Scottsdale Antique car disaster

Scottsdale Arizona is home of the most prominent automotive auctions of the world. Based in a dry climate, Arizona offers car collectors a little piece of heaven on earth, where their most precious possessions will not come under rain, snow or salt. Unfortunately kind weather was not the case this past week as the Russo and Steele Collector Automobile Auctions were taking place in sunny Scottsdale.

Due to high winds the main concourse of the event has blown over and has fallen on top of the vehicles. Knowing from previous experience, auctions such as RM Auctions, Barrett-Jackson and Kruse, tend to have solid roof buildings in which they house their main concourse vehicles, which are the ones that are expected to bring in the most amount of traffic as well as bids. This has not been the case with the Russo and Steele auction.  The main concourse was blown to bits as the main tent fell on millions of dollars of high end irreplaceable automobiles.  Some 4 Plymouth Superbirds, LS5 and LS6 Chevelles and a number of exotic Ferraris and Lamborghinis have fallen prey to the high winds.

Amongst the offerings Russo and Steele have brought in a number of 427 Corvettes, Hemi Cudas, Shelby Cobras, a Super Duty Trans Am and many other noteworthy older fine examples along with a number of Pro Touring rides.

In general terms, the auction must be responsible for venue insurance, however the vehicles are not included in the coverage. I sincerely hope every one of the consignees had sufficient insurance and a recent appraisal of the vehicles, as it is not easy to collect insurance on an older vehicle with no insurance. I suspect there are many people whom did not have insurance on their vehicles consigned in the auction, whom are going to be out of pocket for the repairs, but more importantly for the loss of value of their vehicle.

Hagerty insurance was one of the first insurance companies to respond to this crisis by allocating a number of adjustors and appraisers to the scene in order to survey the damage. While many are hoping, that this is a once in a lifetime occurrence that never repeats itself.