The cost to restore a flooded car like a Subaru XV to a base luxury car like a BMW X1 or a car with many ECU’s damaged by flood waters can start from RM24,000 and work its way up to a mind boggling RM190,000 for a current model BMW X5. Please note that these prices are from authorized dealer workshops and NOT private small workshops.
We have seen flooded car quotations for the above-mentioned cars (even with the 20 to 25 percent discount being offered right now by various car manufacturers) with owners towing their cars back out as there is no insurance coverage and they are looking at private workshops that offer much lower prices, some by more than 50 percent lower.
Here is where the problem lies. The used car value before the flood was probably lower than this repair quote. This is because car manufacturers will replace all parts affected with latest new parts and they will NOT use reconditioned or used parts.
Plus, the car manufacturers will provide a warranty on the parts and you can go back during the warranty period to get your car fixed without much issue.
Now, with the private workshop, most parts replaced will come from the car parts junkyard and this is where the problem lies. Body, rubber and plastic parts is not an issue.
However, electronic parts might not match and work properly as most cars from the last decade or so have a CAN-BUS system that will need matching regional ECU’s to ‘talk’ to each other or else digital dashboards, climate control and safety systems might not function properly and will send alert signals to the dashboard.
So, after sharing articles on flooded car owners looking for advice on what to do what to do with their flooded cars, many readers online suggested the use of Singapore Scrap cars.
Yes, we know about Singapore Scrap cars coming into Malaysia for years and being used as donor cars for parts and even donor vehicles 100 percent complete.
Now, with 10-year-old cars from Singapore sitting in a warehouse ready for dismantling, it makes great sense to buy a donor car and transplant all the necessary parts. However, this is ILLEGAL and will deem your restored car an illegal car as there are no legal documents for these cars and their parts.
Still, if you have no flood insurance, low on cash reserves and all of your I-Sinar allocation all gone, you need to look at any option to get your car running for your daily work commute.
Finding these Singapore Scrap cars is very easy. They are openly advertised on Facebook and contact numbers and names are included.
We think, the Malaysian government should find it in their heart to give some kind of approval for the above to lessen the burden for flood car owners as this is probably the cheapest way to get their cars back on the road and running well.
