[prasadee]

Originally Posted by humyum

How can the repair cost be more than the cost of the car ? Let's assume they want to replace the entire engine, entire gearbox, entire ECU, would that still make it upto 18 lakhs ?

A car is worth a lot more in spare parts than a factory assembled one. The costs associated, with accessing each damage, ordering spares individually, shipping costs, inventory costs, and labor to get everything work like new. Factories are a lot more efficient with these as they are building thousands of cars with modern kaizen/kanban methods. Most stolen cars/motorcycles are shipped abroad, or broken down and sold for spare parts.

[satanic_dude]

Was almost inclined to go the FNG route. Wanted to give MASS one last try, so called the regional service manager and spoke for a good ten minutes. He talked calmly and reassured that Maruti will be replacing all critical submerged parts, and that for an Alto K10 with an IDV of 2.35 lacs, it will not go for a total loss, and will be repairable only.

MSM called me yesterday and said they'll come over to my residence to inspect the vehicle and complete the initial documentation. Will get an estimate in 4 days, post which they'll tow. Estimated time for repair is around 4 weeks, but I'm preparing myself for two months.

In the meanwhile, I've removed the seat covers, opened up the carpets at the edges, sponged away as much of water as possible. Now just hoping I can avoid as much corrosion as possible, in case I never have a chance at getting a total loss settlement. We also need to remind ourselves that this is India. Period.

Maruti will bear 50% of that amount which insurance considers as depreciation for parts. Hoping the financial impact to me is contained within 30-40k.

I'm getting a slight positive vibe from all these recent interactions. Just getting follow up calls from MASS itself is reassuring, and they're attending to my car basis a waiting list which we had filled out on December 8th.

I had also written them an email similar to the one someone here wrote to another manufacturer, about transporting cars to other towns for servicing. I got a response thanking me for the feedback, and asking for details of my car and contact.

Just hoping for the best!

Peace.

Regards,
Abhishek.

[cheeni]

My 2011 Hyundai i20 Magna was submerged for five days to about the top of the tyres at the maximum flooding. This ensured water seeped in, to about the base of the gear shift, flooding the coin change box and console storage. There was a lot of fungus growth and water damage to the leather. I feared it might be a total write off since it looked pretty horrible. I imagined it would go out of pocket since the insurance IDV of 3L won't cover anything.

The insurance company, Bajaj Allianz had sent an SMS warning me against cranking the car to avoid voiding insurance but to have it towed to the ASS. Since the entire city was flooded there were no tow trucks to be had for love or reasonable money (some trucks were available for 10k, but I wasn't going to pay that much). Plus, I got a rude response from the Hyundai dealership's own ASS, as well as the next closest one. Nobody wanted to tell me when they could take a look at my car, it sounded like they may let it rot for a few weeks.

I had to decide whether it was worth performing damage assessment, repairs myself by going against the warnings of Bajaj to not crank the car until a damage inspection had been made by them.

I honestly didn't think a workshop with hundreds of flood damaged cars was going to treat my car with any respect or care. If nobody cleaned the upholstery soon the fungus would eat away everything. I concluded I might be worse off by going the official route and following protocol. WTH, at worst I would be out of some 2L that Bajaj might settle with great delay.

Since the air filter was dry, I cranked the car - thankfully it started thanks to a new Amaron battery installed only four months ago. I revved the engine for a full 20-25 minutes until there was no water emerging from the tail pipe.

The gear shift was stuck as were the wheels but the car moved with some difficulty. I took the soaking wet car to a car wash where they used 3M foam to clean the fungal growth, and squirted some similar juice into the AC vents. It took them 1-2 hours to clean the car, but they had a queue of cars, so my car waited on the street for five-six hours. A full water wash + anti-fungal treatment and drying came to INR 2500. A car fragrance machine was INR 250. Total cost INR 2750.

After 2-3 days in the sun, random electrical and electronic glitches stopped, and resumed normal function. The wheel well, seats and mats dried out too after I left the car in the sun with windows and boot open for a few days.

I estimated costs upward of 2-3L since I feared damage to brakes, clutch, upholstery etc. It was a relief to see I got away relatively unscathed.

[humyum]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

And that's the problem. So It's fixable if the necessary spares are available.

And they are not. And VW is not even prepared to fill a container in Europe and say, give us a couple of months.

Well that is a bummer and one of the reasons I guess VW is just asking people to scrap left right and center.

Originally Posted by prasadee

A car is worth a lot more in spare parts than a factory assembled one. The costs associated, with accessing each damage, ordering spares individually, shipping costs, inventory costs, and labor to get everything work like new. Factories are a lot more efficient with these as they are building thousands of cars with modern kaizen/kanban methods. Most stolen cars/motorcycles are shipped abroad, or broken down and sold for spare parts.

I got that, but you probably can't have 2 major components of a car costing more than rest of everything put together. Secondly, I assumed the worse case scenario. In case of an engine of a submerged car, u don't need to replace even 1/4th of the items, same with gearbox and other peripherals. An 18 lakh quote for a Vento TDI is like telling a customer, "Whatever you have in your car and has touched water, will have to be entirely replaced because we can't be bothered to even open and dry, crate main sab ayega, crate se nikal ke aapki gaadi main jayega'.

