and if you must drive through floods...
most car engines suck in air from a height somewhere between the axle height and the top of the front wheel. If the water reaches the hub, go slowly, try and make a bow wave and keep up with it without driving through it, so the low point after the wave coincides with the front wheel well.

Don't follow me into 8 inches of water in a hurry to stay in my wake, then complain when your car stops dead, as someone did a week ago.... (I think he thought as long as he drove where I had that he'd be ok, without wondering why I was only crawling through it with the clutch slipped.)
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Mon 6 Jan 2014, 22:20, 3 replies, latest was 10 years ago)

Sitting here in my chair, calmly reading this
it seems logical. You have to think about what you're doing - bow wave, wheel arches, slow down, no problem.

But when I'm in my car, with 18 inches of water slooshing past my window, I think my thought process would be more like "Fuck! Shit! Fuck! Shit!"
(username failed moderation, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 12:11, Reply)

even my Volvo would be fucked by 18 inches of water ;-)

That said I had a shiiiiiiit moment on Xmas Eve when in fairly deep floods and making good progress; a 4x4 charged past the other way creating a wave that rolled up my bonnet and broke over the windscreen. Scared the shit out of me as the water outside was 3 inches over the bottoms of the doors. if it had stopped it would have flooded. Thankfully the air intake didnt suck any water in and I made it.
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Tue 7 Jan 2014, 12:48, Reply)

It makes more money for the manufacturer though.
That being the point of anything bought in the last century.
The BWM designers were, apparently, a lot more fun when it came to the 7** series -- sadly I can't confirm it but the news reports talk about low intakes.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 8 Jan 2014, 19:31, Reply)