DECEMBER 15 2008
AMERICANWAY 45
about half go to theMiddleEast.
Although the export business inused ve-
hicles,particularlySUVs, ishummingalong
right now, things can changequickly, either
because the dollar strengthens or due to an
unforeseen political development. “For a
long time, I was shipping 200 or 300 cars
a month to Chile, and thenmany of them
were sent on to Bolivia,” says Janet Frank,
president of JDF International Transport
in Baltimore. “And then Bolivia said, ‘We
don’t want those cars, so we’re going to
put a moratorium on receiving cars from
Chile.’ All of a sudden, the market, within
sixmonths,went from300 to three.”
specializes in transporting vehicles around
the globe, says her company has seen a
“monumental increase” in the volume of
usedvehiclesbeingexported from theUnit-
ed States to foreign buyers, particularly to
those in Persian Gulf countries like Saudi
Arabia, theUnitedArabEmirates, andKu-
wait.Serranosays that in thepast, therewas
a healthy trade in used passenger cars, but
now there aremore andmore SUVs pack-
ingHöegh’sRo-Ro (roll on, roll off) vessels,
a fact she attributes to the sinking value of
thedollar in comparisonwithother curren-
cies and to the summer’s high gas prices in
theUnitedStates. “SUVs just this past year
have become so inexpensive, with everyone
trading them in andnodemand in theU.S.
for something that isnot fuel efficient,” says
Serrano. She adds that Höegh and other
transporters have added vessels to try to
keepupwithdemand.
Obviously, shipping companies like
Höegh are big economic beneficiaries of
the trade inunwantedAmericanSUVs. So,
too, are auto dealers like Jorge Rodriguez,
theCentremanager ofWarrenHenryLand
Rover North Dade in Miami. While Ro-
driguez describes the local market in used
SUVs as tough, he says he receives a steady
streamof foreign interest, particularly from
Ukrainians andRussians. “Their oilmoney
is very strong right now, and they have all
this extramoney to spend,” he says.
Even though many of his buyers could
afford new vehicles, the low prices and the
fact thatAmericanSUVs tend to comewith
features they might not otherwise be able
to get draw foreign buyers to U.S. dealers.
“The Americanmarket is very demanding,
and these people want the best of the best,
and you get more amenities with U.S. ve-
hicles,” he says.
Although some of the foreignbuyersRo-
driguez gets are individuals, he says most
are either brokers or foreign dealers and
that they often buymore than just one ve-
hicle to sell overseas. That groupofmiddle-
men has flourished since interest in SUVs
has flatlined in the United States and in-
creased in other countries. United Traders
of LittleRock, Arkansas, for instance, buys
used vehicles in the United States— often
atused-carauctions—and then ships them
to buyers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the
United Arab Emirates. Of the 150 to 200
vehicles the company sells each month,
ChRIsWARREN
is a LosAngeles–basedwriterwhosework has
appeared in
Time
,
Forbes
, and
The LosAngeles TimesMagazine
.