[madbullram]

Update on my Civic:
After the dealer declared total loss, L&T insurance sent 3-4 buyers to look ta the car. One buyer has given them 1.1 lakhs . Now L&T is working on the final amount. The L&T guy tells me I might get totally 4.3 lakhs though my IDV is 4.96 lakhs. I am trying to fight to get IDV but they are clear they wont give full IDV. Anyone else got full IDV?

[WindRide]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

.. can't repair these cars because they can't get the electronics..

Modern cars have moved on from being mechanical wonders to being run by a chip under the bonnet. Future is self-driven cars that deliver the human cargo to pre-programmed drop point. Such a shame, if you think about it.
So welcome to the future. A world of use-and-throw mentality. No one repairs ANYTHING anymore.

[ronline]

Who are these buyers? Are they going to fix the car and sell it further? What should we do to ensure no future legal liability in such a case?

Regards,
RS

Originally Posted by madbullram

Update on my Civic:
After the dealer declared total loss, L&T insurance sent 3-4 buyers to look ta the car. One buyer has given them 1.1 lakhs .

[madbullram]

Originally Posted by ronline

Who are these buyers? Are they going to fix the car and sell it further? What should we do to ensure no future legal liability in such a case?

Regards,
RS

Asked the same to L&T, they said we transfer the ownership of car to L&T and there our responsibility ends. Have asked it in writing. I guess these guys will redo the car and sell to someone, i do not know if I can stop that as legally there seems to be no way to say NO to this.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by madbullram

Asked the same to L&T, they said we transfer the ownership of car to L&T and there our responsibility ends...

If the vehicle is declared a total loss, shouldn't it be scrapped? If so, where is the option of "ownership transfer" coming in?

And, what will happen to your road tax balance that you have paid for 15 years; how are you going to claim the refund if you make a sale and not get it scrapped and get the RC cancelled?

[madbullram]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

If the vehicle is declared a total loss, shouldn't it be scrapped? If so, where is the option of "ownership transfer" coming in?

And, what will happen to your road tax balance that you have paid for 15 years; how are you going to claim the refund if you make a sale and not get it scrapped and get the RC cancelled?

Per L&T, whether to Scrap or sell the car is their call and it is not mandatory for them to sell the car for scrap. They are only responsible for paying IDV post depreciation. On the point of road tax claim, they said only if its scrapped you can apply for road tax refund, so in this case I cant that either.

None seems to know the real procedure here so even I am at loss. One one side 4.5 is a big amount which will help get a new car ASAP on other hand if I dont agree to this it will drag and payment will get delayed. So I am stuck

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by madbullram

Per L&T, whether to Scrap or sell the car is their call and it is not mandatory for them to sell the car for scrap. They are only responsible for paying IDV post depreciation...

But isn't the LTT your money? Why do you have to lose it without getting the benefit?

I realize it is easy for me to sit back and ask these questions, while you are just trying to get a move on; but I would say it is worth a try as every penny counts.

I hope there is come clarity thrown on this from members who are working in the vehicle insurance domain.

[madbullram]

You are right but there is no law that states so we are at the insurance company mercy. Have PMed GTO to start a new thread for insurance queries for Chennai flood hit vehicles. Hope some expert can throw some light on this.

The main issue for me is take 4.5 lakhs and be done or get into argument and drag this as they have huge loads of claims pending and it could take a while!

[kablu]

Posted my query in another thread. Posting the same in this thread as this is more relevant to the issue.

Here is the scenario that I'm in presently. My car got submerged upto wheel height on the rains of 15-Nov. Then came 1-Dec, it got sunk to the height of 2/3rd till window. My wife delivered a baby boy around the same time Amidst all the nightmares of the ghost rains. Back to my senses last week after sending spouse and new born to safe place. Only to realise that all the authorized sevice center to FNGs are filled to brim with submerged cars for service. My car still lies at my house untouched :-(. Worst part is, my insurance got expired and It never struck to me during all these chaos. Now I'm stranded with a flood affected car with no mechanic ready to take it atleast for 10 days and with no insurance coverage. Even if They accept my car, the expected delivery date after service falls somewhere around February owing to the number of cars with them. Now friends, pls suggest me what could be done. My uncle Says that if i manage to bring my car to my native place , service can be done in a week's time. But I'm not sure how to transport the car.
Some details
My car : maruti swift vxi 2008 model
My native that i'm speaking about : kumbakonam.

Please suggest options to bring back my car to running condition. And also, what could be the approximate expense that i should be prepared for.

[DWind]

Hi Kablu,

Since you do not have insurance coverage, you do not have a choice other than to bite the bullet.

Are you sure of the water level? Asking since you were busy with being with your family and hope are not relying on information from your neighbors.
If so,open the bonnet and check for damages due to water. Do not start the car!
Check the air filter to check if water had entered. This is to assure the extent of the damage. Please see if you can get the car towed to Kumbakonam or any place outside to be assured of immediate attention to the car.

[arvind71181]

Originally Posted by kablu

Please suggest options to bring back my car to running condition. And also, what could be the approximate expense that i should be prepared for.

Cant comment on the other expenses but when I had to get my i20 towed from Thoppur to Chennai cost me around 15,000. I think the distance to Kumbakonam is a bit similar as well.

I think you will need to ascertain first whether taking the car to your native place is worth it though.