Expert: Beware hurricane-damaged vehicles

[Guest guest]

Expert: Beware hurricane-damaged vehicles

Thursday, October 6, 2005 Posted: 1422 GMT (2222 HKT)

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/10/06/fix/

Look out: Some of these cars could end up for sale on eBay or in a

used-car lot.SPECIAL REPORT

Manage Alerts | What Is This? (CNN) -- Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

left in their wake about 350,000 ruined vehicles, and experts warn

that some vehicles that should be declared a total loss might find

their way back to consumers.

CNN anchor Carol Costello spoke Thursday with car expert Fix

about how to avoid purchasing a hurricane-damaged car.

COSTELLO: It's just hard to believe that these cars could show up on

used car lots or on eBay or on the Internet. I mean, do you have

word of that yet?

FIX: Well, they are actually showing up already. What's happening

is, through some of my contacts down in New Orleans and that area,

they have told me that they're actually calling cars scrap right out

of the box just to get them totaled.

What they're supposed to be doing with these cars is shredding them

into little pieces of metallic material, sort of like the

consistency of mulch, of course, once removing all of the things

that can be a problem like batteries and tires and gasoline.

But what's happening is, if you didn't have comprehensive insurance,

these vehicles will then be stuck with the owners. And they're going

to try and clean them up and get rid of them, because you've got an

investment.

COSTELLO: Can you possibly clean them up to sell?

FIX: Most of them are not repairable. Those will be absolutely

shredded. But when you think about 350,000-plus cars, some of those

cars absolutely are going to get in the hands of people all around

the country, because what happens is people buy them at lots.

They're supposed to be trashed. And they end up going out to the

consumer, and the consumer becomes a victim again, and so do the

hurricane sufferers, who already had limited funds.

COSTELLO: You know, I saw some of these cars out in New Orleans, and

some of them, even though they were under water for two-and-a-half

weeks, actually look pretty good. Is it possible you can start them

up and drive them still?

FIX: I wouldn't do that, because what's happened is all of the water

that has been soaking in is now into the engines. It's into the

gasoline. It's into the interior. What you're getting is mold, rust

and E. coli.

So, if you were to buy one of these vehicles, as soon as you open

the door and you can smell mold, you do not want that vehicle in any

way, shape or form. You don't want to be breathing that, nor do you

want your family breathing that stuff.

COSTELLO: So, let's say that the person selling the car has figured

out how to get rid of the mold smell. What other signs do you look

for that this car might have been under water?

FIX: Well, the first thing you can do is pretty easy, you don't even

have to get your hands dirty ... you open the door and look at the

dome light. If you see moisture in the dome light -- and it doesn't

have to be full of water, just a few droplets -- obviously there's

something right there. This is not a car that you want to purchase.

You can look underneath the dash. The brackets that hold the

dashboard to the car should never be rusted. Clues that it's been

repaired on the inside would be mismatched interior, things that

just don't smell right when you turn on the air conditioning or the

heat.

And then you can always pop the trunk and the hood and look. If you

see rust on the top of the motor on the hinges of the trunk,

obviously there's something wrong. This is a vehicle that you don't

want.

But the problem is, is the government, it doesn't have a uniform

information from state to state. So, if they trash it in

Mississippi, Alabama or in Louisiana, that vehicle can still be

washed and get to another state through Pennsylvania, New York and

whatever. Now, New York and California have very strict rules, but

vehicles are still getting in.

COSTELLO: Well, the other problem is when you buy a used car, it's

very difficult to get a history of the car and what it's been

through.

FIX: Right. Carfax has done a great job. I know that a lot of

warnings have been posted on eBay. I know autoextra.com has posted

warnings on its site to please look at these lists of things before

you go ahead and purchase a car.

But the thing is, Carfax has a lot of the information. But the U.S.

government is trying to collect as much as they can. But what they

don't have is cars that weren't covered under insurance. And those

are the vehicles that are easily going to make their way back around

the country.

COSTELLO: So, the final analysis, if you see a car, and you say,

wow, that's a great deal, think twice.

FIX: There's a reason, right, definitely. If you're in doubt, be

ready to walk away, because once you sit behind that wheel and you

get to drive that vehicle, you tend to get attached to it. So,

before you go and drive it, check it out and have a certified

technician look at it.