December’s floods were a nightmare, and the likelihood is a fair few older VWs will have been affected by the inundation. Just make sure you don’t end up buy one without knowing…
A flood (sorry) of insurance write-offs from December’s waterlogged conditions are starting to appear for sale, warns market pundits Glass’s. These vehicles are usually Category C and D* insurance write-offs that have been repaired. Some are clearly described as such but others are being drained, dried out – and an air freshener shoved in them and sold as if nothing had happened. And this is where the real danger lies.
Glass’s Rupert Pontin said: “The recent floods were widespread and a lot of cars will have been significantly damaged and often written off by insurers. Inevitably, some of these will have been bought and returned to a roadworthy condition.” While obviously this relates to modern cars, no doubt owners of a few classic VWs got caught out by the fast rising water levels. If they made a claim from their insurers and bought their vehicles back, they may well be about to offload them for far more than they might now be worth.
Pontin goes on to say that category C or D vehicles are worth somewhere between 25-50% below market value. “If the seller is being completely open about this, then the buyer is aware of the risk they are taking and everything is above board – but there are always some dishonest sales of this type taking place after major incidents and we are starting to hear anecdotal evidence at the moment.”
Rupert said that the highest risk tended to be from vehicles bought where there was a limited degree of redress, such as from a private seller or a less reputable motor trader. “Sometimes, a buyer only finds out that the vehicle has been flood damaged when they receive the V5 or if they try and insure the vehicle and find it has been marked as Category C or D on the insurer’s database. As always, getting a history check when buying a secondhand car will help reduce the risk of this happening. If you do get caught out however, if you have bought from anywhere other than a reputable dealer, it can be very difficult to get any kind of legal redress and a refund or compensation.
Obviously there are a variety of tell-tale signs that buyers should watch out for to avoid buying a flood victim, including a musty smelling interior, water stains on seat fabric and hard to trace niggles with electrical systems. But the difficulty with flood-damaged cars is that the issues caused by water may not become apparent for some time. Metal corrosion, for example, is often not evident until things start to go wrong, sometimes years later. “Our advice to buyers is that if they have any doubt about a car at all, just walk away. It is simply not worth taking a risk,” said Pontin.
Ian
The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage