The recent torrential rains have played havoc in the Southern parts of the country, causing urban flooding, primarily the Karachi metropolitan. Unfortunately, many lives were gone, and many people faced damages to their properties, businesses, belongings, and list. May Allah give strength to all those affected by this weather cycle.
Urban Flooding and Car Delivery:
Here, I will focus on the issue of buying a car during the urban flooding. Many areas went under rising rainwater, and there is a due chance the flooding affects many car dealerships.
If you were expecting your brand new vehicle delivery these days, you should be very vigilant once you go for your vehicle pickup. There is a possibility the floodwaters reached these brand new vehicles parked at dealerships or any other storage areas.
Once the vehicles are at the dealerships lot and in their possession, it is their responsibility to keep it safe and have insurance for the undelivered cars. We have numerous reports that dealership repaired cars damaged during transportation or at dealers lot. Meanwhile, the owners never knew about it. Repair / Repainting exterior body panels before delivery are very common.
Urban Flooding Impact on Car:
A flood can cause premature damage to vehicles and especially cause rust beside any other electrical problems. In fact, submerged wheel hubs also can get early damage. The initiation time of rust to start corrosion is already shorter in the South because of humid and other weather-related causes. The entrapped moisture inside the vehicle will further escalate it. As the process of rust takes time to initiate, visually, a vehicle will be perfect without any problems, but in reality, there is a problem hidden and unknown.
How Dealerships Work In This Situation:
There is a fear that dealers might dry up these undelivered vehicles’ interior and then deliver it to the customers. If the water reached on the interior, please keep in mind it’s a total loss and declared as flood damage, especially in case of an undelivered brand new vehicle as per protocol followed everywhere else. Unfortunately, Pakistan assembled vehicles do not come with any rust protection warranty [ except KIA Pakistan, which needs confirmation]. On top of that, dealerships are not that honest in these matters at all.
Precautions Before Buying Car During Urban Flooding Season:
As a consumer, once you go to the dealership for your vehicle’s pickup, make sure you check all the interior. Any sign of discoloration, including the thread of the carpet, door panels, seats, and any funky smell or any smell of the air freshener, means the dealership has done something with car. Wetness and humidity have an exceptionally stringent smell. Furthermore, it would help if you also looked leftover dried sand, mud deposits in corners, and tight spaces inside the car.
Its dealer’s responsibility to hand over you a vehicle without any hidden damages known to the dealer. You paid for a brand new car, and you must get a brand new vehicle. That includes a vehicle without any water damage regardless if they even bone dried it.
As I said, there can be an entrapped moisture inside the vehicle. After the water is going in the interior, it’s impossible to dry everything and why the dealer should rip apart all the trims and interior of the vehicle to dry it in the first place? You must not compromise on any quality-related issues at the time of vehicle pickup. Once you took the car, now it’s your baby. As there is no rust warranty, it’s now all yours to handle.
Be Vigilant and make sure you inspect in detail the vehicle about to be delivered to you.
By the way, one must also inspect in detail before even buying a used vehicle, to make sure it didn’t go through any damage by floodwater.
Members from Karachi, please share your thoughts.
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