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Flooded automobiles are moved to the parking zone of an amusement park in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, early this week. (Yonhap) |
The proprietor claimed that the automobile was submerged in the course of the heavy rainfall final week in Seoul, and that he can not begin the automobile any longer — however the inside stays clear, and different options like air con and lighting nonetheless work.
“The automobile will change into an expensive merchandise to adorn your storage or yard,” he added.
The defunct street machine is considered one of 1000’s of automobiles that had been broken or destroyed by file downpours in Seoul, particularly within the posh Gangnam space, the place virtually 40 p.c of the nation’s import luxurious automobiles are registered.
In response to the Normal Insurance coverage Affiliation of Korea, a complete of 11,142 injury claims for flooded automobiles, together with 3,599 import automobiles, have been submitted via native insurance coverage firms as of Tuesday. The overall injury quantity is estimated to succeed in 158.3 billion gained, a file since associated information began being collected.
Water ruins electronics elements and mechanical methods in automobiles. Because of security causes, flooded automobiles reported to insurance coverage firms are often declared a complete loss, however a few of them return to the used automobile market with out sellers clarifying the automobiles’ waterlogged histories.
The used automobile marketplace for high-priced luxurious automobiles has been hovering right here amid strong gross sales of latest automobiles. Younger automotive lovers on tighter budgets are more and more turning their eyes to the used automobile marketplace for a greater discount.
“Flooded automobiles are likely to hit the used automobile market two months after they undergo unauthorized upkeep. This time, many widespread luxurious automobiles had been submerged,” stated Kim Pil-soo, an automotive professor at Daelim College.
“The issue is that some insurance coverage firms promote the automobiles to used automobile sellers, who restore the automobiles to resell. Potential consumers ought to pay attention to the dangers,” Kim stated.
Amid rising issues within the used automobile market, the Transport Ministry stated Monday that it’s going to tighten monitoring on the administration of auto historical past to cowl automobiles with out insurance coverage information, hinting at strengthening punishment for unlawful and shady offers.
Presently, the Korea Insurance coverage Improvement Institute provides a automobile historical past monitoring system known as CarHistory which supplies information on used automobiles, together with the variety of accidents, flood injury and distance pushed. Nonetheless, the system isn’t all-inclusive — nor a assure that the car is problem-free.
“As a result of there are various electrical or hybrid automobiles as of late, shopping for a flooded automobile has change into a better risk to the driving force’s security,” stated an official of the KIDI who wished to be unnamed.
Regardless of the federal government’s tightened measures, consultants say consumers additionally ought to heighten their scrutiny to raised defend themselves.
One of many efficient methods to detect a flooded automobile is checking the engine fuse field.
If the fuse field is comparatively new in comparison with the automobile’s engine room, there’s a excessive risk that it’s a flooded automobile, as fuse bins get ruined when the automobile will get absolutely submerged in water.
Pulling the seatbelt out to the very finish is one other strategy to examine whether or not it’s a flooded automobile, as mud stains can’t be simply faraway from seatbelts.
By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)