Community Stories

Current state of the car market (US)

Evose
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I’m seeing parallels to Rolex. Nothing available new. If you want new, go on a waitlist and wait 6 months. Everything second hand is marked up, so much so, you might as well buy new.

The annoying part of car buying today is the price gouging. I’m not interested in paying over retail. In fact I’ve only ever paid below invoice.

My lease is almost up. Guess I have to buy it. I don’t think the 12-15% off retail will come back anytime soon, but I hope things improve soon. I was offered a 2020 S4 with 16k miles for 62. New is 65. I could hardly keep a straight face during our conversation - you want me to purchase and be underwater in 2 years because you overpaid? Give me a break!

I respect the family owned business dealerships. They’ve been pleasant to work with - they’ve kept pricing at MSRP. Which is essentially a deal.
 
chrisb732
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I wonder if it will ever get better with these mico chip shortages.
 
gbesq
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I bought a new car at a reasonable discount in early June of last year, got great trade in value on my existing car, and 0% financing on the new purchase. Timing is everything. My other half is shopping for a new car now and there is little inventory and the prices are ridiculous. Bad for sedans, far worse for SUVs and pickups.
 
Evose
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gbesq gbesq
I bought a new car at a reasonable discount in early June of last year, got great trade in value on my existing car, and 0% financing on the new purchase. Timing is everything. My other half is shopping for a new car now and there is little inventory and the prices are ridiculous. Bad for sedans, far worse for SUVs and pickups.
Likewise, last year I purchased a new SUV for my wife - 8k discount and really good value on my trade. This year. Same car would be at retail or more than likely, 3-5k over.
 
dsio
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It’s a very weird market situation and unfortunately a lot of parties are doing their best to take advantage of consumers too.

I had bought a car mid 2020 and took out an agreed value policy in the amount I paid for it, in the 4 months following that the car had increased in value by around 60%. Some thieves broke into my home and stole the car among other things, so I made a claim but when the car was returned with no damage other than a scraped bumper and a broken tail light they wanted to write it off.

The reason they wanted to write the car off is that even with a salvage title, the car was worth about 20% more as a repairable write off than it was insured for, so the insurance company could have paid me out my agreed value, and made a significant profit on the theft. I had to get lawyers involved and make a lot of threats to have my car returned even after I withdrew the claim.

Its not exactly a typical situation when writing off cars with minimal damage can actually be a profitable exercise, but this particular insurance company also has to have a dedicated page on their site outlining their holocaust crimes so in the grand scheme of things I got off lightly.

Given where the market is at in the transition to electric, the new cars bought now are likely to be pretty rubbish and not worth much in 8-10 years as are the first generation of electric cars on the market so this may end up being one of those dead decades cars wise sort of like the 90s that are best skipped.
 
Wryfox
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dsio dsio
but this particular insurance company also has to have a dedicated page on their site outlining their holocaust crimes

WHAT?
 
JwRosenthal
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dsio dsio
…so this may end up being one of those dead decades cars wise sort of like the 90s that are best skipped.
HEY! Watch it!

B1A0D0A5-AEDE-4CD7-BCC8-AEAA93A0EF05.jpeg
 
STANDY
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Oddly my 4x4 is the last of the floor mounted 4wd stick selection with the gear shifter, (not push button that have limp mode so you may have to make it home in 2wd if any issues) last of the single cab 4x4s large tray (now they are all dual cabs).
No power windows or power mirrors (that they don’t make some parts for anymore and don’t rattle into oblivion) and a common rail turbo diesel (that didn’t have the issues the 2014 to 2019 diesel’s had)

So it’s basically a sort after model that is going up each year. 🤨
 
140dave
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It’s not just cars that are an issue, so are many parts especially for new models. We got my wife a new F-Pace this year, and on DAY 3 some nut job randomly smashed car windows at a restaurant.
79867D6E-1AE7-428D-81BB-A343A44B6821.jpeg

The little side back one, no entry just a smash. This was in late January, still waiting on a replacement window, none in the US as it is a 2022 model design change from previous model. 🙁
 
JwRosenthal
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Bought a ‘19 CPO CooperS for my wife back in September of last year, it was fairly priced for a used model and we got a great trade-in for her ‘16 Kia, but they wouldn’t budge on purchase price.
7F5A714C-2D66-4BB6-BC6C-2107F81F8FDD.jpeg

I loved her car so much I bought myself a ‘17 Countryman which popped up on carmax’s website and they didn’t know what it was (I had been looking daily and saw it pop up the first day). They priced it according to year and mileage but didn’t account for the fact that the car was a total custom order with every package and customizable option you could get. I jumped on it.
ECFF1397-1A2F-4ACE-8FB2-589B40A31866.jpeg

I know it’s gotten tighter since last fall, but it seemed even then that the sportier or funkier cars sit longer than the happy-family mobiles. If you aren’t looking for a sedan/SUV/minivan/pickup, you may find more options and better pricing out there.
 
