The Associated Press is reporting that insurance claims for vehicles damaged by superstorm Sandy might have been exaggerated a little bit. Hundreds of thousands of cars were predicted to be flood-damaged by the superstorm and predictions spread by companies like Carfax were reportedly not as bad as expected.
Many companies were saying that the total number of vehicles damaged last week would "easily" surpass the total number of cars destroyed of affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Over 600,000 cars were damaged or destroyed because of Katrina accord to the AP, and the number of cars damaged by Sandy will be a mere "fraction" of that number.
"It's not anything near what we're talking about in the Katrina situation," said James Appleton, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, which represents more than 500 dealers to The Detroit Free Press.
Click here to find out what to do if your car has suffered water damage from superstorm Sandy.
Insurance companies like Progressive, Nationwide and State Farm have received around 32,000 claims due to the superstorm, a large number in itself, but nowhere near 600,000. Flooded cars that have been declared "total losses" by auto insurance companies must get new titles deeming them as a damaged vehicle.
This won't stop owners and used car dealerships from trying to sell you a water damaged car however. Some owners will go as far as bringing the car to another state, re-titling the vehicle, and selling it as if it has never had any problems.
Make sure you either go to a site like Carfax or NICB yourself or ask a dealer to show you the entire history of a car you are interested in purchasing on paper before even taking the car for a test run.
Approximately 14,000 new cars were harmed during the superstorm while sitting on docks near New York awaiting shipment to local dealerships accord to The Detroit Free Press. A good number of those cars won't even make their final destination as they have either been damaged by flooding, high winds, or from objects crashing on top of them.
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