Disaster coverage

When you are looking over your car insurance policy think twice about cancelling your comprehensive coverage. Hurricane Katrina was devastating to homes and families, but also to residents’ cars. Unfortunately if the cars damaged or destroyed in the hurricane did not have comprehensive coverage, and only the legally required liability coverage, their owners have no recourse.

Liability insurance will pay for any damage your car causes but does nothing for damage to your car caused by any natural disaster like Katrina and the accompanying heavy winds, flooding, fallen trees, etc. Many of us discount the comprehensive when we have older cars, but this could be costly when considering all the effects of a natural disaster.

Although you weren’t personally affected by the hurricane, you can still be out some considerable car repairs if you purchase one of the damaged cars that somehow got back into the system after the hurricane but are in no way able to be driven safely. Smarmy used car dealers can take advantage of your ignorance by picking up these below par autos (Katrina and other storms damaged between a quarter and a half a million cars last year) for a song at an auction then doing some cosmetic work before selling them on the open market.

Here are some things you can do to protect yourself from a waterlogged sale…
Look for the VIN number on the dashboard and check it against the list of VINs on the flood damaged cars listed at http://www.nicb.org before buying.

Get a car history from Carfax (http://www.carfax.com) or Autocheck (http://www.autocheck.com) . It will cost you about twenty dollars but can bring you immense peace of mind or save your from buying a water damaged vehicle.
And before you buy the car get your local trusted car mechanic to give it a good checking. They’ll look for rusting, water stains, etc. in places that you won’t know to look.

Katrina had enough victims last year…don’t add yourself to the list.