JwRosenthal
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dsio dsio
It came out in ‘87 😜
True, which means they probably started development in ‘83
 
gbesq
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Or look for a vehicle that is in its last year of production and/or a slow seller. That's what I did. Picked up a 2021 Mazda6 and absolutely love it. Not hard to figure why I got a deal. A gorgeous looking car and the best drive in its class, but still has to complete against the Accord, the Camry, and lessening demand in general for sedans as most folks want SUVs.
1285246-75aab185c0070d3c610c14184ab5a75b.jpg
 
JwRosenthal
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140dave 140dave
It’s not just cars that are an issue, so are many parts especially for new models. We got my wife a new F-Pace this year, and on DAY 3 some nut job randomly smashed car windows at a restaurant.
79867D6E-1AE7-428D-81BB-A343A44B6821.jpeg

The little side back one, no entry just a smash. This was in late January, still waiting on a replacement window, none in the US as it is a 2022 model design change from previous model. 🙁
The supply chain issues are a serious problem and not just for the chips. A friend of mine went to buy a CPO Audi last fall and even though the one he wanted was on the lot and available- they couldn’t sell it because it had an airbag recall and they couldn’t get the airbags- in fact they couldn’t sell any of them that has the recall. He ended up buying a BMW
 
gbesq
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There are also any number of models that are now being sold without some features that they would normally have because microchips are not available. My other half searched in vain for a new Audi Q5 SUV with lane departure warning. It's a standard feature, but none of the ones for sale on U.S. new car lots have it.
 
perks713
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I'm starting to see some used car prices come down but not nearly to the levels they used to be. A car I 'ordered' with a dealer back in February still won't be coming until probably June or July. I don't see a massive increase in new inventory across OEMs right now. I believe I'm seeing OEMs work a little better on getting specific builds of vehicles to the right dealerships so that nothing sits too long.

Also, this is fun:
https://jalopnik.com/this-list-of-cars-with-the-highest-markups-doesnt-tell-1848725213
 
Dan S
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dsio dsio
The reason they wanted to write the car off is that even with a salvage title, the car was worth about 20% more as a repairable write off than it was insured for, so the insurance company could have paid me out my agreed value, and made a significant profit on the theft. I had to get lawyers involved and make a lot of threats to have my car returned even after I withdrew the claim.

Its not exactly a typical situation when writing off cars with minimal damage can actually be a profitable exercise, but this particular insurance company also has to have a dedicated page on their site outlining their holocaust crimes so in the grand scheme of things I got off lightly.
.

That is a crazy story about the insurance company, especially that they were more than willing to lose a customer for a relatively small amount of potential profit. Customer acquisition is expensive for insurance companies, and my experiences with claims have always been positive. It's their opportunity to develop customer loyalty.
 
Evitzee
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Unless you absolutely, positively need a new vehicle the best option is to just stand pat and keep what you have. I have a 2006 with 105,000 miles, a 2010 with 125,000 and a 2015 with 40,000. All working fine and even if they needed some work it is still cost beneficial to repair them. EVs are decades away from replacing ICE vehicles, if ever, so don't fall for the stories you hear that we are soon going to be all electric soon. We probably have another 18 to 24 months of supply shortage before things get back to some sort of normalcy but there will be a huge pent up demand for new vehicles so prices will remain elevated. It is what it is, I can't get excited because dealers want a price premium on their stock to sell. The 'S' in MSRP is 'Suggested', we have been conditioned to always expect a discount from that price but there is no rational reason that it can't go higher depending on supply and demand. Traditionally there has been more supply than demand and the prices reflected that, now the opposite is true. Let the markets work. The manufacturers have learned something in all of this, it is better for their bottom lines to not overproduce and get a higher price for their vehicles. Expect to see far fewer cars in stock in the future, there will be fewer cars on the lot with less discounting and more ordering of the vehicle you want.
 
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