News flash! Not all car sellers are being 100% forthcoming about the history of cars damaged by the Katrina and other storms over the last couple years when they're showing those fine automobiles to prospective customers. Carfax says it's a 27-alarm emergency, with a half-million cars damaged by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, and everyone should buy their reports right freakin' now; only problem is that such reports don't always indicate, say, a car that sat beneath 15 feet of Lake Pontchartrain water. All your suspicions about flood-damaged cars getting their histories washed clean via out-of-state retitling and dumped back on the market as sure-fire lemons with fritzy electrical systems will now be confirmed by this article. – Murilee Martin

The Hurricanes Are Gone, but the Cars May Remain [New York Times]

Related:
Waterlogged Cars Big in 'Bama [internal]

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