Cars of Katrina

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms damaged an estimated 300,000 to 600,000 vehicles in 2005 and many of those are expected to end up in the used-car market instead of being scrapped. Flooding can do permanent damage to sensitive electronics that manage the engine's operation or control such safety components as air bags and antilock brakes and such damages might not show up until months after the flooding occurred.

Here are a few tips for used-car shoppers to protect themselves from such a purchase:

• Check free information an special website, Carfax.com/flood , managed by Carfax, a firm that provides background checks on vehicle's 17-character vehicle identification number (VIN) and check if it was registered in a disaster area. The site also shows if vehicle's title is a marked "flood damaged."
• Check the freely accessible database of the National Insurance Crime Bureau, nicb.org , which contains a list of vehicles and watercraft affected by recent hurricanes.
• Buy a certified used car or truck-- one warranted by the automaker, not just an individual car dealer because automakers preclude flood-damaged cars from their certified-car programs.
• Thoroughly test-drive a used vehicle and have it inspected at a reliable auto-body shop.