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from the random-and-intermittent-failures dept.
https://qz.com/1066966/how-many-cars-were-destroyed-by-hurricane-harvey/ and also at other news outlets.
For Harvey victims, it's going to be rough if they lost their car, Houston is a very car-dependent city. Like many states, Texas only requires liability insurance — only those that bought comprehensive coverage will be able to claim the loss on insurance.
Ideally most of these flooded cars will be scrapped, as it's very likely water damage to electrical systems and other parts are not cost effective to repair professionally. However, there will be "new" and used cars on the market that have been underwater (to a greater or lesser extent). Many will be sold "as is" and some of them will be cleaned up and sold fraudulently as if they were not damaged. Buyer beware, these cars will be shipped all over in search of buyers (marks?)
After Katrina, friends of mine with time on their hands bought several new-flooded Honda Civics (which they were familiar with from building "street stock" race cars). They pulled out the interior and then the full wiring harness. Bought new harness from Honda and replaced everything, and had perfectly good near-new cars for pennies on the dollar (and a few days of hard labor).
(Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Monday September 04 2017, @03:00AM
Meanwhile, here in BC, gas has gone up to $1.44 a litre, or close to $4 American for an American gallon. First they jacked the prices for the eclipse, now due to the shortage in Texas (as if we get gas from Texas) they've jacked it more. What I really love is the competition, they manage to up the price within an hour usually, which company will charge more for the gas already in their tanks the quickest is how they compete. Some time after Xmas the cheaper gas that Texans are already enjoying will work its way through the system to here.