The Great Flood: Steps to Protect Yourself From Owning a Flood-Vehicle

It has been four years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept through parts of Louisiana and Texas, uprooting the lives and homes of thousands of Americans. More specifically, thousands of vehicles were also affected by the floods, too. In fact, many of the flood damaged vehicles, like the folks who were affected, were shipped out of the area and scattered around the U. S.

Moreover, many of the muddy vehicles landed at used car lots, after they had been cleaned up and were resold as non-flood damaged units to unsuspecting customers. Unlike non-flood damaged vehicles, flood damaged vehicles are typically worth 40% to 60% less than non-flood damaged vehicles.

Just as we learned late last year that our financial markets have been unregulated for years, causing the current recession, the same is also true for used car market, too, as it relates to industry not being regulated. By this, we mean, still today there isn't a national unified system that has been put in place from state-to-state for used car buyers (or state officials) to track flood damaged or, for that matter, stolen vehicles.

Conversely, like a mid-day traffic jam, political wranglings with the insurance companies, a number of state governments and legislatures have placed used car buyers at the crossroads, while the American public continues to wait for Congress to pass a bill.

While consumers are awaiting for Congress to implement a unified national vehicle data base, they can minimize the risk of purchasing a flood damaged vehicle by taking note of the tips we provided to The Washington Post and other media sources several years ago.

In addition to using the tips featured in The Washington Post, click here to peruse the government database to make sure sure you're not buying a stolen or re-titled vehicle.