BHPian fordfreak recently shared this with other enthusiasts: My Passat’s journey came to an unfortunate end on 23-09-2025. The cloudburst completely filled up our basement and killed off all the cars that were parked inside. Among them, unfortunately, was my Passat (and our other 3, too). Never got around to fixing the headliner or the ABS sensor, which I had planned to do during the next service, in December. Hurts that my car had a relatively short life and was in pristine condition.Quote from BHPian Thad E Ginathom:What a terrible thing to happen to your beautiful car. Very sorry for you.Quote from BHPian MileCruncher:Very sorry to hear and see! I hope the insurance has given fair value. Now will come the hard part of finding its replacement in the current market.Quote from BHPian ManiE:The climate change is causing a major impact on the mountain and coastal regions of India, YoY these events are increasing and residents have to bear the brunt.Quote from BHPian jhaji9211:Damn, can only imagine how much water was it submerged in. How much time did it take for the water to fill up in the basement, that you could not respond ? Or did it all happen while you were asleep ?Quote from BHPian digitalnirvana:This happened over a few hours, and honestly there was nothing that he could have done.Quote from BHPian Drive.Thru.KKS:There was an overnight deluge on 22 Sept that poured ~300mm rains over Kolkata in just under 5 hours between midnight and 5am.Quote from BHPian baskar:Very sorry to hear your loss. It is very difficult to find replacement for Passat – there are no good equivalent cars with its sibling Superb no longer available. Insurance claim process must be time consuming. Hope your Insurance company will reimburse you adequately.Quote from BHPian vmanu:The hardest part now will be finding a good replacement.Thank you to each one for their kind words.Flood – Our locality has never flooded in the 16 years I have lived here, so this was unexpected. Once water started collecting in our basement, the pumps were switched on to remove the water. However, the pumps were overwhelmed very soon. Water that was pumped out simply flowed back in since the water level outside our building was still rising. There was nowhere for the water to go but back inside our basement. Within an hour, the water was at a level such that the cars could not be started. The speed at which the water was flowing into the basement made it too dangerous for anyone to try and climb down the stairs, and lift access was also cut off since the lift wells had filled up already. This was the same story for so many other apartment blocks all over Kolkata. Insurance – I have comprehensive coverage, so I will be paid the IDV (less a compulsory deductible of INR 1,000). The insurance company has confirmed this. Unfortunately, since the return to invoice is not available on cars older than 5 years, this is the best I can hope for. The process will take 1 – 2 months, but this is understandable given the number of claims they are dealing with. Future – This is a real sign of climate change already happening, and we need to have the best possible insurance cover for our cars (and homes), going forward. For the future, I will continue to choose zero-dep cover (as I have been doing). Add-ons such as return to invoice, engine/gearbox/battery (for EVs) / tyre protect are compulsory too. Peace of mind is more important than saving a few thousand compared to what is at stake in such an occurrence. Replacement – We are currently focused on replacing our more regularly used cars. Once we are done with this, I plan on buying a replacement for the Passat (maybe next year). The closest replacement we are considering is the Camry. But we are also looking at the Innova HyCross. There are simply no sedans left in the INR 30L-45L segment. Unfortunate Update: End of the roadI had been planning a post to mark the occasion of crossing the 100K on the ODO, but I had to write a very different sort of post, unfortunately. Had an eventful 9 years with my City, which I will look back at fondly. The engine and gearbox still felt new even after 99K KM of driving. Though I complained about the body quality, that was virtually the only issue I faced with the City. On a more positive note, we welcomed our new 2025 City (ZX MT) home on 19-10-2025. Now I can brag about having owned every generation of the City since its introduction in India. Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
