With all the flooding from the hurricane there will be tons of cars sold of as salvage titled cars. What do you guys think of trying to get new vehicle at a cheap price? Anyone ever do this before ? Am I insane ? I'm sure there will be damage to electronic components, and probably replacement of interiors needs to be assumed but I'm thinking the body and frame should be fine. I would guess at a minimum the engine would need to be disassembled and rebuilt or even replaced. What are your thoughts ?

I'd steer clear myself.

Quoted: With all the flooding from the hurricane there will be tons of cars sold of as salvage titled cars. What do you guys think of trying to get new vehicle at a cheap price? Anyone ever do this before ? Am I insane ? I'm sure there will be damage to electronic components, and probably replacement of interiors needs to be assumed but I'm thinking the body and frame should be fine. I would guess at a minimum the engine would need to be disassembled and rebuilt or even replaced. What are your thoughts ?

Steer way clear of flood cars .

Unless you are willing to gut it to a steel shell and replace
inch of wiring and every solid state component , along with
most of the interior . Which on a late model vehicle is better
then 60% of its value .

Back in the early 90's tens of thousands of flood
cars  came out of the mid west from the Mississippi
floods , and I had the displeasure of having dozens of them
come through my shop here in the northeast .

Not one of them lasted more then 18 months . Including
an 850 iL BMW that the owner put more then $ 30,000 in
trying to save it .

I thought it was probably not a great idea but you don't know unless you ask

Someone got a Miata,threw out all the electronics,and put a small-block Ford V-8 in it. Had to get new seats,carpet,but other than that,got it for next to nothing.

Not this flood..With all the toxins floating around and the possibility of getting seawater your probably asking for trouble

I agree w/ the assessments here. There was also a large influx of water-damaged rental cars from the big flood that hit Houston a few years back. There was a large underground garage, completely flooded, that held a bunch of new cars waiting to be distributed to rental car agencies. There were warnings about these cars coming to the market at rock-bottom prices. Those cars were damaged with "clean" water and I would not even think of getting one. Those ones from Katrina should be quarantined as bio-hazards......

Hell send them all my way, there are tons of useable parts ripe for the pickin! All the body panels, every piece of glass, and rims! How many of you think that the water would have affected some of the rims that people have paid a $1,000 for.  

But to restore one to a working condition, forget it! I know of a guy that bought a '93 Vet for a song in '94 after Iowa had some major flooding. He spent two years in a 2 stall garage tearing the car completely apart. He had to clean off every connector, and put new grease in them, and spent more time than most people spend restoring a '37 rust bucket!

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