Industry News: Houston-Area Dealers See A Deluge of Buyers

[William Maley]

The recovery process of Hurricane Harvey is in full swing and nowhere is this more apparent than the amount of people heading to dealers. 

Steven Wolf, chairman of the Houston Automotive Dealers Association tells Automotive News that dealers in the Houston area "abnormal" traffic as people come in looking for a replacement. The sudden rise isn't that surprising as the Houston metro area is about the size of New Jersey. Wolf said the first order business for many folks is to get back into a vehicle so they can get around.

"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 explained.

To give an idea of just how busy dealers have been in the Houston area, Wolf said that the dealership group he works for - Helfman Motors saw barely any traffic on August 30. The next day saw a small amount of traffic flowing in. Then things went crazy as people were coming in droves. This momentum hasn't slowed down since.

As we reported last week, analysts believe sales for September will bounce back, partly due to those affected by Hurricane Harvey. 

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

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[G. David Felt]

Let's add in their auto's destroyed by Irma and Jose. Should help to update the average age of Auto's in the US.

[A Horse With No Name]

52 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Let's add in their auto's destroyed by Irma and Jose. Should help to update the average age of Auto's in the US.

Indeed....my oldest son and middle daughter work in the insurance industry...they are going nuts at the moment...

 

[G. David Felt]

4 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Indeed....my oldest son and middle daughter work in the insurance industry...they are going nuts at the moment...

 

Hope many of the people have replacement insurance, the few extra dollars a month make this so worth making sure you have an auto with minimal out of pocket cost.

[Drew Dowdell]

10 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Hope many of the people have replacement insurance, the few extra dollars a month make this so worth making sure you have an auto with minimal out of pocket cost.

I called to make sure I had it before I even left Pittsburgh. I wanted to be sure of replacement in the event I was caught in the storm there. 

[smk4565]

The insurance companies pain will be the auto makers gain.  There have to be tens of thousands of destroyed cars in Florida and Texas right now.   But you do have to look at replacement value and how much people will get, a lot of people take out 6-7 year car loans so the car depreciates much faster than it is getting paid off.  That could be a problem for a lot of people.  

Then you have to think too, if your house just got flooded or had the roof ripped off, buying a new car isn't really the highest priority, but in time as people rebuild car sales will pick up for sure.

[daves87rs]

1 hour ago, smk4565 said:

The insurance companies pain will be the auto makers gain.  There have to be tens of thousands of destroyed cars in Florida and Texas right now.   But you do have to look at replacement value and how much people will get, a lot of people take out 6-7 year car loans so the car depreciates much faster than it is getting paid off.  That could be a problem for a lot of people.  

Then you have to think too, if your house just got flooded or had the roof ripped off, buying a new car isn't really the highest priority, but in time as people rebuild car sales will pick up for sure.

Gotta go places first....hotels, work-stuff like that.

See quite a few housing supplies leaving here heading south though....

[G. David Felt]

10 hours ago, daves87rs said:

Gotta go places first....hotels, work-stuff like that.

See quite a few housing supplies leaving here heading south though....

Agreed, the amount of lumber shipping to the south has really picked up here recently in the pacific northwest. 

I have to question the local governments allowing people to bring in new trailers and cheap building of homes of what was there. Time to rethink how they build and how strong the buildings are. Local gov and Feds should require homes in flood zones to be on stilts and be made of cement or steel strong enough to withstand storms like this plus have built in storm doors that roll down over windows and secure the place against the storm, looters, etc.

Time to think long term as we are putting so much garbage in the ground due to a lack of recycling and building for long term life of the building.

[A Horse With No Name]

14 hours ago, smk4565 said:

The insurance companies pain will be the auto makers gain.  There have to be tens of thousands of destroyed cars in Florida and Texas right now.   But you do have to look at replacement value and how much people will get, a lot of people take out 6-7 year car loans so the car depreciates much faster than it is getting paid off.  That could be a problem for a lot of people.  

Then you have to think too, if your house just got flooded or had the roof ripped off, buying a new car isn't really the highest priority, but in time as people rebuild car sales will pick up for sure.

As I said my daughter works in auto claims...there are a crap ton of people so upside down gap insurance does not even help them...I do not envy people making payments on Iron sitting at CoPart.

2 hours ago, dfelt said:

Agreed, the amount of lumber shipping to the south has really picked up here recently in the pacific northwest. 

I have to question the local governments allowing people to bring in new trailers and cheap building of homes of what was there. Time to rethink how they build and how strong the buildings are. Local gov and Feds should require homes in flood zones to be on stilts and be made of cement or steel strong enough to withstand storms like this plus have built in storm doors that roll down over windows and secure the place against the storm, looters, etc.

Time to think long term as we are putting so much garbage in the ground due to a lack of recycling and building for long term life of the building.

Getting it up quick cheap flashy is the new American way....preferably with stuff from China that breaks before it is paid for.

