Just a reminder... The Katrina Water cars are right now making their way thru the dealer auctions and on to public lots. These cars have been cleaned and detailed and look really quite good. It would be hard for an untrained eye to identify the history. They would, in most cases be sold at a discount but some car dealers may go for *full boat retail*. It would pay anyone looking to buy used to run a CarFax on the vehicle ID number (VIN). This also goes for any vehicle now, not just the RX8's. They have come thru the La, Al, Tx, Ms auctions in such numbers that you would not believe. Just pay attention and if the deal seems too good it probably is. ...On another note.. if you are buying parts, stick with one of the well known salvage yards like Mazmart. There are people that will buy these water cars and parting them out. Some are seeing the opportunity to cash in on cheap salvage (Katrina Water) and try to make a killing.. Remember.. you get what you pay for...

 

Carfax has a special site for this, to make it easy to check (if you have the VIN that is!)

www.carfax.com/flood

or www.nicb.org

Hope this helps...

 

The situation that may cause you trouble is with dealer car lot financing. The car looks good.. you don't have all the cash but a good down payment.. In that case you may never see the title until it's too late. The car is paid for a couple of years down the road and you have little or no chance for compensation. Do the CarFax thing.. On one other note. CarFax is somewhat like a credit reporting agency, they have little controls, meaning that no one is watching over them. There are perfectly great cars that CarFax sees as having a blemish. Trying to get CarFax to correct thie errors is almost impossible. Just be an informed buying and take all emotion out of the buying process. If in doubt, get a professional to walk you thru the process..

 

Not only that - but CarFax will not always list all the accidents a car had. Not even if there was a police report obtained. So what appears to be clean is not necessarily free from any accident.

 

If there is any question about the car, get the VIN number and call your insurance company and get them to verify it. Failing that, make the dealer give you written certification that the car is not a flood victim, and also agree in writing to take the car back and give you a full refund should the car surface as a victim later.

 

the NICB pretty much takes care of all of this. They get all the reports from all the major insurance players and post the information on their website.

If they don't have information about your particular VIN, they check to see if the car was ever registered or sold in any of the flood damaged states.

 

I'm a journalist up here, and did a story a couple months ago when these cars started showing up on lots.

Here's a link if interested: http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2005...e591886633.txt

 

As mush as I dislike government watch dogs, one of the main problems is that each state has their own title laws. What is legal in one state may be illegal in the neighboring one. A vehicle with a certificate of destruction (parts only, not for street use) in one state can become a clear title in another. Some states have strict vehicle inspections before a salvage vehicle can be brought back to street legal use. Some states have none, just submit paperwork and bills of sale and you have a legal vehicle. To put some minds to rest easy. A large number of Katrina Salvage cars will go for export. South and Central America as well as Eastern Europe are huge markets now. There, if all the systems aren't up to specs or the body isn't just perfect, it doesn't seem to matter. There is nothing wrong with a vehicle that has been rebuilt from salvage. It will never be like new, but if the savings are substantial in relation to an untouched vehicle, there always will be buyers. The problems begin when a vehicle is sold at the price of an undamaged one. ...Just to let prospective buyers know, thousands of Katrina water vehicles are sold each week now, and they are going somewhere. I saw a BMW station wagon at a sale recently that had not been cleaned. Water and sand marks everywhere. It was obviously completely under water, but no real body damage. It was marked KS for Katrina Salvage. The*book* on a clean untouched car would have been in the high teens. This vehicle brought 5k if I remember. You can do a bunch of cleanup, rebuild and detail for the difference. It will have a *water brand* on the title but if you are going to drive it for awhile.. some would think that it's a heck of a deal. Especially if it goes to a country where labor costs are cheap and cars are in high demand.. just my 2 centavos...

 

I cant even imagine some of the problems those cars are gonna have.

 

Rotarygoober: what you wrote is a particular problem in border areas, like the Quad-Cities where I live, which has different laws in Illinois and Iowa.

Iowa consumer protection laws tend to be stricter, but if a title is "washed" in Illinois, then brought back to Iowa, it is now clean.

 

Are we taking about "New" cars that are being auctioned off because of Katrina or USED cars? Looking for a new 05 RX8 in the Tampa area, wouldn't want to get stuck with a flooded car.

 

From what I hear in the industry... There is a loophole where dealers are *cleaning* Katrina cars and somehow running them thru Ohio as *good title* vehicles. Carfax should pick up the history and *flood or water* is stamped on the title. BUT.. the title is *good* as with *no wrecked damage*. Salt or Brackish Water/Flood cars are in a different slot than any other Title situation. It should always remain on the title. Do your homework and remember that there is nothing with a properly repaired salve vehicle if it is purchased at a discount to value. Flood vehicles are not treated in the same manner. Beware..

 

It's true, carfax is not complete. I was rearended in my previous car THREE TIMES! Twice, the police were called and a report was filed. When I ran the carfax before selling it NOT ONE of those accidents came up. And we were talking $3K+ damage EACH TIME.

Had to get rid of that car, it was haunted!!

 

What was it???

 

My old car? ... a Chrysler 300M. I hated that car, was waaaaay too big. It got called "the sh1tbox" for the last year of its existence in my garage

 

That's funny!!!!

It must have been red. My mom always buys red cars and she swears they must be invisible. She's taken to naming them Burt (like the character on that old TV show Soap that thought he was invisible)! People are always pulling out in front of her, cutting her off, or rear ending her at stop lights. She is usually always hit by a Dodge so it has been a running joke in our family for years that Dodges don't come with breaks. Fortunately she has avoided the rear ending for years but not the other stuff. None of it ever happened the year she had a silver car.

 

haha no ... charcoal. god, did i hate that car!

 

How ironic! I read recently that silver cars are more invisible to people than any other color. Go figure

 

And they said silver was cursed. Must just be the RX-8.

 

You must not have ordered the ol' sunlight silver, Bunny.

Btw, I thought it was the titanium 8s that are cursed?

 

I thought it was all silvers. Mine is Winning Blue.

 

Aw hellz naw. Silver for sure!! I own a titanium so they better not be lol

 

Curse of sunlight silver ...

 

I like 300Ms. I wish they sold them here... nice size, good handling, very practical. Easy to reverse park, too. Just a shame the engine is so harsh when extended and relatively gutless low down.

 

take the shifter **** off and pull the boot stright up in a manual and look under there. you'll be able to tell instantly if there was ever any water damage.