Recently Hyderabad was hit by very bad flash floods, many houses and cars were affected. In our colony, Mercedes Benz's, BMW's, many new generation Dzires, Swifts, Jeep compass', i20s, Skodas, Cretas were affected. People whom I know in our colony (I'm little popular in my neighborhood as I walk my dog out in the nights and I am familiar with most of the faces, I also give them technical information regarding laptops, PCs, cars, bikes, other electronics whenever they needed any suggestions). So I got to know the details of their vehicles and how much their service centers quoted for repairs.
All of my cars are safe except for my Wagon-R which was affected, that too only carpet was soaked, our house is in a considerable amount height compared to the road level and parking is also elevated, but still water made its way to the carpet of Wagon R. I posted regarding the same
here. (Maruti Genuine Parts (MGP) Catalog: Post your queries here (model list on Pg 1)). The good thing I did was, I removed the battery terminals (to prevent short circuits) and covered the exhaust (to prevent water flooding the engine via exhaust manifold)
Now coming to other cars in our colony, most of the cars are towed to service centers as they had insurance, here are the quotations the service centers gave to repair the flood affected vehicles
1. Mercedes E-Class E250 CDI 2018 - 4 lakhs (owner did not pay insurance, had to pay from his own pocket, the car has only 800 kms on ODO, he only used this car for functions and marriages)
2. BMW 520 D 2020 January - 6 lakhs (almost brand new car, was registered just before BS4 deadline, has only 300 kms on ODO)
3. Jeep Compass Limited plus petrol - 70 K (did not flood completely)
4. Jeep Compass Limited Diesel - 50 K (did not flood completely)
5. Maruti Swift Petrol AMT 2019 new generation - 80 K for repairs, but the showroom people are pushing it for total loss as the water crossed dashboard level.
6. Maruti Swift Petrol AMT 2018 new generation - 1 lakh for repairs, but the owner negotiated to 70 k (this person forgot to pay insurance and had to pay money from his pocket, this vehicle did only 2 K kms, used very rarely.
7. Maruti Swift DDIS MT 2019 new generation - M.A.S.S quoted 1 lakh for repairs
8. Skoda Laura TDI 2013 - Total loss
9. Tata Nano - Total loss
10. Dzire new generation diesel AMT 2018 model - 60 K for repair
11. i20 Magna CRDI - 60 K for repairs at FNG, Hyundai declared it total loss (ECU malfunction, circuit issues, complete roof liner, seats, carpet soiled.)
12. Honda Amaze 2013 - The owner drove it in the flood, now the gearbox is jammed. The car doesn't move at all.
13. Honda Amaze 2014 - Similar car as above and same color too (white), Honda quoted 40 K for repairs
14. Bolero pick up truck 2017 - engine block + head replacement suggested by MASS as water entered the engine via exhaust manifold.
15.Hyundai Creta 2016 SX+ diesel - 10 K for deleting airbag light code on MID and drying the carpet and disinfecting the car. (water just soaked the carpet similar to my Wagon-R)
16. Maruti Suzuki SX4 - 40 K
17. Renault Duster - 2 lakhs (Water entered engine)
18. Maruti Suzuki S- Cross - 80 K
19. New gen Honda Amaze - 1.2 lakhs
20. Mahindra Xylo - Sold in scrap for 50 K
21. Old generation Dzire VDI - was in pristine condition before flood affect, did about 28 k kms in last 7 years, Sold for 1.8 lakhs
22. Celerio - 70 K for repairs - car flooded till the headliner.
There are many more cars : Ford Ecosport AT, Toyota fortuner (which was towed to TASS on a flatbed), Ritz, Alto, Xylo, i10 grand, Nissan Sunny, Honda Jazz, Honda City (3), etc, all of them are gone, and god knows how much the service centers quoted to fix their cars.
I'm shell shocked on seeing the above quotations, except no. 15 Creta, all the other cars have exorbitant quotations for repairs. Flood affected vehicles will not just take time, but also lot of money to fix them. Most of them bought 2nd hand cars and rentals for time being as the service centers quoted anywhere between 1 and half to 2 months to completely fix these vehicles, the floods in Hyderabad affected almost all major low lying areas of Hyderabad and these are keeping the service centers very busy. Almost all major car service centers (Maruti, Hyundai) are full with flooded vehicles. Most of the cars are going for ECU / ECM replacements, Airbag sensor modules, EPS module replacements. The only thing I did not like about service centers handling flood vehicles is, that they are just drying out the carpets instead of replacing them. My Wagon-R carpet costs 1400 rs, I ordered a new one at MGP, Mold and fungus will grow if old one is still used and if it is a little wet / damp, the old one will still stink no matter how thoroughly they cleaned it or how many air fresheners they use. Chances are high for rust formation as well.
I saw a 'completely serviced Hyundai Creta and a Dzire after flood affect in our neighborhood, upon removing the plastic cladding in between door sill and carpet, there is still water in between original carpet and metal underbody.
The cars had their immobilizers activated, alarms and horns blaring all night during flood, most of the ECUs are short, transmissions jammed and many other issues. Service centers are also trying to take this situation to their advantage and they are planning to make up for their losses incurred during lockdown. I'm sure FNGs can restore these cars for half the price, but people with insurance are opting to go with the service center only despite one and half to two months wait.
Next day after the water level receded. You can see the brownish line on the walls, the flood water reached till that surface.