In recent weeks, used cars from Germany, which were flooded in the summer months of last year, have started to be sold on the Czech market. “Used car buyers are now at greater risk of unknowingly purchasing a car that has been flooded in the past,” warns Cebia, a company that investigates the history of used cars.
“In recent weeks, we have recorded in our Autotracer car inspection system after an insurance event, which was assessed by the insurance company as total economic damage due to summer flood damage, and later these flooded vehicles were advertised and repaired on Czech advertising portals,” said Cebia CEO Martin Pajer. .
What exactly does that mean? That the fraudsters in the Czech Republic are trying to identify cars that have undergone a “repair” and, after cleaning, look to the world, even though it was totally destroyed. Of course, the damage record is usually missing in the submitted history of the car.
“Most importers withdraw from the intention to import a car to the Czech Republic after finding out that it is a flooded car, but a large part of dealers who are much closer to a high financial profit than customer satisfaction are still closer,” notes Pajer.
By buying such a car, repairing it and then selling it to a buyer who has no idea of its true history, dishonest sellers can lose tens of thousands of crowns.
Head of the car bazaar association: The used market will change significantly this year. Unfortunately for the worse
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It does not always have to be a scam. Some dealers may buy an already repaired vehicle without knowing its past and offer it to customers without information that it has been flooded.
Why is buying a flooded car a risk?
Flooded cars can have problems with electronics or the engine, even after a few months of cleaning and drying the car.
“Newer cars are much more vulnerable to flooding than more technologically obsolete cars. In addition to their rich electronic equipment, this is associated with material savings in reducing production costs.
Today, the most susceptible units are no longer engines, manual transmissions or chassis components, but above all electrical installations and emission systems, “describes Jan Karnolt, a Ford vehicle technician and specialist from Beecamsolutions.cz, which deals with consulting for car repair shops and by checking the technical condition of used Ford vehicles.
How many used cars does the tachometer have in the Czech Republic? Insurance companies are not surprised
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It is therefore necessary to focus the inspection mainly on cable harnesses and their connections, especially in hard-to-reach passages and ducts inside the body. “If turbid water enters the catalytic converters or soot filters located in the exhaust pipe under the vehicle or in the fuel tanks, AdBlue and other operating charges, it is not easy and sometimes not at all possible to clean these areas so that the vehicle systems continue to function reliably,” Karnolt.
The owner then often has a complicated process of putting the vehicle into operation at the cost of a long-running search for the cause of the defect, followed by the replacement of parts at a price approaching the cost of purchasing such a “car for all the money”.
“That’s why you really need to be vigilant and either avoid such offers or have the vehicle checked by an independent expert before you buy it,” points out Jan Karnolt.
How to recognize a flooded car?
The consequences of flooding a car are relatively difficult to eliminate. Note the following features of the vehicle:
A musty smell in the interior
Traces of mud and sediment under the upholstery or carpet
Oxidized or rusting seat mounts
Irregular engine operation
Defective electrical or electronic parts of the vehicle
However, if you are not an expert, then it is best to contact a specialist who will inspect your car before you buy it. The flooding of the car can also be determined, for example, from the online system auto tracer, which serves to check the history of used cars and which also includes information on the damage, its extent and financial quantification of the damage. There may also be photos of the vehicle after the insured event or from an advertisement.
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In addition, it is possible to find out whether the vehicle does not have a twisted tachometer, for which country it was manufactured, what is the actual year of its production, whether it is registered as stolen or encumbered by leasing or consumer credit, what is its current market price, whether, how and for how much has been advertised in the past and a number of other useful information.
