Stupid me drove into a deep puddle in Jersey due the heavy downpour last night.

Anyway, now the car is sitting in a garage in Jersey, and I need to decide what to do with it. The garage told me that they can junk it and deduct 80 bux from the tow fee. I was thinking have them tow it back and I can donate it for tax benefit. Anyone has any idea how they determine value of a flooded car?

 

IMO, if they will total it, I'd say total it if you can get 80%+ of market value. I had the same happen to me and despite the fact that I wanted them to total it...they fixed it...:S and I believe that no matter how much they fix the car, a flooded car will never be the same

 

I don't have comprehensive insurance, so don't think I can get any money back from insurance I total it.

 

That must have been one monster puddle to total a car.

 

That sucks!! No coverage? Maybe you can get a decent amount as a write-off if you donate it.

 

yes, the puddle was deep. But the rain was so hard, an hour later, I see about 6 cars including mine were half way submerged into water. The cops closed off the highway, and I have no idea when and how the tow truck got all of the cars out.

 

If you cant total it thru insurance why dont you just part it out? Are you saying the garage will give you 80$ for the car? You can get way more from parting it out.

 

wow... that sounds like wrong place wrong time

sorry for ur loss

 

Thought about that too, but that is a lot of time and effort. Need to tow the car back, sell stuff off, and still need to junk the rest afterwards.

 

Yes it does a require effort, but come on your just giving it to the shop for 80 dollars. You def can tow it back , part it out and make a lot more money 80 bucks plus bay back in the initial tow fee. Especially if your car has any mods , I'm sure you can get some decent money.

Don't give it to the shop. Or if you really want to keep the car, see if you can try to find another engine somewhere and maybe try to put that in, instead of buying a new car. Regardless, what you decide to do , don't give it to the shop and weigh out your options while the car is in the vicinity of your home rather then being pressured by the garage on what to do with the car or possibly even having to pay for storage fee if the garage is a douche. Be positive man, wish you the best of luck.

 

yea the garage will easily get 1 to 3k from parting it out, thatd be a good deal for them.

 

Thanks man. That is my inclination too. I don't want to make any haste and easy decision. The car is more than 9 years old (but low milage though, 57K miles), KBB gives around 7 to 8K. If I can donate it to a charity group and write off half of it, I will be more than happy. Not sure, think the best thing for me is to have it tow it back first.

 

2001 Acura CL Type-S, Non-NAV, about 57K miles with some mods Comptech sways, Tokico shocks, AEM pulleys and CAI.

I guess when i get the car back, i will take a few pics and start a thread in blackmarket to see how things are.

But you are in Texas bro, and I am in NY.

 

even if u were in afghanistan....

 

haha... funny bro. That is cool, we will talk when I get the car back. I haven't seen the damages. The garage told me it might be totaled.

 

pm me when u get the pictures up.

 

yea yesterday was crazy night here. but i know where i see puddle i let everybody else go there first and check it for me, if its to deep i backup. i wont go in with my CAI

 

Yeah it was. I have never seen such a deep flood in the middle of highway. I was avoiding the deep water on the right side (there is already a car disabled ), and and on the left side there is like a grass median which seemed high above ground, i thought maybe there is less water than the left, but it turned out it was a lot deeper. Later on, when I took shelter at a nearby car dealership, they told me that this happens every time when it downpours and couple of year ago a cop car also had the same fate while on the left side of the highway, because it is actually a lot lower on the left due to a sewage duct that never works.

The water kept on rising, while I was in the dealership, I saw another 4 cars drove in and never made it out (I was gonna go out and yell at them to stop, but that would never have worked due the bad weather, I was literally separated by a running RIVER!!!), including a brand new looking Ford Edge thinking it can "fording" the water, but never made it. It took the cops couple of hours to block off the highway. When my dad picked me up from the dealership, all cars were half-way submerged in water, so not sure how deep and bad it really got though.

As much as it is my fault, I am kind of wondering how the local authority maintain their highway system. Last night, I encountered at least 3 big floods in Jersey, but guess never made it out the last one.

 

where was it ?

 

Rt. 440 South, somewhere between to Bayonne and Jersey City, Hudson country I think.

 

i had the same prob with my old accord back in i think 03....in Cali.... i was going to school and decided to drive pass a minor flooded intersection (it was the craziest raining day i remember).... all the drains in the city were some how clogged....so i decided to drive over it and my damn car died halfway going through.... so i thought i'd sit there and wait for the water to go back down to restart my car...... but that damn water started rising!! next thing you know water started coming through my doors....few more min later i had to push open the door and climb on my roof of the car....water got up to the side view mirrors on my 91 accord lol....everything was pretty much useless on that car except for the body which i sold back then for 900 lol.

 

I used to drive that all the time.
Sorry man.

 

What do you mean "sold it back'? So there are actual garages that buy flooded cars? Maybe I should put an ad after getting my car back. Thanks bro.

 

if i were u, i would part out the car as much as u can.... then sell the car on craigslist and let people know it was flooded so the body/exterior is still in excellent shape (not sure how your car looks)... but people sometimes like to take the parts from it... so it depends if you want to part it out or sell it whole.

i sold mine on craigslist as a whole...didnt do a part out since the car was so old..but the body was in excellent shape....

 

All good points. First time this ever happened to me, so taking advices from every possible sources.

Thanks guys. I will find out the condition of the car tomorrow.

 

either one you can go wrong just do it ....

 

Pics or it didn't happen.

JK Bro, That sucks man. I don't see how a puddle could total a car. Unless your suspension is meow royally fucked up, or the nuclear fall out that dirty jersey is desecrated your car. I might be interested in some parts, as long as your engine isn't terribly hydro locked. Don't forget about the whole pull the plugs crank it, drain the oil and swap the filter deal..

 

Haha, pic or didn't happen. Bro, taking pics was the last thing in my mind when I climbed out of car.

 

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...nj_leaves.html

 

so what happened?

 

Did you get the car back? If yes wassup with some pics? Did water get into the interior? You can get an engine for about $500

 

Parts requests are not allowed in here, if he's parting, he will have to make a thread in the BM.

 

Dsnt sound or seem like he will part it anyway. I bet he just got 80 for it and wont be back on here.

 

^if that was the case he should have just sold it to nauman...