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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: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday September 04 2017, @01:36PM
Huh? A lot of this is totally wrong. Carmakers are still making all-new engine designs; the "SkyActiv" engines in Mazdas are only a few years old or so, and they're supposed to be introducing a HCCI engine in a year or two. Other automakers are much the same; no one's still using shitty old engines from the 90s now.
Wheels are completely recyclable. What do you think people do when they damage an OEM wheel? There's a healthy industry for used OEM wheels, since the brand-new ones cost a fortune, and aluminum wheels do crack once in a while (like from hitting a large pothole, or being curbed too many times). Axles are also recycled; where do you think AutoZone gets those "remanufactured" axles they sell? The rubber boots on axles don't last forever, and it's generally much easier to just replace the entire axles than to take it apart to replace the boot. Most axle remanufacturing probably amounts to little more than just taking it apart, replacing the boots, checking the CV joints are still within spec, and calling it done.
With electronics, electronic modules under the hood (plus the harnesses) are usually waterproof, so unless they got electrically damaged somehow, they're probably OK, and will likely be resold on the used market.