Mark's Notebook


	Things are more like they are now than they have ever been. - Gerald Ford

Warning on cars damaged in hurricanes

San Francisco Chronicle

Friday 27 January 2006, 10:03 am
Keywords: Katrina Hurricane Relief , News Articles

by Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

600,000 cars damaged in last year's hurricanes are now making their way onto the market.

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi visited a San Francisco salvage yard Thursday to warn against the dangers of buying used cars damaged by the Hurricane Katrina floodwaters.

Many of the cars damaged by the Gulf Coast hurricanes last year that are turning up these days on the used-car market have been dolled up, detailed and decked out in order to fleece the car-buying public.

Flood-damaged cars can look OK, Garamendi said, but their electrical systems and safety devices can be ruined. Some hustlers move damaged cars from state to state until their title records have been "cleansed" of their salvage status, the commissioner said.

Garamendi advised people to check the vehicle identification number of any potential car purchase on www.nicb.org, the database maintained by the National Insurance Crime Bureau that tracks hurricane-damaged cars.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/27/CARS.TMP&nl=top