Hey guys,

For all of you that aren't from this area, this area has litterally been flooded with flooded cars from the Hurricane (pun intended).

I suspect just like after Katrina, a lot of them will be fixed and then shipped out of state to either "title wash" them, or sold to an ususpecting buyer...

The NJ MVC has decided to establish a database of cars that have either a salvage title, or a flood title... You can search it, so before you buy a car from NJ please do yourself a favor and run it by this database.

New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs - Flood Vehicle Search

Now, this will NOT filter all of them out. Our local craigslist is full of flood cars that are advertised as having "clean titles" basically when an owner has no comprehensive coverage, they are own their own if their car flooded. Also, in some circumstances, if the insurance co totaled out the car, but the owner decided to keep it for salvage value, the title will never change hands and therefore still be clean.

Technically, according to NJ law an owner of a car that had flood damage has a legal requirement to disclose it to the NJ MVC and have the title branded flood. It's obvious that not many people are doing this, but instead attempting to either profit or mitigate their loss by selling their car as clean titled.

You would be amazed how little it takes sometimes to get a flood car running again. Pull the plugs, put diesel in the cylinders to wash out the cylinder walls and let it sit for a day and then turn the motor by hand... Replace the battery and sometimes the PCM and vroom. The problem is the car will turn into an electrical nightmare, as well as corrode very quickly. Don't forget that this was NOT a fresh water flood. So everything was sitting in salt water.

Thankfully most of the ones I have seen have been quickly scooped up by shady Russian and other eastern european dealers who patch them up and ship them off to the motherland and sell them to their comrades at ridiculous prices. Most of the SUV's are heading to central america, and some to Africa. It's amazing when you watch a "dealer" pay 2000 over wholesale value for a car, and when you ask him what he was thinking he's like are you kidding I'll drive this thing to the port and double my money on the car.

One guy has a warehouse and patches them up, I watched them buy a nissan murano from the insurance auction with hard front end hit. Believe it or not they packed it up with all the parts they needed to fix it in the passenger compartment and loaded it on a container headed to Poland. He proceeded to explain that the labor costs to repair it were much cheaper there and it made ecomomic sense. I was like like what about the salvage title. He's like you think those guys know what a salvage title is? And proceeded to laugh.

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up.

Take care,

George

 

Great post George, thank you!

 

I've seen them being "relocated" to other parts of the country and then sold retail or auctioned off on places like Copart.

Not long after the Hurricane a filtered selection for "flood damaged" cars on Copart showed a whole lot of cars. Right now it's 3700 cars which has to be barely a fraction I would think? Some of them are rare classics too ...

George it's funny you should mention shipping the cars and parts abroad because the labor is cheaper. I know a well know restorer of vintage Italian cars that now ships cars to Italy and back for interior, body & paint work because not only is the work great but it's cheaper even with the round trip container ride!

Hard to believe but it's true.

 

Thanks for the heads up, George. Hopefully EU import requirements will stop them getting here - how they get into Poland beats me.
OT I know but it is odd that US garage labour prices are so high when everything else there (Jaguars included) is half the price it is in Europe.
My local garage charges €40/hour.
If it means getting under the car I get the bits and he does it - he is 40 years my junior!

 

Good post , I enjoyed reading that .

 

Admin...mods.... shouldn't this info be sticked ??? Could save someone here from buying one..

 

George - Great post - read about the link in yesterday's NJ Star Ledger...

 

Amazon.com: Salt-Away Concentrate- 32oz.: Sports & Outdoors

Just spray a bit here and there and you're good to go!

 

Thanks for the details, George. This is critical information for anyone looking to purchase a used car these days. Sandy hit New Jersey more than three months ago, so plenty of time has elapsed to allow many of these vehicles to be dried out, patched up here and there, and then sent on their way to unsuspecting buyers....

I'll bet that many Cuba residents would love to get their hands on some of these Sandy cars to replace their 1950s/1960s cars that are held together with bailing wire and duct tape....

 

As some of you know I was somewhat interested in a 2004 XJ8 VP - I went (for s**t & giggles) out to take a look at the car today. Here's the story - a gent from the West Coast purchased the car about a month ago (online of course) - the original owner of the car sent him some pics of the car (pre Sandy) - of course the car looked like a gem. Of course he was told the car was "not a Sandy" car and only has water ingress into the interior barely getting onto the carpet.

Buyer makes the purchase and has a hard time finding a hauler to load the "dead cat" onto the rig - gets quotes of at least $1,500 to ship the car.

New buyer re-posts the car to unload it - that is where I come across the ad - like I said I went & looked at the car just cause I was going to be in the area anyway - sure enough - carpet still soaked, entire interior has heavy build up of condensation - seats feel squishy - I would think the condensation is in the dash as well, pull the trunk liner - yep, water residue - look at the engine - all the lower pulleys are rusted heavily.

I called the new buyer and told him "good luck and no thank you!". Sad to say the new buyer is already out almost $4,000 and the car is still 3,000+ miles away from him in NYC!

To George's point - we all need to be very careful!

 

Bob, that is just the tip of the iceberg. The closest copart auction is only about 15 miles from me in East Windsor NJ. In NJ you need a full dealer license to purchase salvage vehicles at this auction, in PA you do not. I have a license so that isn't an issue, and I have a friend who works there so I get an inside track as to if everything is good. I dont know if you heard about this being that you are also in NJ, but this is what's to come:

Some light reading...

Burlington town fights junkyard of 2,400 cars damaged during Hurricane Sandy dumped on trucking lot | NJ.com


Take care,

George

 

Actually EU restrictions are really not that bad for late model cars. Most european manufacturers build "world" platforms at this point.

Being the owner of a shop, let me tell you the garage labor prices reflect the cost of ownership, Between the real estate, the investment in tools and equipment, and the insurance and other costs, it doesn't really add up to ALL that much. Everything else is NOT cheaper here. Just cars LOL. The big reason for the enhanced cost in europe is partly the taxation scheme. Most of europe taxes cars based upon displacement. If anyone attempted to do this in the US, civil unrest would ensue. That also elevates the prices of cars new there.

The second reason I think is the proliferation of leasing in the United states. Almost 85% of new luxury cars are leased to their first owner. It's a way for the luxury marques to boost sales, because they can now "sell" cars to people who cannot truly afford them, but can afford to rent them for 3 years, while being restricted in the mileage they accumulate. The other "advantage" to leasing, is that if the vehicle is leased in the name of a company, the entire cost of the lease is tax deductable, v/s having to depreciate a car over 5 years according to the IRS. Since leasing has become so popular, many americans have joined the "payment for life" club. They mindlessly lease a car, then bring it back 3 years later to lease the next one, and have just accepted the notion that they will have a permanent car payment.

The flip side of this is the absolute glut of 3 year old used luxury cars with 20-40k miles that enter the used car market. Each week at the dealer auctions both BMW financial services and Mercedes Benz credit auction of 100-200 cars in this category. This is just one over over 80 auction nationwide, and this happens every week. Generally the cars go for between 50-60 percent of their value new. With that many cars flooding the market, prices are driven down.

Take care,

George

 

It used to be quite like that here but has moved further away over time. Used are still about 50% price after 3 years, regardless.

I guess the other way of taxing higher displacement is just to put fuel prices up (add lots of tax LOL). We have that, too. Petrol (gas) is a bit under $10/gal.