Storm Damaged Cars

Governor Cuomo issued a consumer alert warning used car buyers from purchasing storm damaged cars. A link on the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) website https://www.nicb.org/theft_and_fraud_awareness/vincheck allows consumers to immediately determine whether a used vehicle is a "flood car" from Super Storm Sandy or damaged following other storms or circumstances. Approximately 400,000 vehicles were flooded following Hurricane Sandy.

The NICB's VINCheck permits anyone to enter the vehicle identification number (VIN) to determine the status of the vehicle. If the vehicle had been declared as salvage by a VINCheck-participating NICB member insurance company, the NICB site reports both the date of loss and the cause of the damage. We all know the old adage "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is".