A half-million flooded cars and trucks could be scrapped after Hurricane Harvey in the United States
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Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images Houses and vehicles at the Highland Glen subdivision stand in floodwaters due to Hurricane Harvey in Spring, Texas, U.S., on Monday, Aug. 28, 2017.[/caption]
Car dealers, stateside are expecting a huge surge in business once Houston gets back on its feet.
Used-car values are already at a record high and prices could climb even higher over the next couple of weeks due to the tighter supply.
Thousands of cars and trucks have been written-off or totaled as they say in the States, with water up to their windows and in some cases over the roof.
The flooding is so extensive that it is estimated, half-million vehicles may wind up being scrapped.
Jonathan Smoke, who is the chief economist for Cox Automotive said:
"This is worse than Hurricane Sandy. Sandy was bad, but the flooding with Hurricane Harvey could impact far more vehicles."
After Hurricane Sandy hit New York and New Jersey in October 2012, there were an estimated 250,000 vehicles which had to be written-off and scrapped.
The New York metropolitan area may have a bigger population than Houston, Texas but the number of vehicles per household is much higher in Houston, hence double the number of cars written-off.
With so many vehicles in the flood zone, insurance companies will be busy handling claims and sorting out insurance payouts for flood victims, so they can but new vehicles.
Car prices could climb even higher over the next couple of weeks due to the tighter supply in the Houston area but not all of the flooded vehicles will wind up being scrapped. Many will be cleaned up and resold, often without the new buyer realizing they are buying a salvaged car or truck.
Frank Scafidi with the National Insurance Crime Bureau said:
"It's going to happen, that's inevitable,"
"Look at all those vehicles floating around. There are people who will try to take advantage of the situation."
The resale of repaired flooded cars is not illegal in the US, as long as the flood damage is disclosed on the title to buyers. After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of rebuilt flood vehicles were sold to unsuspecting buyers with titles that had been washed or reissued in a different state.
"We didn't see this on a huge scale until Hurricane Katrina," said Scafidi. "Since then the public awareness of the problem is greater, but with thousands of flooded vehicles it's hard to prevent this from happening."
(As always, if you or a family member are considering buying a used car, don’t buy until you run a car check report with MyVehicle.ie where you will find out the true history of the vehicle.)
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Justin Kavanagh
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