Floods in Texas - buyers beware

[Sisente]

I know many people come to this forum for advice on purchasing vehicles. I wanted to share a brief story. Several years ago, we were looking for a vehicle for one of my daughters. At a used lot, we began looking at what appeared to be a very clean car. After looking under the hood, and under the car, I noticed a lot of rust. Rust that was unusual for a car that wasn't very old, and for a car in San Antonio. There had been recent floods in and around Houston, and I suspected this car had been a "flood car" Someone had cleaned it up, but with the amount of rust, I am sure it had been submerged. There are terrible people out there, and will do anything for a buck. Beware buying anything from Texas in the coming months.....

 

[NoDak]

and don't trust car fax to report it correctly/timely manner/etc.

title washing is still a thing.

 

[HerT4R]

as someone from Houston, whose vehicle did NOT flood, i would also like to point out there are floods everywhere, there were floods a couple years ago making it impossible to go from Arkansas to Tennessee. there are also cars in that area that were likely flooded out.

due diligence needs to be utilized in any used car search. knowledge is power and you need to be examining every inch of the vehicle, knowing what to test, what to examine, common issues, trouble spots, etc. even get a mechanic involved to do a pre-buy inspection if you aren't 100% comfortable with doing all that yourself. if it feels "fishy" at ALL, don't do it. there are always more vehicles out there that will fit your criteria.

heck my old roomie flooded out her accord in what i would consider a puddle for my 4runner haha. it happens, use your noggin and research and verify.

I agree with [MENTION=1032]NoDak[/MENTION], carfax is crap and i t-boned somebody in my solara (not my fault) and as of a couple months later, when i traded it in, it still had not hit the carfax.

rant complete haha.

 

[ic0517]

Just a few blocks from our house is low area that fills in during heavy rains.

My favorite thing is you see a car down in the middle of the 'pond' with water up almost to the roof. It was obviously parked there before the flood.

Then you see more cars that got in so far and water locked or whatever at whatever place they decided that their car was so much f'ing better than the car that is damn near submerged.

I could possibly understand if there was NOTHING to tell you the depth of the water, but if there's a f'ing car in there and its flooded up to its roof wtf.

And it happens EVERY TIME on the same block!

And don't get me started on the dumb asses spinning out on ice. Not the first person, the 20th. I'll cut #1 some slack.

 

[05Rrunner]

sometimes they'll ship them all over the country where you would never look for a flood car. This thread is a great reminder to all those out there looking.