Comments on: BBB: Watch out for flood-damaged used cars

By: Fred

Fred — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:28:47 +0000

Enter your comments here
Dealers used to “wash” car titles through Tennessee and other states, but new laws now require the person requesting a transfer of title from one state to another to verify there is no salvage title issued for the vehicle before a new registration can take place.
Carfax is not a perfect source, some insurance companies do not make public any repairs made to a vehicle, it lowers the value, and they have to pony up the depreciation, so they do not make public any reports.
I am a technician for one of the big three, water damage is hard to spot initially, over time it becomes easier, pull up the carpet, the front passenger is easiest, look at the thick insulation underneath, if it has been water soaked, it will have trash and dried mud trapped there, if it looks brand new, on a 10 year old car, warning sign.
Let the door window all the way down, shine a small flashlight into the opening, look down inside the door, dried mud will collect at the very bottom, there are also holes in the inside of the door bottom to drain water, get down and look at them, trash and leaves will gather near there.
Finally, take the car to a dealer for checkout, no exception, the dealer can run the VIN and may give you that information upon request, recent repairs, where the car originated all that information is available, to them.

By: jackie baines

jackie baines — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:42:39 +0000

I also heard that that Alabama has a weak title law that the sneak dealers use to “wash” a Georgia salvage title.

By: jackie baines

jackie baines — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:39:21 +0000

On “water cars”, if you pull back any rubber seals and insulation, such as that right where the window starts up out of the door. Just roll the window down, and fold back the semi-hard seal, it will have mildew behind that rubber. they can not clean it all and generally will not go here because it is out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind. Also, new cars have 25-30 on board computers and a lot of small electronic relays, It would cost a ton to replace all of them and they will work fine, for a short period of time. be careful.

By: KA

KA — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:56:21 +0000

It amazes me that insurance companies can provide the police with electronic data about the status of your insurance coverage, but they claim that they can’t give the same instantaneous turnaround to the databases that Carfax and Autosafe (to name two reporting companies).

Police incident reports are likewise delayed.

Thus, negative data about vehicles doesn’t appear in those services until much later – many times, after the car has been sold to an unsuspecting buyer.

But hey, it’s better than the information we had ten years ago!

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:02:41 +0000

I would ignore what Terry says. S(he) can’t even spell the word wreck correctly. Those wrecks must have WREAKed havoc on them. haha

By: Christina

Christina — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:39:21 +0000

Terry, who would you have to report the accident to, aside from the police and insurance? In the case of my dad’s car, both of those parties were notified. Do you have to call Carfax directly? Am I missing something?

By: Machoman Randy Savage

Machoman Randy Savage — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:21:09 +0000

Watch out for rip offs out their folks! Ohhhhh yeeeeahhhhh!

By: blkshephered

blkshephered — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:49:57 +0000

I just had work done to my car to replace a fuel pump. the mechanic and service clerk tried to tack on a bunch of recommended stuff pushing the invoice bill to about 1300. I made them take it off. then the mechanic is going to tell me my car looks like it was flooded. I told him I have owned the car since 2000 its a 2001 pontiac grand am. I told him the car was never flooded. He says it looks like it. I told him My car has Never been flooded other than rain falling on it. I should Know if my car was flooded. Its amazing how stupid they think the customer is.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:36:29 +0000

autocheck.com is far better than carfax. You won’t see any dealers advertising for you to check their car’s history through autocheck.com
Klesko: Good one.

By: V

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:33:13 +0000

On Tuesday of this week, I went to a place where the vehicles were “reasonbly priced”. I came across one vehicle there that had water damage. There was It explained “reasonably priced”. The Carfax didn’t mention it had any damage or salvage.