‘Total Loss’ Flooded Cars For Resale
EL PASO, TX. – With all the recent flash floods around town many cars have literally floated away! Many times for the owners that means a total loss…or does it?
Certainareasaround ElPaso arenotorious for flooding out and making cars look more like boats. Well, now a word of caution goes out to the consumer, who might unknowingly be buying these water damaged cars. At one point Thursday, several cars were almost completely submerged under water on El Paso’s westside as the flood waters quickly overtook and stalled out engines.
Car experts say once the water recedes and the cars dry many times theyend up on the market for sale without the consumer everknowing about the water damage. Car salesmen say it happened after Storm 2006, and is very likely to happen now that so many cars have flooded out around the borderland in the past two days.
“It’s a commonthing that there are many of those.I mean with the flooding, people say ‘Get rid of it and get something else,’ but there aremany on street corners, and even in car lots.” Jaime Montelongo, a used car expert in El Paso, said. There are several things buyers can do to make surethey arenot buying a car with flood water damage.
Experts say one of the first signs is the smell of the car, also many times these cars have clear signs of rusting along the sides of the door, and finally another clear sign is if the upholstery inside the car is discolored in anyway.
