Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 September 7

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September 7

flooded car

The teevee is full of images of cars immersed in water up to about the level of the door handles, which would mean the engine compartment is completely full of water, and lots of the interior including the seats and part of the dashboard are submerged.

Is there any significant hope of drying out the car and getting it working again after the storm clears up? Or is it headed for the scrapyard? Thanks.

173.228.123.121 (talk) 01:43, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

Depends on it it's clean freshwater or not. Salt water will pretty much mess up the electronics, while sewage makes it not worth keeping. Of course, many people will try to sell such cars, and people who buy them without a proper inspection and/or lack a sense of smell may get taken. StuRat (talk) 02:59, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

Exactly, here's an article that discusses the sale of water-damaged cars after Harvey and Katrina. Anecdotally, I can mention that a lot of these cars ended up in foreign markets (eastern Europe, central Asia) after Katrina. It's entirely possible to fix up some of those cars and cover up the water damage (even smell), although it always shows through in the end (then it's time to sell it to the next sucker). No longer a penguin (talk) 07:46, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

One of the main reasons they get shipped out of the U.S. is that many U.S. insurers either won't insure, or charge very high premiums, for flood damaged vehicles. Flood damaged vehicles can be fixed up and resold and insured under what is called a "salvage title", but the process for certifying a car under a salvage title is onerous and expensive. In countries with laxer insurance situations, that is less of an issue. This article describes the process for putting a salvaged car back on the market in the U.S. (legally). --Jayron32 11:17, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

A hint that the car something is seriously wrong with the interior of the car is if you smell industrial-strength deodorizer inside. StuRat (talk) 14:51, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

In the United States, salvaged vehicles must have "Salvage" on the title. That is why shady dealers do all they can to hide the title from you until the purchase is complete. Then, when you go to get insurance, you are blindsided by the huge cost. If a dealer won't show you the title, don't buy it. I personally sold three cars as salvage, but made it clear to the purchaser that they were salvage. There is a market for cars that run reliably, even if they are junk. Similarly, I purchased a car from a junkyard because I knew I could fix it and it wasn't a salvage title. So, I got a clean title at a salvage price (and the cost of a replacement tie rod). 209.149.113.5 (talk) 17:50, 7 September 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, salvage titles aren't necessarily major problems. Before I bought my first car, the seller said that it had been totalled and rebuilt; I had it for several years and drove it for several tens of thousands of miles before just ordinary wear-and-tear caught up, so I sold it for $400 to someone who just wanted to drive it to-and-from work. I had a hatchback until the end of last year when I got caught in the middle of a three-car accident, and the insurance chose to total it because bumper damage and some structural damage to the tailgate were more than the car's total value; there's no reason they couldn't fix it up and resell it honestly, and it would presumably run just fine. Nyttend (talk) 23:36, 10 September 2017 (UTC)