Would you buy a rebuilt flooded car?

[Nukeman7]

Is that because of your encounter with one?
If so, I understand.

I had one years ago, a 3 door '84 Rabbit L with stick.
Was fantastically fun to drive around town yet consistently broken, regardless of the amount of new OEM parts I used to repair it with.

True statement, if there ever was one. By the way, aftermarket parts are often an improvement over VW OEM parts. One of my VWs had THREE OEM speedometers replaced under the 36,000 mile new vehicle warranty. I got rid of it before it needed a fourth one.

My suspicion is that it's Mexican build may have something to do with it's reliability.

I doubt it, we've had three VWs, one Audi, and a BMW that were all built in Deutschland and the reliability was horrendous on all five vehicles. I am a slow learner, but never again.

 

[Owen Lucas]

I'd stay away from flood vehicles of any kind. Doesn't matter if it's the preferrable freshwater flood to me, pretty sure the water can still be conductive. Unless it was flooded at a water distillation plant, then nope. What would bother me is the possibility an SRS connector might fail in the future and you have no airbags or they randomly go off.

As an adjuster, when I would try to get odometer readings from flooded cars, I would lean really far back if the bags went off so I wouldn't be injured.

And yes you can get an ODO reading from a flood car. Either back feed electricity through the cigarette lighter with a double male ended 12 cord or jump the battery. Only had smoke and sparks once and never set fire to a car unlike that State Farm guy at IAA . One of the fork drivers saw the fire, came by and scooped it up while ablaze and dropped it off in an empty part of the yard, that guy saved the day!

 

[Oillover]

I doubt it, we've had three VWs, one Audi, and a BMW that were all built in Deutschland and the reliability was horrendous on all five vehicles. I am a slow learner, but never again.

My BMW's have been the most reliable vehicles I've ever owned.
Mind you, they are/were both 6 cylinder e30's with manual transmissions.

 

[ls1mike]

Is that because of your encounter with one?
If so, I understand.

I had one years ago, a 3 door '84 Rabbit L with stick.
Was fantastically fun to drive around town yet consistently broken, regardless of the amount of new OEM parts I used to repair it with.
My suspicion is that it's Mexican build may have something to do with it's reliability.

Yep an 02 TDi. Miserable car.

 

[Exhaustgases]

A flooded car or truck? I would not if it had anything to do with salt water, all inner panels are junk then.
If it was a brand newish vehicle or a collector vehicle that I liked. And the price was not over $1000. then yes maybe.
If its a new vehicle it would have to be completely stripped down to the bare body shell, it would need all the wire harnesses unwrapped, and cleaned dried and checked, all the electronic black boxes would need to be opened up and checked and cleaned dried out etc.
Then of course the other stuff like seats interior cloth items, carpet, leather or? would need attention, all airbag type thingy's would need to be replaced, engine, transmission, rear end, would need a good check out. The bar body would need to be flipped around to make sure all the hidden area's are drained real good. It would take a good year or more for one person to do it all if they worked on it steady.
It would take me 4 or 5 years to do it.

 

[Leo99]

I'm not rich nor poor enough nor have enough time and patience to mess around with a flooded car.

 

[zzyzzx]

Would you buy a rebuilt flooded car?​

 

[Allaneddie]

Flooded cars should be crushed and made into something useful, like refrigerators or cans for food.

My Chrysler 300C was flooded (salt water in downtown Charleston, SC). I was happy to take the check from the insurance company and wave goodbye, though I really liked that car.

 

[zzyzzx]

The thing about flood cars, is that for it to be financially viable to the purchaser, they need to be heavily discounted, as in like free.

 

[loneryder]

Salt water or fresh water flood?

Hurricane Ian was a mix of salt water and river water in the Ft Myers area. I had a Mercedes convertible filled the the top of the windows. House had 4.5’ of water in it. There wasn’t visible salt left behind. One big problem was that it was in the 90’s after the storm and houses and cars were closed up. Quite an incubator for all the nasty stuff in that water.

 

[BHopkins]

When it comes to buying a car with a branded title due to flood damage, the advice given to me is to pass if the flood level covered the seat cushions. If the water line is lower than that, then damage to wiring and electronics should be minimal. Above that, and it should be a hard pass.

@GON , I remember when you bought your S550, but cannot recall the details. How severe was the flood damage?