Katrina Cars Still Around

Sections: In the Press | R50 (Coupe) Sep 15th, 2008 13 Comments

Buyer beware. From ABC news, a story about a MINI that was damaged during Katrina, ended up in Kansas City then sold to an unsuspecting buyer in South America.

Sight unseen, Vargas bought the car over the Internet through a dealer in Bolivia for $7,000. He then spent $5,000 shipping the car of his dreams to Los Angeles, down the Pacific Coast to Chile, and over the Andes Mountains to Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Vargas said he had no idea that he was buying a car that had spent several weeks stewing in saltwater. ABC News learned that many Katrina cars ended up here in Bolivia and in other Latin American countries that are too poor to monitor car imports.

The take-away here should be, as always, if a deal sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

[ From Hurricane Katrina to Bolivia? The Journey of a Flooded Car ] ABCnews.com

Written By: DB

13 Comments

C4 Sep 15th, 2008 Link

And this problem is also compounded by the fact that most of these buyers are not fully aware of internet tools available to them to check the integrity of the car they are buying, like CarFax.com.

If I lived in Latin America, I would never buy an used car long distance, period.

The MINI is a grey market import for most of Latin America except, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina where there are authorized MINI dealers. New MINIs sold in South America are mostly European spec models. The vast majority of MINIs sold in non-supported countries are mostly US spec imports.

M. Dillon Sep 15th, 2008 Link

I guess that MINI,to quote Mike Tyson,”…faded into Bolivia.”

C4 Sep 15th, 2008 Link

I might add that Mr. Vargas appears to be a wealthy man by Bolivian standards. If he has spent US$30K to restore this water damaged dud, he certainly had the money to either import a brand new one from the US or from Venezuela where they can be purchased brand new as well.

I think this guy has lots of money and little common sense. Why he hasn’t gone after the local car dealer/agent that helped them lock into this piece of junk?

Another caveat with this article…They claimed that MINIs are not sold in Bolivia because they are little cars with complex electronics…Total BS! BMW sells brand new spanking Bimmers in Bolivia as does Mercedes Benz, Audi, etc which are vehicles also riddled with expensive and complex electronics.

The US media never ceases to amaze me…. Always wanting to portray South America as some 3rd world dump. Actually some of the best mechanics come from there…Those people can build a car FROM SCRATCH if you let them lose in Home Depot….

Josh Sep 15th, 2008 Link

WOW, THAT SUCKS. BUT IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THEM? THEY OBVIOUSLY WORK, MAYBE NOT AS WELL AS NEW, BUT NONE THE LESS.

Craig Sep 15th, 2008 Link

Wow! While $12,000 is not a terribly large ammount of money in the USA that is a huge ammount in Bolivia where the GDP per capita is about 1/30th that of the USA. It sucks that such shady dealings are unlikely to come back and bite the seller.

Bill Sep 15th, 2008 Link

I find it somewhat interesting that ABC News took the time and effort to interview everyone involved except the “dealer in Bolivia” that committed the fraud to begin with.

GregW Sep 15th, 2008 Link

This is a worldwide problem where insurance companies write-off cars from floods and accidents then sell them through auctions to restorers. Cars like these should be crushed by insurance companies period. In the UK if a car has been damaged, it has to get a special plate number identifying that it has been re-registered – one of our UK based members may verify this.

C4 Sep 15th, 2008 Link

What would posess an individual to try to fix and restore a car that has been underwater?

SFRedMCc Sep 15th, 2008 Link

Why would anyone think they could get a decent used MINI of any age for only $7,000? This particular case is so absurd it seems to take away from the real problem, which is the “age-old” practice of reselling these water-logged or otherwise “totaled” cars. Usually it’s not so obvious something might be wrong with the car. Sounds like the UK has the answer; however, so why don’t we have a law like that here?

dr Sep 15th, 2008 Link

Its not even an S…

dr Sep 15th, 2008 Link

7k is fair market value for a flooded MINI of that age, I remember the threads of the guys who have built race cars. just the unibody shell is like 5500

STIGG Sep 16th, 2008 Link

CARFAX is a joke. When I sold my Toyota 4Runner 6 years ago CARFAX said the car was clean. Ha, it had $8000 worth of front end damage in it’s second month out on the road. I checked it twice. My second MINI had similar damage and no mention of it on CARFAX. I have checked neighbors cars that have had damage… the same.

I would like to get one of those “Spanking BIMMERs” though. ;-)

Leo Sep 29th, 2008 Link

Anyway………………

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