Cars swamped by Katrina set for final ride...to a used car dealer near you

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15235488.htm

NEW ORLEANS, March 16 (Reuters) - In southern Louisiana, thousands of battered cars and trucks lie overturned, stuck in the mud, lodged on fences or crushed under houses demolished by Hurricane Katrina more than half a year ago.

But after months of wrangling and delay, the rotting eyesores may finally be headed for the junkheap. snip

Swamped vehicles' serial numbers have been entered into a National Insurance Crime Bureau database, set up to prevent them from being fraudulently resold as having no flood damage.

Some Katrina cars have turned up at auctions as far away as California, with swindlers trying to hide their recent past.

[MadMaddie]

1. This should be a Federal crime to profit off of storm vehicles...

[MindPilot]

3. I believe it already is.

If a vehicle has been scrapped and subsequently repaired or had certain damage like from a flood or other contamination, it may not be re-sold. But people see a deal that's too good to be true and take it anyway.

Junk yard build-ups are a real problem here in SoCal. Those are vehicles that have serious damage, are totaled, scrapped, but then get taken to Mexico. They are superficially repaired and resold back in the American market.

I was a dealership tech and once in a while one would actually make to the dealer's lot, get sold with an extended service contract, and I would get stuck having to fix--for warranty labor rates--something that was far beyond just broken. My worst encounter with one of these was a convertible Mustang that had such severe structural damage that it literally broke in half when I tried to raise it on the hoist.

[MadMaddie]

4. Damn...I suppose it would be too much for the government..

to actually pursue these crimes....Who am I kidding!!

[Tesha]

6. They can get resold. They just need a "flood title".

> If a vehicle has been scrapped and subsequently repaired or had certain damage like
> from a flood or other contamination, it may not be re-sold.

They can get resold. They just need a "flood title". Cars, unlike guns
and mad cows, are pretty-much tracked cradle to grave, and the
guy that ultimately runs the crusher has paperwork duties just
like the original manufacturer and buyer.

Tesha

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. I'll bet a lot of them are already in new hands

Bet a lot of them have been sold to unsuspecting buyers.

[pitohui]

7. no they're not and that's the problem

seems like there is mile after mile of these junk cars in the new orleans east area where they have been abandoned

if only a "lot" of them had been re-sold or anything done with a lot of them but in fact nothing is done and here they sit

fuck, there's one sitting right outside my house belonging to persons unknown i can't get orange-tagged because "it is not on a main highway"

sell it, no, you can take them away for nothing, indeed, if you read the article, they have to pay someone to take them away

[dogday]

5. When we had that huge flood in Houston, we

experienced the same problem... We were told to look at the interior of the vehicle for a water line.. Smell the car real good for mildew. Look under the carpet... Those are a few ways to tell if a car has been submersed in water....

[pitohui]

8. it is not too difficult to tell

the person who thinks these cars can be put back together and re-sold to fool someone has not seen these cars stretching mile after mile in new orleans east

they ain't talking abt somebody who took on a few feet a water for a few hours, these cars were underwater for weeks, a flood car can actually be saved, we had a new car flooded, comprehensive insurance paid $5K to fix it, but we've gone 100K miles more in that car and not a bit of problem since, but what happened w. katrina to these cars they're in need of towing -- they're so bad that people won't even take 'em off the street for free, they've got to be paid to take them away

"that flood in houston" by which i presume you mean allison is a pimple on the butt of katrina but you know that :-)

[dogday]

9. I was speaking from my experience and I in no way

compared the two storms... WTF :wtf:

[RebelOne]

10. Clark Howard recommends that anyone buying a car

to go to www.carfax.com. That will give you the complete history of the car.

[-..__...]

12. Yep.

Be very wary about any vehicle that was registered in NOLA at the time of Katrina.

[Freedom_Aflaim]

11. You know I really don't have a problem with selling them

Damage may be mild, or maybe sold for parts etc.

Or maybe the damage is severe and needs alot of work. maybe its good for scrap metal only.

BUT, it needs to be disclosed, heck printed in red letters on the window sticker what its history is.

As long as the buyer knows its history, I see no problem.