Where did all the flood damaged vehicles end up after Hurricane Sandy?

[Jonny042]

Hello all,

I am looking for a new SUV to replace mine - a specific model that is somewhat rare, (Trailblazer SS) At any given time there aren't too many for sale online.

For some reason many (percentage wise) of the trucks I'm seeing online have a NY ownership history and are suspiciously trading hands at auction a month or two after Sandy hit the east coast, then ending up in Florida. A few are hitting other states too, Alabama, North Carolina, MI, WI.

Is there something about the title process in NY that allows crooks to "wash" titles easily, and conceal the flood damage? Or is the trouble on the florida end?

It does not seem to be a good time to be shopping for a clean, unmolested, used vehicle. For some reason every seller turns into a lying bastard when it comes time to sell a vehicle. How can you say "lady driven" or "always garaged" when you've owned a 7 year old vehicle for 2 years, and it went through 3 dealer auctions before you bought it at crazycheapcars.com?

Sorry for the rant.

Thanks in advance, Jon

[Rick V]

Do your best to inspect the vehicle you are interested in or hire someone to do it for you. There are a few places to look for signs of a submerged vehicle that the average person will not look.

[drcoastline]

"Is there something about the title process in NY that allows crooks to "wash" titles easily, and conceal the flood damage? Or is the trouble on the florida end?"

I'm in NJ it is relatively easy to have a salvage title turned back into a regular title and have the history disappear for a person in the know. Document the repair, keep receipts for the repairs, take required photos, take it to a approved inspection facility and a good title gets issued. That's it. I do not believe however the car fax report changes so it should show a damage report to the insurance company.

[LeeH]

Yep... going to be a lot of flood cars around for years to come.



I saw a Mazda on Ebay... an admitted flood car. The seller said the water got just high enough to get the carpet wet. Funny thing was that there was rust visible inside the lighter in one of their pics!

[BE911SC]

There's too much money to be made selling those vehicles. Buyer beware.

[speeder]

Florida is the easiest state to "wash" a title in, from what I've heard. There also seems to be an inordinate number of eBay cars being sold from Florida. That is not to say that every vehicle in Fla. is a suspect POS but beware.