THE SWIMMING CAR? WELL ... NOT REALLY

Once in a while, we get one of those cars? One of those that went through water.

You may ask yourself: a 4x4 that you use by the beach? A convertible car you take around the lake?

Well, not really, we mean one of those that got its feet (oops, wheels) plunged in water.

And no, it's not a new Tesla model or any sort of aqua-car. We are talking about flooded cars.

While it is not frequent to inspect such cars, our expert mechanics can easily spot if a car was damaged by the flood.

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A few weeks back, our customer Chaminda spotted this great affordable Nissan Armada that he planned to purchase for family purposes.

He tested the car and the road test went fine, the tires seemed to be in a good condition and there was no noise coming from the engine.

Yet, Chaminda decided to get the car tested as he wouldn't like his family to be in a car he hasn't tested.

Mechanics performed the test and were thrilled to discover that the car was involved in a flood. Not only that, but the underbody was rusty and rust-proof was needed.

To double-check the findings, we runned the VIN number into the US database to check for any accidents, and indeed, here it was: flood-damaged car / salvaged.

(even the glass was changed)

Both the seller and buyer could not believe this! While the buyer was satisfied and happy to skip this car, the seller felt confused as himself was the 3rd owner and was not aware of this issue.

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Here are few tips to spot if a car has been flooded:

1. Pull up the carpet and check for moisture

2. See if the underbody is badly rusty

3. Try to smell if there's any particular odor (strong detergent or mould)

(ironically there was a float stick in a flood-damaged car)

Of course, these are not enough to distinguish a flood-damaged car from a regular one - only experts can spot tiny details and know if the car wasn't involved in such an incident.

Have doubts about the car you want to check? Want to make sure the car you'll buy is not a submarine-like vehicle? Get it checked by Scout My Car! Our mechanics will see if the car is in a good shape or not!