12v battery issue

Well I wanted to close this thread out with a resolution or rather a non-resolution. As I mentioned, the car is in New Orleans and I am in New York. Long story short, when I called the dealer they said the car had been in a flood and I was convinced they were mistaken but they sent photographs and sure enough you could see where the water had reached halfway up the door and saturated the driver seat in the front.

I am not going to worry now about why my son did not notice that obvious and salient fact as I have bigger fish to fry. My assumption was the insurance company would total it but the dealer did not feel like it was a huge deal and because of the substandard stormwater drainage system in the city apparently flooded cars are quite a common occurrence and they deal with cleaning them up. He said they would tear out the interior and the carpet dry it out And clean up the electronics. I’m waiting to hear from my insurance company frankly I’m hoping they just total it and mail me a check

 

funny that you mentioned that bulletin, I just minutes ago emailed it to the insurance adjuster and service writer. My concern is they are going to try to do it on the cheap and that’s just not gonna work out. I’m also concerned that the car has been sitting all soggy since Friday and now it’s Wednesday. I think if it was an out-of-state appraiser they would total it but flooded cars are pretty common down there and they seemed kind of casual about it. There is quite a lot listed in that TSB in terms of things to check.

 

The dealer down there in New Orleans says they have done many hundreds of flood cars over the year and they don’t tend to come back. But then again, dealers say all kinds of things don’t they. I have a long drive to get the thing home which might give me some indication of issues but as you say my larger concern is the car becomes unreliable over time. I’m also not crazy that it will have a flood repair on the carfax and I assume I will need to disclose this when I trade. I’m not comfortable selling it private party without disclosing either, I’m not that sort of person.