On the other hand, that speed queen dryer works great.  Three of my five living at home plus an exchange student from Denmark, it never misses a bet no matter how much we throw at it.

[Drew Dowdell]

18 hours ago, smk4565 said:

The insurance companies pain will be the auto makers gain.  There have to be tens of thousands of destroyed cars in Florida and Texas right now.   But you do have to look at replacement value and how much people will get, a lot of people take out 6-7 year car loans so the car depreciates much faster than it is getting paid off.  That could be a problem for a lot of people.  

Then you have to think too, if your house just got flooded or had the roof ripped off, buying a new car isn't really the highest priority, but in time as people rebuild car sales will pick up for sure.

If they had Wells Fargo car loans, WF bought gap insurance for them automatically..... so what might be a scandal for WF might be a win for those they scammed. 

[ocnblu]

If anything good can come of this super-active storm season, it is the fact that remorseful buyers of electrified vehicles can run as fast as they can, back toward normalcy.  https://www.edmunds.com/about/press/hybrid-and-electric-vehicles-struggle-to-maintain-owner-loyalty-reports-edmundscom.html

[G. David Felt]

7 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

If anything good can come of this super-active storm season, it is the fact that remorseful buyers of electrified vehicles can run as fast as they can, back toward normalcy.  https://www.edmunds.com/about/press/hybrid-and-electric-vehicles-struggle-to-maintain-owner-loyalty-reports-edmundscom.html

LOL What a silly thing to post considering it is a 2 and half year old news story. Just at the start of incentives and better EV/Hybrids that are out today. California is showing that this is not true since 5%+ of auto sales in that state which this story is based on is the current pace.

[ocnblu]

Ohhh... "incentives".  You mean where I help some dope buy a worthless contraption with my tax money?  Does anyone track resale values of electric cars?  They are IN THE BASEMENT for a reason!

[G. David Felt]

15 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Ohhh... "incentives".  You mean where I help some dope buy a worthless contraption with my tax money?  Does anyone track resale values of electric cars?  They are IN THE BASEMENT for a reason!

Yes, looking at Leaf 1.0, your right, they are very cheap to pick up used and make an outstanding cheap commuter car. Talking True EV's with distance is a very different beast and used Tesla's hold their value very well. Used ICE Auto's at the start of the 1900's also were IN THE BASEMENT, people laughed at those who bought them over a dependable sturdy Horse.

Yet here we are with you defending ICE against the Future EV's.

Seems you have allot in common with the conservative stubborn Horse owners of the early 1900's.  

[Robert Hall]

18 minutes ago, dfelt said:

 

Seems you have allot in common with the conservative stubborn Horse owners of the early 1900's.  

Well, the Amish are resistant to change..still living like it's 1899 w/ their horse and buggies...

[oldshurst442]

17 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Ohhh... "incentives".  You mean where I help some dope buy a worthless contraption with my tax money?  Does anyone track resale values of electric cars?  They are IN THE BASEMENT for a reason!

 

2 hours ago, dfelt said:

Yes, looking at Leaf 1.0, your right, they are very cheap to pick up used and make an outstanding cheap commuter car. Talking True EV's with distance is a very different beast and used Tesla's hold their value very well. Used ICE Auto's at the start of the 1900's also were IN THE BASEMENT, people laughed at those who bought them over a dependable sturdy Horse.

Yet here we are with you defending ICE against the Future EV's.

Seems you have allot in common with the conservative stubborn Horse owners of the early 1900's.  

 

1 hour ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Well, the Amish are resistant to change..still living like it's 1899 w/ their horse and buggies...

 

Just a random thought that came to my mind...with all posts that I quoted on...

And in true Oldshurst442 fashion..in song with youtube links...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2017 by oldshurst442

[FAPTurbo]

On 9/12/2017 at 3:31 PM, ocnblu said:

PEOPLE COLLECTIVELY LOST BILLIONS AND SOME EVEN DIED BUT THAT AIN'T GON' STOP ME FROM SHITPOSTIN' 'BOUT ELECTRIC CARS

a fiat owner making fun of depreciation/resale is the bigger disaster imo

[ocnblu]

55 minutes ago, FAPTurbo said:

a fiat owner making fun of depreciation/resale is the bigger disaster imo

You should know after testing a 500e... available for $800.

[Intrepidation]

Making a mockery of people who lost everything using an article more outdated than your rotary phone. I mean there's stories from from Nazi Germany that were classier than that.

[ocnblu]

5 hours ago, Intrepidation said:

 I mean there's stories from from Nazi Germany that were classier than that.

English as a second language much?  Funny that you only post here anymore as a comical sidekick to Booyah, Mr. Dodgefan.  It's like you're taking turns typing on the same Commodore 64.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  I guess.

[G. David Felt]

Some posts just go over my head, clearly some inside knowledge that I am fine not knowing. 

[Scout]

All other comments aside, the headline of this thread is kind of a, well duh.