Check out this site, and click through the photos. The devistation was even worse than I imagined, once you could see the damage after the water receded. I wonder where all those new Mustangs will turn up?

http://www.stangsunleashed.com/2005/...ina1/index.htm

 

Note to self-Before hurricane, lift truck.

Mike

 

What's the wholesale salvage value of a "new" stang like that? It would be a great project car if I could buy the dripping hulk for a grand. Clean out the drivetrain, rip the engine, interior and electricals out, then rebuild with late 60's technology.

I imagine a lot of those cars will end up everywhere but the affected area, next year sometime. Man, I hope Carfax stays on top of this. (Bet the wholesalers can't wait to get down there.)

 

I'm not trying to start a political debate here, and I'd certainly like to see LESS government, BUT- if this isn't a rock-solid reason for federal vehicle titles (as opposed to our current state-by-state setup), I don't know what is.

 

It would be nice to at least have a connected database. You know there's going to be convoys of wholesalers draging their 3 car goosenecks down there with used cars to replace dealer inventory, and bringing back waterlogged cars to clean up and move at dealer auction.

They should make a federal law to take all those cars to New York. Appoint Jeff to be Submobile Czar.

 

If people can not get these Katrina cars inspected and reject them on the spot, that's their problem.

Even in a run-of-the-mill flood, it is hard to hide flood damage. As for hiding said damage with a car that has been underwater....nearly impossible to put in the effort to make a dollar or three off the selling of that car.

That kind of vehicle will smell, rust, the engine compartment will look the part, the fluids will be shot, probaby even after a few changes at that. Assuming the whole car wasn't swapped for new parts outside the shell, of course.

How many impulsive buyers will Katrina bring out?

P.S. Carfax only gives you info that stealers, inspection stations, owners, etc, report. Carfax is not God in disguise.

 

Carfax will give you flood salvage, if it's been documented.... Kept me from buying a truck on Ebay once. I feel I'm pretty good at spotting lemons, but I've also known some very good detail guys.

Between the pickup and drain, initial detail, dealer auction and dealer detail - these cars could pass a cursury by the average guy in a part of the country unaccustomed to floods. It's happened before.

 

The correct thing to do with the new ones is to crush them so they have no chance of being poorly repaired and finding their way into the hands of an unsuspecting buyer. I'm sure the dealer selling the new/used cars as well as just about every owner of a late model vehicle had comp insurance; this will cover their loss. Somehow I can't help but think that several flood vehicles, ones with less flood damage than the ones shown, will be haphazardly repaired by fly-by-night moneymaking people and will be lemons to the future owners.

 

There was a good article in Automotive News about this. About 300 dealerships went underwater, so there's thousands of brand new iron that went into the muck, plus thousands more just waiting to show up at a used car lot or ebay auction near you. Dealers were advised to use extraordinary caution when buying out-of-state merchandise.

 

I bet a majority of ones that are repairable get taken out of the country to central and south america.

 

I bet some of them that aren't really repairable get shipped out too!

I think I'd stay away from eBay for a while. I've seen some nice-looking Marquis and Crown Vics for sale, all from Florida....maybe they're on the level, but you never know. Of course the folks that are in the business of ripping people off know that, so they'll haul them somewhere else (like KS) and sell them. Hard-to-find 2006 Mustang, brand new, CHEAP!!! Just has a slightly fishy smell (pun not intended).

 

Wow, those pics were sickening. Can you imagine how bad the stench would be coming from the interiors??!!! EEEYukk. That wasn't just clean fresh water that they were flooded with. All that dirty dirty saltwater and under ground sewar water and who knows what else floating in that dirty water for days and weeks. It would be very very very hard to hide that kind of damage/stench.

 

THAT'S where the problem starts. The dealer collects a check, and he turns the keys over to the insurance company. The insurance company then has the car crushed? No, of course not- are you kidding? They take the cars to auction, where the titles are branded and they are sold as flood-damaged cars. Then they get moved around from state to state, auction to auction. As they're auctioned in a new state, they get a new title. At some point, the "flood damage" label manages to fall off one of the titles (I'm sure you can figure out how THAT happens...), and the car eventually winds up in the hands of some unsuspecting buyer.

The difference here may very well be in what it will take to clean one of these up. Unless they can buy it cheap enough, the cost of getting the stench out (it's not like they fell into a mountain spring for an hour or two) may turn all these into parts cars. Let's hope so.

 

There was some antique cars in the pix. Ya'll think those would be worth fixing?

 

I looked at a used Escort once (at a small used car lot) that was too nice and too cheap. The whole interior was new. I reached up under the dash, and every horizontal surface had dried red clay on it. I figure it went for a swim, so they put a new interior in it.