Drowned motor vehicles top 4400

INSURANCE companies have been hit with at least 4400 claims for flood-damaged motor vehicles in Queensland and Victoria, with the total expected to rise as high as 6000 as the full extent of the damage is tallied.

In Queensland, claims for about 4000 drowned and dunked cars and trucks are said to make up 11 per cent of the 38,460 total claims that the Insurance Council of Australia estimates will cost $1.51 billion.

In Victoria, a further 420 motor vehicle claims have been made out of a total 4780 claims that are set to cost $69 million.

But the number of damaged vehicles in both states is set to climb as more motorists lodge claims, with one insurance assessor saying the industry ‘guesstimate’ was 6000 vehicles in Queensland alone.

The silver lining for the motor industry is that, as the claims are settled by insurance companies, a short-term spike in sales is expected to ensue as owners replace their vehicles.

Since the worst of the flooding in south-east Queensland in mid-January, automotive auction yards in Queensland have been swamped with damaged vehicles written off by insurance companies, with the first mass auctions of flood cars set to start this week.

Major auction houses Manheim and Pickles have both established holding yards for damaged vehicles in Brisbane, with muddy cars lined up by the hundreds.

Most of the salvageable cars are simply being washed and offered for sale as they stand. They range from driveable to barely recognisable.

Pickles’ temporary flood-damaged vehicle yard at Hemmant is holding an estimated 1200 flood-damaged cars parked nose to tail in rows hundreds of metres long, with delivery trucks lining up to unload more vehicles from flood-hit Queensland cities and towns such as Toowoomba, Ipswich and Brisbane.

It is a similar scene at Manheim Auctions (formerly Fowles) at Eagle Farm, where the first flood-damaged vehicle auction is set to put about 276 cars under the hammer tomorrow (Tuesday).

Pickles’ first flood vehicle auction in Brisbane has been locked in for Saturday, with more than 400 vehicles to go under the hammer at its Acacia Ridge auction yard. Further auctions will be held at fortnightly intervals until cleared.

Motor vehicle assessor Troy Dwyer of Queensland Motor Valuations told GoAuto that many of the cars did not look extensively damaged, but the problem with many vehicles was that the water had drowned the engine management computers and other sensitive equipment.

“With these modern cars, as soon as the water goes over the top of the seats you are basically talking about water into the dash, and that’s where all the computers are,” he said.

Mr Dwyer said replacing the computers on one flood-damaged Mercedes-Benz he recently assessed would have cost more than the car was worth.

He said some cars that had borne the full force of the floodwaters in areas such as Toowoomba had severe damage.

“We are starting to see cars coming in that have been under houses or car ports,” he said.

“A couple there had been ripped apart. You would swear that someone had hooked up two trucks to them and driven in opposite directions.

“The force of that water must have been unbelievable.”

While the scale of the flood damage is huge, it is not as great in automotive damage terms as the havoc wrought by hail storms that pummeled Melbourne and Perth in March 2010, or Sydney in 1999.

In Victoria, there has been little damage to dealerships or other automotive-related businesses, as main towns have been well protected from the slow-moving flood waters.

In Queensland, the torrent swamped several dealerships in places such as Ipswich and Chinchilla, causing millions of dollars in damage.

However, most of the cars from those dealerships were saved by staff who drove them to higher ground.