Hurricane Harvey is thought to have destroyed about 500,000 cars in Texas and it hasn’t taken long for some residents to pick up new wheels, much to the delight of local dealerships.
Chairman of the Houston Automotive Dealers Association, Steven Wolf told AutoNews that dealers are experiencing burgeoning sales as locals start to replace their vehicles. Wolf believes that sales at his Helfman Motors stores this month will be 40 to 50 per cent higher than they were in September 2016.
“People have moved past the ‘Oh, my God, what am I going to do?’ [stage] to ‘Let’s get a plan; we need to do this, this and this.’ At the top of the list, it is, ‘Let’s get a replacement vehicle,” Wolf said.
Although dealerships will be pleased to see a sudden spike in sales, dealer inventories are low because of how many vehicles were lost in the hurricane. With this in mind, Wolf has urged friends to get replacement vehicles as soon as possible before inventories run out and they’re forced to order and wait for new vehicles.
Many car dealerships in Florida expect a similar flurry of new customers when Hurricane Irma passes through the state.
For example, local dealer Braman Motorcars said it was preparing a post-storm ad blitz.
“We’re going to hopefully see some of that business coming on the aftermath of the hurricane,” said Braman’s advertising and marketing manager Danny Bayard.
“We’re positioning our radio station and TV partners. As important as hurricane preparedness is for our staff, post-hurricane preparedness is just as important.”