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500,000 vehicles damaged Houston


CHILLIN

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How many of them will find their way into Mexico? Where the low cost of labour to clean them, reupholster, even repair damaged engine blocks, is minimal (compared to the U.S.A.). There is a glut of used cars in the U.S.A. even before the floods.

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Yep, there will be some smokin' deals on new and used cars. They'll show up in NE, IA, IL, CA, up east and of course MX. A friend bought one back in the 60's, couldn't believe the deal he got - except in about 3 months, small rust pits started popping out on the doors etc. and soon they became BIG rust patches, you could watch the car die daily.

This morning I was in Marble Falls and as I got out of the car a guy pulled up behind me and hollered "hey, you need a home theater"? - I said no, I have one, he said he could tell by the car I was driving (a 12 year old Jeep?) that I had a big TV and this would be perfect and I kept saying NO all the time thinking it was probably directly from Houston and NOT in the original box.

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I would expect that most of these cars and trucks that have been flood damaged will be dismantled and recycled for parts.  Most insurance companies now are able to electronically update a State (USA) or Provincial (Canada) DMV records so that this information about a loss claim is available to potential buyers.  Same with cars and trucks that have been in an accident at some point.  The only way to bypass this is if a vehicle is sold privately and has not had an insurance claim made against it.

The second reason why it would be very difficult to export such cars and import them into Mexico is the new process required to import used vehicles.  The US title now needs to be "cleared" by the US jurisdiction before Mexico's Aduana will allow it to be imported.  You might see an influx of parts such as fenders and bumpers, etc., but not complete registerable vehicles.

This disaster will be a huge boon to the auto manufacturers.  They are going to be selling a lot of new cars as people begin replacing their damaged vehicles.  Expect the glut of quality used vehicles to dry up quite quickly.

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I was referring to this scenario. Where insurance companies will be selling/auctioning off flooded vehicles at well below their wholesale/bluebook values. Many of these vehicles can be fixed by canny mechanics, and then U.S. plated in U.S. states which allow salvage retitles for flooding. I have no doubt many of them will find their way to Mexico as "chocolates", joining the 2 million already here, or carefully detailed out here and eventually resold in the U.S.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/a70/1272386/

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Hurry and sell your cars in Texas as they need good low mileage cheap cars that havent been flooded.

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