TeaThe pictures of Bengaluru floods are astonishing because when you read the comments of some people on social media, it seems that many of them have never experienced urban floods before. Floods are nothing new as a child sent to Kolkata every summer. What is new is rampant and poor planning in many upmarket areas. But it is not a treatise on the lack of urban planning in India; Rather, it explains why thousands of cars would need to be dismantled at the end of these floods.
Images of both skyscrapers and bungalows show the amount of destruction, mainly in hundreds of vehicles flooding. But when the waters recede, as they always do, these cars will go straight into junk, with the occasional hefty repair bill that will piss people off. Just like me, many will think back to their youthful days when flooded cars were back on the road after cleaning up. For example, in Kolkata, after the floods, Ambassador taxis used to smell a bit ‘fishy’ for a few days, but ran as if nothing had ever happened.
So why not modern cars?
Well, it comes down to the simple fact that cars are trendy. Your Ambassador or Padmini or even the early Maruti 800s were very simple cars. They only had electrical wires for the lights and maybe the audio system. If you drive any car made after 2010, even a simple car like a Maruti Alto, the wiring harness that carries power from the battery and engine is quite complicated now. On larger vehicles, such as the Hyundai Creta or Kia Seltos, which have sensors for tire pressure, parking and multiple cameras as well as multiple digital displays, air purifiers and branded audio systems, the wiring harness, rather than the wiring harness, the power carrying thick There are bundles. In some luxury cars, the audio system has more than 20 speakers with a power output of about two kilowatts. This is not such a huge amount of power that needs to be carried from one point to another.
And here’s the fun part: You don’t see a single loose wire anywhere. All are hidden inside the structure of the car. Sensors are hidden in the bodywork of the car, nothing is visible. But a car isn’t waterproof, a vehicle has enough tiny holes and leaks around it to seep through, and you don’t need me to remind you that water and electricity aren’t best friends. A short circuit can damage your car even if the chances of getting electrocuted are negligible. Things as simple as a seat are now electric motorized in many vehicles.
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astronomical cost of repair
Some would argue that cars should be simple again, like the old Ambassador, where the owner cleaned the mess from the carburetor and got it running. Not so easy, because cars no longer have carburetors. Thanks to Bharat Stage 6 emission norms, all cars in India today have fuel injector systems, as is the case with all two-wheelers. A computer is required to run those injection systems. In addition, cars with injection systems do not cope well if water gets into the high-pressure fuel system. Even passing through small amounts of water can cause damage. Your big SUV can get damaged in just a few inches of water.
And that is not all. In light of the accident that killed Cyrus Mistry, we are talking about more airbags and alarms for seat belts. All those things also need sensors. Yes, there is a sensor that actually weighs the load on the seat and sets off an alarm if the seat belt is not being worn.
Simply put, while the cost of a wiring harness and sensor may not be that much, a vehicle will need to be taken apart to replace them. More than a decade ago, I had a bad accident where I dropped a BMW 320d into a ditch on the highway outside Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. I was trying to avoid a child, and luckily for me and the people in the car with me, the ditch was filled with water.
After waiting for rescue and managing to get the car out, to our surprise the car started. Actually, it worked fine. But when I asked BMW what happened to the car a few weeks later – it was a press fleet car – they said they had done it. I was surprised. He said there was no point in repairing the car and that it was worth more in parts. The cost of disassembling the car to replace the sensors and seats was much higher than the insurance value of a brand new car.
It was the same story in 2005 in Mumbai and a few years back in Gurugram, when several parking lots in luxury condominiums were filled. Beyond a point, cars cannot sit in water and be permanently damaged. Yes, many of them can be repaired but the cost will be astronomical and insurance companies will write-off the car instead of repair. And it’s sad enough, some vehicles are expensive imports, others will have memories attached and many may even be brand new. Honestly, it sucks, but there’s nothing you can do.
While these floods in Bengaluru are extraordinary, thanks to unplanned development and massive construction on water bodies, they will not be the last, neither in Bengaluru nor in other Indian cities. This is why it should become imperative to have a complete and comprehensive insurance package that covers for all such incidents, especially for water and flood damages and also for electronic components.
@kushanmitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. Thoughts are personal.