Flood damaged cars repair cost in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: This is the question many Malaysians who have flood-damaged cars are asking on social media the past few days. With thousands of affected car owners around the country, there has never been this many flooded cars in our country at one time and to make matters worse, many car workshops are also affected by the devastating flash floods and the workshop owners are also unable to answer to car owners who had their cars already in the workshops during the flash floods.

Imagine a car sent in for regular maintenance, like this Peugeot 308 GT owner and flash floods came and now his car is worth probably 50 percent of its pre-flood value.

Who will compensate for his loss? The workshop owner is probably on the brink of bankruptcy and this is an ‘act of god’ which he cannot control.

To make matters worse, the town councils have not enforced the prevention of dumping of workshop waste in drains which lead to clogged waterways, which exaggerates the floods as water movement is stopped.

Meanwhile, car owners without flood insurance coverage will have to either pay out of pocket or just scrap their cars with little value as there are just too many in the market right now.

So, affected car owners will need to check their car insurance policy to see if they have or not any flood coverage insurance.

With a flooded car the situation for many is new and without any insurance coverage, what can they do. We did some research to find out the cost to restore and repair a flood damaged vehicle.

If you own a basic simple car, like a first generation Honda Stream, Proton Waja, Perodua Kelisa or Nissan Sentra, then you are looking at a bill from RM4,000 to around RM6,000 to get your car back in good running condition.

Please note that the above only applies to cars that were not driven in flood waters and just parked. If you were driving in flood waters and then got stuck, your costs could double as water would have entered the engine block via your exhausts and this could also mean a total loss.

Now, with cars that are more modern and equipped with added safety features and ‘talking’ infotainment systems like Hi Proton! and Hello BMW! repairs are not possible and instead you will need to replace many expensive parts like ‘electronic control modules’ (ECU’s).

You will pay a much higher bill as the costs could run between RM9,000 to as high as RM28,000 as the electronic control unit, infotainment system, gearbox controller and also automatic climate control systems will need to be replaced.

Plus, you might not get the cars back in even 90 percent condition as the wiring loom and its connectors sitting inside the dashboard might need replacing and this can only be confirmed after the car is returned to the owner and driven for a few days. The long term effects will be bad and this is why in the past, most flood damaged modern cars were fixed fast and then sold.

We know of an early model Mercedes CLS, BMW F10, BMW X1, Nissan Murano, Toyota Alphard and Honda Accord (Perdana) flood damaged cars from the past few years that were sent for repair and even after repeat trips to the workshop to get small issues looked at, the cars were never even 90 percent fixed.

Most of the owners ended up selling their cars to used car dealers for a hefty loss and after a proper calculation of the repair costs and extended loss in the sale to a used car dealer, it was not worth it at all. It would have been better to just scrap the car from the start and accept the financial loss and move on.

Also Read: JPJ and APAD come forward to help flood victims