Consumers Warned to be Wary of Flood Damaged Cars

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In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a large number of cars were completely flooded and later disposed of by their owners. Some of these vehicles have since found their way into the marketplace, possibly even as far north as Idaho. In a pair of articles on KTVB.com, consumers are being warned to watch out for storm-flooded cars. Because of the salt water in the hurricane storm surge, and vehicles flooded during the hurricanes will almost certainly corrode from the inside out, making the car completely worthless.

From the article at KTVB.com

The insurance industry is warning that because hundreds of thousands of cars were flooded in salt water, it's nearly guaranteed that they will soon corrode from the inside out. Also, all those sensitive computer part will be fried.

But there are plenty of unscrupulous dealers and sellers who are not fessing up about how badly damaged those freshly cleaned up vehicles really are.

And those cars might now be showing up here in the Northwest.

"It would be naive for a buyer to assume that's because it's a long way away that these vehicles haven't made it to our state. Likely there are less here than in areas close to New Orleans. But if you were a scam artist, why not go as far away as you can where they're not thinking about it," said Karl Newman of the Northwest Insurance Council.

Read the first article here.

Read the second article here.