Katrina and the cars.

[skijay]

This summer while looking to replace my urban commuter with something a little bit newer & fun to drive I found the perfect car, so I thought.

Everything checked out as a one owner vehicle. The two items that caught my attention on the report was the bouncing around of the car at car auctions starting in Florida. Also the time it was reported at an auction was a month after Hurricane Charley. It was also from an area that was hit by Charley.

I looked over the car and I saw no problems, with the exception of "hazing" on the inside headlights. I brought it to a mechanic and from what I was told it looked like the car was sitting in water from the nose down as there was some unusual corrosion found around the hood, strut towers, suspension, which is not normal for the age & mileage and the location the car was from. The mechanic told me it looked like the car's front end was in a sink hole as he could not find any other water damage evidence. I spent $50 on this diagnosis. I did not buy the car. Perhaps everything would of been fine, but I need to keep this for 5 yrs and I did not want to take a chance.

Just be careful when looking for a used car. I saw this article on CNN:




http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/06/fix/index.html

[tirolerpeter]

There is always a very brisk market in cars that come from "flood areas" The favorite tactic, after buying them and detailing them, is to transfer them from state to state, until they lose their "wrecked/unrepairable" designations and end up with clean titles. I have bought many used cars, but I have only done so after doing a thorough personal inspection. Fortunately I have both the expertise, and tools to take a deeper look then the average buyer. If a seller hesitates at all at my request to "go over the vehicle" I just thank him and say: "good bye." BTW, these cars are just as likely to show up at used car dealer lots as at a private sale.