It's no secret to anyone that the automotive industry is a hugely significant aspect of our national economy.  In the wake of the horrible natural disasters our country has been enduring since August, the Dealer.com team wanted to take a look at the link between these natural disasters and car shopping behavior.  It turns out that car shopping can tell us a lot about how a local economy is reacting and responding to these tragedies.  

First, we looked at the Houston area immediately following the landfall of Hurricane Harvey on August 26th.  In the days following the hurricane, we saw a significant drop in both traffic to our websites as well as leads submitted to dealerships.  However, that drop was immediately followed by a spike as people bought new cars to replace those that were damaged in the storm.  About a month later, things returned to normal levels.  

The situation in Florida following the landfall of Hurricane Irma on September 11th is similar, but slightly different in an important way.  In Florida we saw a steady drop in web traffic and lead volume leading up to the hurricane's landfall and a subsequent return to normal levels about 5 days later.  What we didn't see was the same spike of demand, which suggests that the damage in Florida was a bit less severe. 

In Puerto Rico, the data tells a completely different story.  Hurricane Irma hit Puerto Rico on September 6 and hurricane Maria ravaged the island starting on September 20th.  The recovery of web traffic in Puerto Rico was considerably slower than in both Florida and Texas, with things starting to return to normal 9 days later, only to fall again sharply as preparations for Maria began.  The devastation following Maria is clear.  After 3 weeks, web traffic was still only 17% of normal, with no spike in leads.  It's not at all surprising that shopping for a car isn't top of mind for the citizens of Puerto Rico, but the data does further emphasize the point that these hurricanes have substantially damaged the homes, property and economy of the Island.  

I first fell in love with the Automotive industry the first time I took a camouflaged prototype Cadillac on a 3 day road trip while working for General Motors.  Since then, I've grown to appreciate the impact that our industry has on the hearts, minds, wellbeing and economic security of people all over the world.  The impact of these natural disasters is horrible, but I'm proud to be part of a company and an industry who will be on the front lines of restoring normalcy and security to the areas hit hardest by these disasters.

Cox Automotive has numerous relief efforts in place to assist our dealer clients and partners impacted by these disasters. The Critical Event Management (CEM) team was formed within our Client Success group.

If you know of a dealership or related-business impacted by the hurricanes, please advise them to contact the Cox Automotive CEM team at HurricaneSupport@coxautoinc.com.

 I'm also going to make a donation to support recovery in Puerto Rico.  

James

The data in this article is based on visits to Dealer.com hosted websites.