Our resident car guy has advice on protecting yourself from wet cars
Every Harvey, Irma, Sandy or Irene leaves in its wake a trail of misery. As anyone on Puerto Rico knows, recovery can take months.
What you might not know is that the misery can ripple outwards, especially with cars, because after the literal flood comes the figurative one of sketchy automobiles. They’ll come straight up 75 from Florida and on 59 from Texas, and they’ll look legit. Own one and you’ll be in for years of torment.
If you buy a used car in the near future, you should be aware of the possibility that it was drowned. It is theoretically possible to make one drivable again but it is very, very expensive to do, so it’s not going to happen to a Chevy Vega.
Almost any car that’s been under water is required to be scrapped, or issued a Salvage title, but they slip through the cracks, usually deliberately, in a process called title washing.
In short, a seller takes a vehicle with a salvage title and passes it through a state like Mississippi (one of the worst offenders) where assorted loopholes let them sneak it back out with a clean title. Other states don’t have strict requirements about what a total loss actually is, so other cars with damage that should have sent them to the crusher end up back on the road.
While it can be very hard to tell—and you should get literally every car inspected by an independent mechanic, because Hurricane Katrina-era cars are still popping up—we can at least give you some warning signs that immediately say “walk away.” Obviously, a Carfax check is your first line of defense and any dealer that doesn’t provide one is up to something. But it’s not perfect.
Your personal inspection needs to be a little different for these, because it’s not just visual. Funky smells are a dead giveaway, especially if they’re the least bit fishy, literally.
If a dealer has all the windows down, you’re going to want to wonder what exactly they’re airing out; likewise, if they have a cluster of 13 little tree air fresheners. Unless the seats and carpets are completely replaced, they’re likely to smell and feel weird. Use your nose first.
Then look for anything that’s too new. Why would an 18-month-old car have a brand new exhaust or battery? Look inside the fuse boxes—they’re easy to get into—for any corrosion. Open and close the glove compartment. Is it squeaky? Does sand fall out?
Same with the windows: roll them up and down a lot, until someone looks at you funny. If they’re gritty or slow, ask why. Try the key in any and all locks. Pop the trunk.
Next check the gauges and all the lights for condensation, including the dome and any map or mirror lights, which are easily overlooked. Then start looking for sand and silt, which is really, really hard to get rid of.
The spare tire well is a good place to begin, then the seat tracks, where you’ll have to run both front seats all the way forward, then back (while listening for squeaks). Don’t just check the AC, check the heat as well and any other settings, and send air everywhere you can. A cloud of dust says there was water in there somewhere.
I don’t yet know how many cars this year’s hurricanes have damaged, but it will at least be in the hundreds of thousands. Some of those are going to end up on a lot near you, looking like their perfectly innocent neighbors. It’s going to be up to you to protect yourself from them.
David Traver Adolphus is a freelance automotive researcher who recently quit his full time job writing about old cars to pursue his lifelong dream of writing about old AND new cars. Follow him on Twitter as @proscriptus.