Of the 50,000 vehicles Cox Automotive estimated were damaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Brett Sutherlin, owner of Sutherlin Automotive Group, said about 100 were at his stores.
It was nearly all of his local inventory.
Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida's western coast Sept. 28. After sweeping across the region, the storm headed up the coast of South Carolina. Fort Myers, Fla., a beachfront city in southwestern Lee County, was among the hardest hit by the Category 4 storm. Sutherlin has three dealerships in the area.
His Fort Myers Genesis store received the worst of the damage, Sutherlin said. It was just a temporary facility while the group built a new home for the brand.
"It was completely flattened — it's gone," Sutherlin told Automotive News. "It's been chaotic and crazy."
Sutherlin Nissan of Fort Myers, just down the street from the Genesis store, sustained damage to its foundation. In nearby Cape Coral, Sutherlin Nissan of Cape Coral avoided serious damage because of modern anti-hurricane features.
In the wake of the damage to his vehicles and buildings, Sutherlin turned to old friends and strangers alike in a LinkedIn post Tuesday offering to buy any inventory other Nissan stores could offer: "We're in desperate need of inventory right now," Sutherlin said into the camera. "Most of our cars have been totaled, and we need cars just to be able to operate."