Major floods this year damaged thousands of cars and trucks.
Carfax estimated that more than 210,000 vehicles were damaged in the floods caused by Hurricane Ida that spread from Louisiana to New England.
Now, a consumer group is warning that flood-damaged vehicles could be showing up on used-car lots.
WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with Deirdre Cummings, Consumer Program Director for MassPIRG.
Deirdre Cummings
Basically, we're seeing a couple of things happen here. One is we have a lot of really bad, unsafe, damaged, flooded cars in the marketplace, because of the hurricanes and the bad weather that we've had. Second is that everybody has heard of the chip shortage, but there is a shortage of new cars, which is then creating a shortage of used cars. And that shortage is actually leading to higher prices. And so if you're out there in the used car market, trying to find a vehicle, it's going to be pretty difficult to do so. And what we were concerned is that that consumers, we don't want them to be put in a position where they be buying an unsafe car.
Paul Tuthill
What should people do to avoid getting a vehicle that has been damaged by floodwater?
Deirdre Cummings
Sure, let me run through that. And they're pretty, really basic tips that we should all do when purchasing a used car, we have to remember that when you purchase a used car one, we're going to spend a significant amount of money in two, we want it to be safe, right? We're transporting ourselves, our families, we will be on the road with other people. So we want that car to be safe. And then you want to think sort of down the road. Well, what is the cost of maintaining that, we know that a flooded car is not going to be a safe car. And in fact, any car that has been flooded, really should only be sold for parts at auction. But so a way a consumer can protect themselves in this marketplace, it's important to know first in Massachusetts, dealers are required to disclose any known defects that may affect your purchase of that car. So they are supposed to tell you if they know something about the car, for example, if it was flooded, or just came in from Louisiana off another group of cars, for example, that were flooded. But there's some tools there that can that that we know can help protect consumers. So one is there's a vehicle identification number of VIN number which is on a metal plate in on the dashboard of that car. That identifying number will have information on it on that cars history. So you want to look up the VIN number. And there's a federal national Insurance crime bureau Vin check. So if you just type into your computer, looking up a VIN number, you'll be able to get to it on the website type in that number. And you can see some history on that car. So the first thing to do is check the VIN number. The second is you can check Carfax they offer a free flood check for any any VIN number of a car. So those are two things you can do right away. The other is if you're looking if you're on a dealership and you're looking at a car and you're very interested in it, you want to ask that dealer if you can take it to your own mechanic to take a look at they may be able to help spot some signs of flood damage. And then lastly, what we recommend to everybody is there's a number of things that you can do just inspecting the car yourself. And if you see some of these things, we have listed out 10 or 12 different things you might look for in a car to see if Oh, that's a sign that it could have been a flooded car. So some simple things like you know, do you smell mold in the car, so people have reported that a flooded car often smells This is a little bit funny, but often smells of sweaty socks. So you want to look for that you want to check underneath the rugs in a car, or check underneath the seats. And sometimes you might see water stains, you might see sand, so you want to look at that. You might look at screws that are inside of the car and see if they've started to rust. So that's another sign looking for moisture buildup in the headlights. That's a typical thing you might find. Sometimes Believe it or not, there's actually a water level mark on the inside of a car and that's that's a big giveaway. And they on the other flip side, right? If you went to look at a used car and it's let's say 10 years old, and you're looking at the inside of a car and everything is brand new. Then you want to ask yourself, well wait a minute, this is supposed to be a used car, why is everything brand new? So that would raise a flag as well. So we put together some tips to help people be their own investigator but then really, you really want to you're going to make an investment take that car off the lot in and bring it to your own mechanic and have them do a look at it.
Paul Tuthill
In the event that somebody skips all of these steps and just you know impulsively buys a vehicle and discovers later that they got stuck Is there a used car lemon law in Massachusetts?
Deirdre Cummings
Well that's a great question yes that we have a used car lemon law in Massachusetts it is somewhat time sensitive so you have to act quickly if you find yourself with a car and that car is having problems you can call that you can if you go to the attorney general's office on their website they have a consumer tips hotline so you can make a complaint that way there's also on there you'll you'll just type in used car lemon law in Massachusetts and based on the mileage of the car and the age of the car you can get a 3060 or 90 day warranty may come with that car but bottom line it also could be you know if a dealer should have known that the car had been flooded you may also get some help through that used car lemon law so that's something you want to check out if you find yourself you know you bought a car it's it's a week later, you brought it in for something and noise in the well and your mechanic says hey, by the way, this looks like it's a flooded car, then you want to take advantage of that program. Why right away?
Paul Tuthill
Where can people go to get the information that you talked about earlier as to things that they should watch out for?
Deirdre Cummings
So we have tips on our website, just Google buying a flooded car at MassPIRG.org
