Unhealthy and Unsafe Flood Cars Still for Sale in California as Republican State Senators and "Moderate" Dems Cave to Auto Deale

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• SB 498 would have banned sales of rotting flood cars from other states totaled after hurricanes

• Be on the alert and report abuses

By Rosemary Shahan,
President
Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety

As if life in California weren't exciting enough, we are getting dumped on by unscrupulous insurers and auto dealers who profit from the illicit trafficking in total loss vehicles, including hurricane flood cars. Yup, that cute red number your teenager finds so alluring may be a killer car that swam with the fishes.

Remember the 500,000 flood cars that we all saw on TV, submerged up to their rooftops in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma? Experts warned everyone to look out for them, since they are basically rotting from the inside out, and are totally unreliable.

According to the former president of the National Automobile Dealers Association, a lot of them were headed to auto auctions in--yes, you guessed it--California. The auctions advertise them on the internet and sell them to the highest bidders--typically, unscrupulous auto dealers who hose them down and spiff them up, to disguise the fact they are worthless, hazardous junkers. Then they sell them to unsuspecting used car buyers, usually for the going Blue Book price.

It's illegal, of course, but enforcement to curb the frauds is extremely lax, and the profit margins are staggering. An unscrupulous dealer can nab a flood car at auction for $3,000, spend $1000 to power wash it and replace the upholstery, then turn around and sell it for $12,000. They don't usually offer discounts, because that would arouse suspicion among potential buyers. It would also reduce their ill-gotten gains.

California, the nation's largest auto market, is famous worldwide as a dumping ground for hazardous junkers. According to the DMV, a whopping 2.5 million vehicles that were totalled in crashes, floods, or other disasters are being driven on our roads. Look around you---even if you don't own one, you may be killed or injured by one of the clunkers when the axle falls apart, the steering goes wacko, the brakes fail, or it stalls out in traffic.