Today’s market size is the number of used cars sold in the United States in 2012, a quantity that is 5% above the 2011 total. Many large-scale trends and factors play into the market for used vehicles, many of them related directly to how the new car market is doing. Therefore, to suggest that the losses from a natural disaster might play a role in the overall annual market for used cars is probably somewhat overstating matters. However, the loss of a quarter million cars in the hurricane that hit the east coast of the United States last fall, Hurricane Sandy, may well have played a small role in the 5% rise in used car sales during 2012. It may also bode well for used car sales in 2013.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: 40.5 million cars
Source: Mike Ramsey, “Amid New Car Boom, Used Cars Are Gold,” The Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2013, available online here. Michael Winerip, “Not Just a Car, but a Storm Victim, Too,” The New York Times, March 17, 2013, page S12.
Original source: Manheim Consulting and National Insurance Crime Bureau
Posted on March 22, 2013