If the term "buyer beware" ever applied before, it applies now. And with all the small-time terrorists, looters, low-life, and price gougers around.......along with the decent and brave - thank goodness most men are of the later category.....I think a great many will have to be crushed - a shame, such a shame...

Bill, I was thinking the same, years ago, after some of the past floods. I imagine a lot of them are totaled by the insurance companies, if insurance was on them, and sold to salvage yards. The sheet metal should be usable if someone needed body parts, and a lot of the mechanical goodies could probably be overhauled if one was to find a source. I'd probably start by asking some insurance conpanies, or even advertise in papers of the area, since many wouldn't be covered for flood damage. The owners may be willing to make you a deal since it would likely be hard to sell damaged vehicles, with so many people in the same situation.

GG

I imagine they end up states away on car lots...hopefully with a branded title to warn potential buyers so they'll know they're taking a chance if they buy.

i imagine they end up on car lots also, but with branded titles and warnings haha in the used car buisness. i wouldnt be surprised if they were cleaned up and sold as new. but i sure would like to know the whole story on what does happen to them. just seems like a waste to crush them, but i wouldnt want to pay much for one.

My guess is they are insured for so much. The insurance company will call them totaled, take them away, and pay for them. The insurance company notifies DMV that the cars have been declared a total loss. DMV flags those cars VIN numbers in their system. Those cars that are repairable at all are put up for auction and bought mostly by car dealers. They'll spend the money to clean them up, dry them out, and do whatever else they need to do to make them operational. The cars will be then put out on the lot for sale. The only thing I'm not sure about is when the brand appears on the title. Once in DMV's system, I know it will happen for sure at the time of title transfer or registration renewal. I don't know if the dealer can get any paperwork on a car so he can sell it before it's branded. If they can, there is where the potential for rip off is.

My daughter's car was recently damaged and declared totaled by the insurance company several weeks ago. Nothing serious, just body damage. When I got the check I was instructed to go to DMV to change the title. The car has since been repaired. Yesterday I went down to DMV to comply. They told me they hadn't gotten anything from the insurance company yet. DMV said they're supposed to send that info in within 10 days. I asked if there was any reason to change it on my own at this point. The cost of changing the title was included in the settlement check. They said no. So, my daughter for the time being is driving around a car with a clean title that's supposed to be branded. I'm hoping the insurance company forgot about it. They're probably just late in sending the paperwork in though.

Hopefully there aren't any cracks in the system so that people will be buying these flooded cars without knowledge thinking they're just getting a real good deal. Car lot and lower than full bore price put together are both red flags to me regardless of what any paper work says.

Gary, I don't understand how an insurance company will give you a check for a car they've said was totaled and then
let you keep the car.

My husband wrecked his car last friday the 27th. The insurance company sent an adjuster who deemed it totaled.
The insurance company then called and instructed me to fax them a copy of the title. They will send 75% of the money and have instructed us to then send the title and at that time they will send the remainder of the amount owed us for the car. When they pay for car, I thought the car then belonged to them.

Here is how it is done in Canada. Most of us have AutoPac.
( canadian communist auto insurance ). Without it you don't
even get a drivers licence. Anyway we've have our share of
floods. when the cars are write offs as in flood damage the
V.I.N. numbers are stripped off. Yes they are all written off no exceptions. They tried fixing them and it never works for very long. The labour cost is too high. The vin numbers are registered in a Canada wide data base and can never be registered anyway in Canada or sold as driveable. ( they have no vin numbers ) There is a way around it but the cost
is so high the average person can't do it and the paper work
will kill you if you can afford it. All of those cars are
stripped for parts. The sad thing is every flood car can be
driven home. They don't care. It's a write off and stripped of the vin. Yes up here you can buy your car back if autopac
writes it off on a normal accident. You get your money for the car less the salvage value they think it is worth. What
you do is buy it back from them. They are now making it very
hard for you to fix that car and re register it. Serious
paper work is now needed and body integrity inspections for
every aspect of the repair.

Janis G, Here's the deal. The car was given a value of $1800. The adjuster said it would cost that much or more to repair to their standards. I did get an estimate of over $1800 myself. Take away my $250 deductable, that leaves me with a check for $1550. They said I could by the car back for the scrap yard value, $90. I said I wanted to do that. They gave me a check for $1460 and I kept the car. With that money I was able to have the car repaired at a cheepo body shop...turned out looking good. They were supposed to send in this info to DMV within 10 days which will flag it in their computor. I'm supposed to go down within 30 days and pay $50 to re-do the title. If I don't, they said it's no big deal. It will just get done the next time registration is due. I'm sure you could have bought your car back from your insurance company too. The car was still drivable so it never left our possession.

The used ones they patch up.Ship them seveal hundred miles away and there what you see on the used car only lots.Ussually in larger towns in bad neighbor hoods.

man its just overwhelming to think of the amount of property damage from this, everything destroyed. from i-pods to homes. wait til we all start getting our homeowners,and car insurance bills in the mail over the next couple of years. look out!

wait til we all start getting our homeowners,and car insurance bills in the mail over the next couple of years.

The irony of all that is that the whole idea of insurance is to spread out the risk among a number of subscribers or underwriters. Insurance companies employ hundreds of people whose job it is to make sure premiums charged every year exceed claims paid. Yet something even decently large comes along (earlier hurricanes in Florida, power outages on the East Coast) -- stuff that has happened for years and will happen in years to come -- and, all of a sudden, the insurance companies have their hands out looking for higher premiums. Gotta keep those profits up, y'know. :-(

I read a story in the paper about a car transporter full of brand new Jags that tipped over and spilled it's load across the road. Now I can't see all those Jags being crushed straight away. If it is economical to repair them then they are repaired and sold as such at a knocknown price. Otherwise they are stripped of their identity so it can't be transferred to a stolen vehicle of the same model, and sold for spares only to a registered vehicle dismantler.

Judging from the pictures of the icky water and the cars being submerged for so long, a lot of them will be scrap iron no matter what they were worth before.

So I wonder who has the better system for dealing with these catastrophes; Canada with its direct government control or the USA with government regulated profit motivated business ??
I think our system is the better, but not by much..

I agree, Gary, these newer cars have all this odor absorbing foam, unless disassembled 95% and all of the foam replaced and the fabric GI'ed, they will stink to high heavens forever..Also all of the electronics would be ruined..And with a large quantity of used and suspect parts hitting the market, the prices will plunge..

Ive looked at buying one from the houston flood a few years back. They marked the tittle at least in texas-Flood damaged--. No wrecking yards they are not destryoed for scrap etc..Most are probaly sent through the states so the title washing can be done. In reality you will never know if it was involved in a flood.The cars were cleaned up that well.

`Many will end up on car lots several state away, they won,t be branded on title as flood cars either. Since each state has a different car registration system, it,s quite easy to get a clean title. As the opening post says, let the buyer beware , because the hustler are sure out there.