Auto Flood Damage and Totaling

[djs]

Define flooded. From what is described (floorboards wet) it is doubtful this is a 'flood' car.
Getting in water is NOT flooded.

Dan

 

[Tiger8]

H E L L O their is a federal law against selling a car, flooded, without announcing it. if you sell that car and in the future, let say, two years after the sale, the new owner finds out it was flooded. you will have to give him back all his money and be fined thousands of dollars and possibly jail time. another possibility. you sell the car, don't announce it.. new owner get in a wreck a couple of people die. when the lawyer searches the car, finds out it was a flood car, and you did not announce it. you will be blamed and sued. i am trying to wake you up!! it is not a small matter. you will have to announce it.

Is it that serious? If so, shouldn't the insurance company and/or shop announce it then?

I am not planning to sell the car anytime soon, and when I sell it, I WILL announce it. When I was younger I bought a cash car, and discovered that its odometer was tampered with. Come selling time, I did announce it when I sold it on ebay. I am not going to loose my concious over a few dollars if that what it goes down to.

I guess I will see what will happen.

 

[b61mack]

you could have gotten your money back from whom you bought that car from. i am just letting you know it is serious. the minium i would want the insurance company to do. is pay for, besides the cleaning, all wheels pulled, re greased, tranny, motor,rear,oil changed, all senors, replaced, the problem of not having an agent, is you are talking to the cricket. and if you say the wrong thing, it i hard to take it back. if you were my client, you would have had gap insurance, and you would be driving a new car period.

 

[Tiger8]

you could have gotten your money back from whom you bought that car from. i am just letting you know it is serious. the minium i would want the insurance company to do. is pay for, besides the cleaning, all wheels pulled, re greased, tranny, motor,rear,oil changed, all senors, replaced, the problem of not having an agent, is you are talking to the cricket. and if you say the wrong thing, it i hard to take it back. if you were my client, you would have had gap insurance, and you would be driving a new car period.

In a way I regret not leasing the car. Because if I did, I would have had gap insurance and this would have been someone else's problem. I find it amazing how we reward lack of ownership (leasing) and driving more than you can afford (upside down borrowing) more than the responsible consumers who actually chew as much as they can bite.

Same went for housing, right? Those who were upside down just walked away, those who had teeth in the game are left holding a bag of shoot

 

[xrac]

I don't pay much attention to carfax as it's not a concern from my point of view. I will say it's not nearly as accurate as most people think. It will likely show a claim was made, but to what degree, I'm not sure.

If it were my car, I'd just complain until the point I knew they were going to pull all the carpet and clean underneath it (and they may be already). Your most likely potential issues will be mold related. You may be able to get them to replace all the padding underneath the carpet. That is often reasonable.

I don't claim to be an expert, but where as most of these guys are agents, I work in auto property damage claims. My views and experiences are a little different.

I do not find Carfax to be very useful. They miss a lot of stuff. My son bought a 2004 Mercury Mountaineer that had a clean Carfax report and then found an accident report for the vehcile stuffed into the owners manual.

 

[b61mack]

tiger if you had a real agent, instead of the cricket, he would have been looking out for your interest. he would have insisted you buy gap insurance. on a lease you would have been required to buy gap insurance. that is how the cricket, says we saved you 300. yes they lowered your ploicy's limits, they stripped the gap insurance, you get what you pay for. it would have been nice, to call the agent, he makes sure your interest is covered. because he works for you.

 

[FullAuto]

Your problem isn't that serious. 2 inches of water in the floor is not a big deal at all. As I said, your main concern will be potential mold and the smell. Your situation is similiar to a person leaving their windows down overnight and a rain storm passing through. You aren't required to tell anyone it's a "flood" car when selling it. It's not a total loss.

And Toyota's gas pedal problem is not even close to being related to this. It was not an electronic problem. It was a mechanical problem with a mechanical repair. I've actually been sent out to photograph runaway Toyota claims for possible subrogation. Most of the claims weren't even due to the recall issues. One I looked it appeared to have possibly had the pedal stuck underneath the floor mat.

Toyota Gas Pedal Fix Explained – With Exclusive Photos | The Truth About Cars

 

[b61mack]

yes, don't worry about the smell, reminds me of the seinfeld show about the car with BO. i would not bet my E&O insurance, against IRENE.

 

[1manshow]

Had a flood here about 10 years ago...same thing...flooded the cars in parking lots mostly. Weird how the claims were settled. Erie Ins(my main carrier) totalled every car that had water inside the car. State Farm, Nationwide, etc went the route of cleaning, new carpet, etc. unless the watetr had reached the dashboard...then they totalled.

Was a bad year for losses in the agency...but the next year those State Farm, Nationwide clients were lined up at my door to switch to Erie.

Someone told me that wiring for some airbag sensors is under the carpet? Not sure if there's truth to that or not.

 

[Tiger8]

So I got in contact with Geico, turns out the $500 is just to clean the carpet AND to further inspect the car. He told me that they need to make sure no damage has occured to the engine and transmission and other electronic components.

They are -understandly- very busy so they extended my rental and will be contacting me with further details. At this point, it is still up in the air whether the car will make it or not.