Hurricane Ian Destroyed Some Incredible Cars, and Thousands Are Now Available at Salvage Auctions
Hurricane Ian destroyed so many cars in Florida and other southern states that the Copart website now lets you browse them with even greater ease.
Hurricane Ian took a terrible toll on human life and physical property in the southeast. Billions of dollars in damage was done, and one of the most visible reminders of the destruction is ruined cars. We've detailed before how they're piling up in a huge way, but now we can really see that figure illustrated. Copart, one of the largest auto salvage companies in the country, now has a specific part of its site dedicated to wrecks from Hurricane Ian. It's not pretty.
The default sort mode of these totaled cars is estimated retail value, which adds to the spectacle. Instantly upon clicking the link to Hurricane Ian victims on Copart's homepage, you can see seven figures worth of destroyed Ferraris, Bentleys, Rolls Royces, and more. A few pages later and you can see the ruined BMW 850 CSI we covered a few days ago.
Enough vehicles have been added to some Copart lots in Florida and the difference in inventory can be seen from space. In a statement, a representative of the company stated that so far, it has collected over 60,000 vehicles for processing since the storm made landfall in late September.
The unfortunate part about the hurricane is that it did not discriminate when it came to which vehicles it would destroy. As a result, there's a diverse group of desirable cars represented here. Interested in something sporty? How about a 2019 Porsche 911 GT3 RS or a Mercedes AMG GT 63 S built in the same year? There's also a red 2020 Lotus Evora GT. Classics include a very tastefully done 1973 Ford Bronco, as well as a 1974 BMW Bavaria; the sedan version of the more well-known E9 series of coupes. 1996 Porsche 911 Carerra 2 rounds out the small selection I've put together.
That being said it's probably not a good idea to buy any of these vehicles unless the plan is to part them out. Yes, haha, just leave them in rice, right? But no, buying flood cars with the intent to fix them is generally a bad idea. You would have to be the next Thomas Edison to get one of these cars going again without months' worth of trial and error.
As of right now, Copart has 4,395 vehicles up for auction that fell victim to the massive September hurricane in Florida. If you feel strongly about one of these things, well, the choice is absolutely yours. God knows one of you will pull the trigger.
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