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Old 02-16-2013, 07:02 AM
 
Location: NH
4,186 posts, read 3,715,423 times
Reputation: 6713

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It depends on the extent of the actual "flood" too. Some cars can be "flood" vehicles when in fact the water only went as high as the floor boards and never even touched any of the electronics. One of my coworkers drove his Honda civic into a puddle during some heavy rain one year and it turned out to be more than a puddle. It was too late before he realized it was too deep and the engine stalled, water started coming into it. It only had 30k on it. He climbed out of the sunroof and had a tow truck come get it. He thought it was totalled but he let it dry out for a couple weeks...chnged the fluids, plugs, etc. It started right up and he is still driving it today with almost 200k on it. The only problem he has had was a bad A/C compresssor.

Im one of tho ethat would but a flood car in a heartbeat. Of course I wouldnt buy just any flood car but it wouldnt scare me away either. Id love to haul a car out of the bottom of a lake and get it road worthy again, lol. I guess I get just enjoy that sort of stuff.

On that note, I would never buy one with the intentions of fixing it up and reselling it. It would stricktly be for my own use and when its done id scrap it or part it out. In my eyes its a great way to get a car I want for a great price. I dont mind having to fix this and that down the road, I have to do that anyway sometimes with non flood vehicles, lol.
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Old 02-16-2013, 07:26 AM
 
Location: Southern NH
2,541 posts, read 5,829,651 times
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I bought one once and may have just been lucky. It was a 1996 Acura RL (the large Acura sedan; was called a Legend in previous years). New, the car would have been $45k. In 2000, it was worth about $25k used (48k miles). I bought it for $15k and drove it for 8 years. It died at 251k miles.

The story was that the car had gone into a puddle and water had been sucked up into the engine. The car did have a kind of low air intake... The insurance company totaled it as the engine was ruined. A dealer bought it from the insurance company and put an engine in from a 97 that had been totaled in a wreck. He told me to check under the seats for moisture. Showed me how the power seats worked as they are the first thing to go if the water had gotten inside the passenger compartment...

That said, with all the electronics in cars these days, it is a risky move... If there is a certain kind of car you really love and have experience with and can do some of the work yourself, it may work out. For low cost point A to point B hassle free driving, maybe not...
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Old 02-16-2013, 07:38 AM
 
Location: Southern NH
2,541 posts, read 5,829,651 times
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Other sites for this include Salvage Cars - Repairables - Rebuildables and more... and Copart USA - The Source for Online Car Auctions - Home Page.
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Old 02-16-2013, 02:26 PM
 
Location: West Texas
2,366 posts, read 1,636,739 times
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Flood waters contain a cocktail of every chemical that is released into the environment. Industrial solvents, fertilizer runoff, leaked automotive fluids, road salt, sea salt, etc. These chemicals are highly corrosive to the copper printed circuit boards which are in every modern car. The car is pretty much a ticking time bomb and will eventually fail unless you replace every electrical component.
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Old 02-16-2013, 03:20 PM
 
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It's really a mixed bag, but I think a lot of late model salvage vehicles are false economy esp when purchased by lay people.
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