Car care:  Barbadians warned to be on the alert for flood damaged cars from Japan
Monday March 21 2011 | 06:23 AM

With no legislation governing the condition of cars that are imported to the island, buyers hoping to import vehicles from Japan are being told to be very alert.

There is a fear that unscrupulous dealers may try to off-load thousands of cars that were flooded with sea water during last week's tsunami, without declaring their history.

The caution has come from Sales Director at NASSCO Limited, Roger Moore, who, in response to questions from Barbados TODAY, warned that with individuals being able to purchase vehicles directly online, it was simply a case of ordering and paying for what they see on the web.

"If once the vehicle gets here there is something wrong then that is something the buyer will have to bring up with the supplier in Japan," said Moore.

Car suppliers like Toyota in Japan have announced the closure of factories there as the country tries to come to grips with the after-effects of the earthquake and tsunami that struck and devastated parts of that country a week ago. The country in the past has been known for its thriving second-hand car market, and although some exports have been halted for now, the question has arisen as to the conditions of some vehicles that might have been submerged in flood waters.

Moore noted that NASSCO had been out of the used vehicle business for several years now, but in the days when they imported such, they made sure the suppliers understood the kind of quality and condition of cars they would accept.

"We would let the companies know that we did not want any vehicles that would have been involved in accidents... So it was never a question of us getting these types of vehicles," he said, though adding that he did not think there was a policy against it.

"I don't think there is a policy in place that if it comes in flooded, what to do with it. If it was bought directly, then the burden is on the buyer. If it was bought as a used car in Barbados, then they can seek recourse through the dealer.

As for new cars themselves which may have been impacted by the floods, the sales director said he had no fear in that regard with the vehicles that would be coming in via his company.

"We deal directly with Toyota. If they are damaged, Toyota would never send them to us. They also have to pass certain requirements before they are shipped, so they would not be sold to us, not as new vehicles and certainly not knowingly," he assured.

On the buyers' end though, Moore noted that they needed to exercise some caution in their purchasing, though he expressed concern about the fact that there were still dealers in the island who could import crashed vehicles, fix and sell them.

"I believe, at this point, we should not be bringing in crashed vehicles that can then be sold. When you go to the port you see vehicles in some [really bad] condition.

"We are being used as a dump when they import these vehicles that in some cases would have been written off in the country they came from. They are crashed vehicles that are repaired and sold to consumers. When they are written off, I think they should be taken out of circulation permanently."

Moore noted that there needed to be laws governing this practice, adding that it was still a method in operation today by both dealers and individuals.

"We don't really get involved because we are not in that market anymore and the focus for Toyota now has been trying to support the relief effort and ensuring that their employees, teams and their families are safe. They have donated 300 million yen to the relief effort thus far," he said, adding that on their end the company here was still awaiting news on its own shipments from that country.

In a separate interview former President of the Used Car Dealer Association, Noel Euzebe, told Barbados TODAY that flood-damaged vehicles were imported into Barbados annually and some of those vehicles were driveable. The Japanese authorities, he noted, were required to provide information, including the history of the vehicles being exported. "They have regulations, as does the United States and the UK and so on, where the history of the vehicle has to be given. If there is flood damage, you would see flood damage, whether it starts or doesn't start. ... Not all water damaged cars are inherently bad," he explained.

Euzebe said that any problems likely be encountered would come from "this end". "I may know that the car is flood damaged but it may still be drivable, I may not tell you, the person who is buying it. The problem isn't so much on the Japan end because its not worth it to them to pull a stunt like that. "We, the dealers, normally when we're getting our information from Japan you see water or water damage on the information. The question is whether the person who is purchasing the car would give that information on this end of the market. Above and beyond that, nobody likes water-damaged cars, including the dealers," he said.

"I would expect, maybe in another couple of months when the insurance claims are being settled there should be a large number of damaged vehicles. I don't think the majority of them are going to be water damaged because tsunami came only so far and a number of vehicles which were damaged in one form or another, should be coming up on the market," he said. Euzebe noted there was a problem with damaged vehicles being sold on the local market, some of them being bought by people at auctions, repaired and sold as being in good condition when they were not.