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Wow, What is more, when you see all those cars that are going to be 'totalled' by the insurance company because they were under water in the southern part of t

Wow, What is more, when you see all those cars that are going to be 'totalled' by the insurance company because they were under water in the southern part of the US or on the east coast, those cars used to be sold for pennies on the dollar in "salvage sales" in which salvage dealers would recover parts and/or do enough repairs to resell them with a salvage title. The bidding for those cars is much more intense given the demand by rental car companies for stock, any stock, to boost their fleets. Well, the thing about flood-cars is they can look and drive fine but really merit being called totalled - having been submerged makes corrosion inevitable in a much quicker time frame. All of the electrical parts will go bad in X time frame. Maybe these can be kept going long enough to bring value to companies but it seems like you'll have a lot more car renters on the side of the road than normal. "Water can ruin electronics, lubricants, and mechanical systems. It may take months or years, but corrosion can find its way to the car's vital electronics, including airbag controllers." https://www.consumerreports.org/buying-a-car/beware-the-flood-of-flood-cars/ https://www.consumerreports.org/buying-a-car/beware-the-floo...

lazide 5y ago
If they can keep them going a year or even two it might be worth it for them in the current supply crunch - food for thought. These won’t be sitting in someone’s garage 90% of the time, they’ll be on the road. That said, not looking forward to having to rent a car and dealing with mold or more frequent breakdowns on the side of the road!
bityard 5y ago
I exclusively buy newer used cars and keep them forever because 1) I want to suffer the pain of buying a car as rarely as possible 2) I want to let someone else take the big up-front depreciation hit that comes with that intoxicating new car smell. Every car from a dealership these days comes with a CarFax and these have become mostly useless as a buying tool ever since they became a car sales tool. However, they do often give you some insight into where a car has been via registration and title changes. I keep a record of recent hurricanes and where reports of flooding happened. If I'm looking at a car, the first thing I want to look at is the CarFax to see if it's ever been out of state so that I can cross-reference it to my hurricane/flooding list. If there is any indication that the car might have been in the same state at the time that a flood happened, it's an immediate hard pass. Doesn't matter if there's no visible evidence of being a flood car, doesn't matter if the title is green. Some outfits are very good at cleaning up flood cars to look close enough to normal that the average joe can't tell the difference. All flood cars are supposed to get a salvage title but a lot of them slip through the cracks. It doesn't take a lot of searching to find anecdotes from burned buyers online. I have passed on several cars that looked like great deals but came from flood zones and possibly passed through the hands of a few unscrupulous auctions, mechanics, and dealers on their way to my region.
- llampx 5y ago
  It's been a hot minute since I last saw a "barely used" car going for an appreciable discount over a brand new one. Even today you may be able to find a better deal on a new car where the dealership isn't adding a scalping fee. For the reliable cars like Honda Civics and in-demand ones the 1st year depreciation wasn't actually all that much compared to buying it new with a good dealer discount, urban legends notwithstanding.
  - timgebrally 5y ago
    Yeah for me when we were buying our next minivan Honda it was more important that we didn't end up buying the first cars in a generation refresh. The first year of a generation tends to have more bugs than others. New vs like-new doesn't matter for the big reliable mass produced cars. https://www.autolist.com/honda-odyssey/honda-odyssey-generations https://www.autolist.com/honda-odyssey/honda-odyssey-generat...
  - ry4nolson 5y ago
    If GP is like me, it's related to buying used higher end and/or "luxury" brand vehicles. In my experience, my previous 2 vehicles were 2 and 3 years old respectively and cost roughly ~60% of sticker price.
    - Rebelgecko 5y ago
      I imagine this is a big motivator for car companies to start moving towards a CaaS model
      - zetazzed 5y ago
        Volvo is trying this! They call it a car subscription. Doesn't seem like it has had a huge impact, though: https://www.volvocars.com/us/care-by-volvo/ https://www.volvocars.com/us/care-by-volvo/
        jjeaff 5y ago

lazide 5y ago

If they can keep them going a year or even two it might be worth it for them in the current supply crunch - food for thought. These won’t be sitting in someone’s garage 90% of the time, they’ll be on the road. That said, not looking forward to having to rent a car and dealing with mold or more frequent breakdowns on the side of the road!

bityard 5y ago

I exclusively buy newer used cars and keep them forever because 1) I want to suffer the pain of buying a car as rarely as possible 2) I want to let someone else take the big up-front depreciation hit that comes with that intoxicating new car smell. Every car from a dealership these days comes with a CarFax and these have become mostly useless as a buying tool ever since they became a car sales tool. However, they do often give you some insight into where a car has been via registration and title changes. I keep a record of recent hurricanes and where reports of flooding happened. If I'm looking at a car, the first thing I want to look at is the CarFax to see if it's ever been out of state so that I can cross-reference it to my hurricane/flooding list. If there is any indication that the car might have been in the same state at the time that a flood happened, it's an immediate hard pass. Doesn't matter if there's no visible evidence of being a flood car, doesn't matter if the title is green. Some outfits are very good at cleaning up flood cars to look close enough to normal that the average joe can't tell the difference. All flood cars are supposed to get a salvage title but a lot of them slip through the cracks. It doesn't take a lot of searching to find anecdotes from burned buyers online. I have passed on several cars that looked like great deals but came from flood zones and possibly passed through the hands of a few unscrupulous auctions, mechanics, and dealers on their way to my region.

llampx 5y ago
It's been a hot minute since I last saw a "barely used" car going for an appreciable discount over a brand new one. Even today you may be able to find a better deal on a new car where the dealership isn't adding a scalping fee. For the reliable cars like Honda Civics and in-demand ones the 1st year depreciation wasn't actually all that much compared to buying it new with a good dealer discount, urban legends notwithstanding.
- timgebrally 5y ago
  Yeah for me when we were buying our next minivan Honda it was more important that we didn't end up buying the first cars in a generation refresh. The first year of a generation tends to have more bugs than others. New vs like-new doesn't matter for the big reliable mass produced cars. https://www.autolist.com/honda-odyssey/honda-odyssey-generations https://www.autolist.com/honda-odyssey/honda-odyssey-generat...
- ry4nolson 5y ago
  If GP is like me, it's related to buying used higher end and/or "luxury" brand vehicles. In my experience, my previous 2 vehicles were 2 and 3 years old respectively and cost roughly ~60% of sticker price.
  - Rebelgecko 5y ago
    I imagine this is a big motivator for car companies to start moving towards a CaaS model
    - zetazzed 5y ago
      Volvo is trying this! They call it a car subscription. Doesn't seem like it has had a huge impact, though: https://www.volvocars.com/us/care-by-volvo/ https://www.volvocars.com/us/care-by-volvo/
      - jjeaff 5y ago