Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath is not expected to affect October US new light vehicle sales to any great extent and may, in fact, give November a boost, a west coast-based analyst told just-auto.
“Even though the storm will cause shoppers to postpone buying in the affected areas, we do not anticipate a drop in October or November car sales,” said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst at TrueCar.com.
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“In fact, November sales may experience a small boost if the number of damaged vehicles is significant due to the replacement demand.”
Edmunds.com said initially said it would not be revising its October forecast but later told just-auto: “The last three days of October accounts for about 17% of the monthly sales, on average.
“The area of the country impacted by the hurricane accounts for about 20% of national sales. Considering the estimated total retail sales in October is around 930,000 vehicles, the ESTIMATED IMPACT is around 30,000 vehicles total for the month of October.”
Nissan North America announced it would offer employee pricing and discounted financing on Nissan and Infiniti vehicles to eligible buyers in FEMA-designated disaster and emergency areas who need to replace vehicles lost to Sandy.
Ford, meanwhile, has donated $50,000 to post-storm relief efforts and Toyota’s US arm, whose parent experienced the Japanese earthquake/tsunami last year, has kicked in $1m.
