Bad times for used car purchases

[kbot]

Probably not at the top of everyone's list, and certainly not one of those things we tend to think about when worrying about areas and people affected by hurricanes, but, Hurricane Harvey and now Irma have the potential for eclipsing Katrina and the issues people had with buy used cars........

Hurricane Harvey Likely To Destroy More Cars Than Katrina: "This Is Bad; Real Bad"

Hurricane Harvey's historic flooding in Texas is set to wreak havoc on the auto industry and its insurers with analysts now predicting the storm could damage more vehicles than Hurricane Katrina. In August 2005, Katrina wiped out some 500,000-600,000 vehicles but William Armstrong of CL King warns that Houston has about 5x more people than New Orleans did at the time.

Hurricane Harvey could damage more vehicles than Hurricane Katrina, driving business to the salvage auctions operated by Copart and KAR Auction Services, CL King analyst William Armstrong wrote in a note.

Katrina damaged 500,000-600,000 vehicles in August 2005, and the greater Houston MSA is five times as populous as pre-Katrina New Orleans.

The cost of dealing with catastrophes can be higher than normal given vehicle extraction, towing and temporary storage and auction locations, though both companies have grown their physical presence in Texas over the last year, which should lower the need for temporary locations.

It may be 2-3 months or longer until damaged vehicles are sold at auction.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-2 ... d-real-bad

A lot of water-damaged used cars made their way to New England - usually small used car lots. They get the cars cleaned-up real nice, byt the damage was already done and wouldn't become apparent after driving a few weeks.

[Doka]

Too bad they let those cars hit auction. It is kind of like, extending the disaster to the rest of the country.

[kbot]

You have to wonder Oka - I guess an argument can be made that they're buying them for parts.........