According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), up to 200,000 vehicles might need to be replace as a result of Hurricane Sandy. This figure includes both automaker losses as well as the combined tally of individually owned vehicles. Nissan projects that they lost 6,000 vehicles between their two brands. Although this number doesn’t even come close to the losses from Hurricane Katrina, it is still devastating.
“Total vehicles affected may be about one-third of what we saw with Hurricane Katrina, and that was about 600,000” used and new vehicles, NADA senior analyst Larry Dixon said to Automotive News. “We don’t see replacement demand starting to accelerate until we’re into December.”
With at least 3,000 cars that will be scrapped and another 1,300 that are being examined, Toyota and Lexus were hit hard also. Honda and Acura are reporting a combined total 3,440 lost cars while Ford and GM have yet to release their damage estimates. Exotic car manufacturer Fisker have seen a lose of 320 vehicles, 18 of which caught fire, awaiting shipment in a New Jersey port trashed during the storm.