. So, my sis, who didn't have much money at the time ended up with a car that ran and stuff for a little bit, for not much money. But then summer came around, and apparently with the warmer temps caused the salt that was apparently still there in most of the car's wiring to start adding some unique electrical gremlins... Strange things started happening that weren't present in the winter and spring when the humidity wasn't as high. Then a few mechanical things started popping up, the worst being the power steering pump locking up and shreading the belt... Yeah, that was fun. Lots of other problems kept cropping up, and she had to get rid of it. Which was another experience in itself, seeing the salvage title and all...Don't buy one. It's not worth it, especially these days. Hell, my Malibu I had before this had a warning in the owner's manual that basically read that the air bags could possibly deploy if you let enough water make its way into the interior. Do you guys really want to deal with things such as that just to save a buck or two?

[mcgusto82]

i've actually bought a few salvage cars. what you need to look for is weather it's salt water or fresh water flood. the car's history wil actually keep that. salt water damage is what i would stay away from. also, if you buy a salvage car. make sure you are buying it from the insurance settlement. never from a dealer. they make a cut out of it. not so cheap when someone else is making money out of it.i do feel bad for those there. i would not want to be in there place, but the warning was there. i would've left a day in advance.i just hope no one got hurt.

[ColonelPanic]

I do have to say by all means, if you've gotta go for flood damaged, you're right - fresh water is the way to go. If that Olds would have come from St. Louis like they said, it could have held up a bit better... But nope, that salt water from Florida kicked its (removed). Of course, who knows - you can always find something that was just bad enough to be salvaged - but could probably be a better car than the thing I drive around that has a clean title. heh