I remember a picture of that car too. I think he had another porsche that he drove right?
As a “seasoned actuary” 3mo is not too much for my tastes, just too much for my budget! I am not sure where the worry about a very valuable object exposed to the danger of the road exceeds the enjoyment of the car, but is much higher than I can afford. Early in my career I did lease a car that was on the order of 9-10 mo.
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Cars are expensive nowadays, and buying a 100k car doesn’t really even stand out that much in the city I’m in. Everyone and their mom has a tesla.
Yeah he’s had several over the years but that’s the one I grew up with. It’s just slightly older than me.
Prolly runs better too 
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Could be ideal buying conditions in early 2023. The chip shortage is easing and automakers will be dumping inventory that has been setting around waiting for chips into a market with receding demand due to increased borrowing costs.
I hope you are right. I got my fingers crossed. (Not really, I am not superstitious. I have an amulet that protects me from superstitions)
Hondas and Toyotas are pretty difficult to come by at dealerships in my neck of the woods.
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OK, I am shopping hard for a new car. Dealerships are empty. I literally walked out of a Subaru dealership on Saturday as the 2 cars that they had when I got there were sold while we still there. They asked if I wanted to counter bid other customers at the dealership, but I shied away from a bidding war. I wasn’t blown away by the Forrester. I thought the engine was lacking in power.
Subaru was asking for sticker + $2000 on the 2 cars they started with (which were like 30k and 35k stickers to begin with)
The Nissan dealer told me the 7 cars they had were all sticker + $3900.
A Toyota dealership a few towns away told me they would take an order with deposit for a new car at sticker + $0 but I would have a 6 to 9 month wait. I think I am leaning this way.
It really cheeses me that all the dealership websites around me (all of them) say they have inventory that in reality they do not have.
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Unless you are in a big hurry, I think this is the way to go right now. It’s going to be a while before inventory catches up.
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might have said this, but at KIA (and my son with Toyota), we told them what we wanted and when it came in, you had the right of first refusal if it doesn’t have cost, features, color…
neither of us actually took the vehicle
Yeah, around Chicago, the inventory is so low that the dealers that actually have a car or 3 are doing either explicit markups (like a $3000 market adjustment) or implicit markups (“we added pinstripes and door edge guard protectors for $3000”) or forcing mandatory paint and exterior protection for a few thousand extra.
I knew 2022 was a poor time to be needing to buy a car, but market conditions are even more bleak than I had anticipated.
Glad I traded my F-150 for a Hybrid Accord.this winter when gas was $3.00/gallon. Got a better deal on both ends than I would now.
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Is it an option to look further out? Fly or drive a few hundred miles to a dealer that might actually have a car? I doubt you’ll get much under MSRP anywhere though.
I’m considering a new car and the inventory here is thin, but it seems (based on browsing new cars at cars.com) there are some options available in a 250 mile radius.
The idea is a good one… and it is one that I have thought of.
The issues surround these observations I have made:
- Dealers are definitely NOT keeping their websites up to date. They refuse to take inventory off their websites because they still want to say they have several cars when they have very few cars, to keep buying flocking into the dealership.
- Dealers are not forthcoming over the phone or over the web with their TRUE pricing practices. I had to get my arse into a dealership to be told verbally that their pricing was sticker + $3900. If they published that on their website, then people who see their website wouldn’t bother going there.
- There’s a sunk cost fallacy that a dealers will use to squeeze you. “You drove 4 hours to our dealership to see what we have, well then I can inflate my prices even more because you must be desperate”
It seems to boil down to the fact that it is harder to walk away from a dealer that doesn’t have a car you want to buy at a price you want to pay, when you invest in many hours of travel to & fro.
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Jeez. So it’s just a shark tank right now. I wouldn’t go anywhere out of my way unless and until I had a signed purchase agreement.
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Interesting. Mr aj wants to replace my car next spring, but I’d like to go another year. If nothing changes I might do the order thing. Seems like I could wait 6-9 months (from next spring).
You make valid points. However, the MSRP (and invoice) do not vary for the same exact car across multiple dealerships. Regionally, there may be additional fees (such as SE Toyota) that cause their region to have higher prices. And there are varying “doc fees” (other BS fees) by region and dealer on top of the car price. My point is that you can negotiate a purchase (that includes every cost on a signed purchase order) over the phone/email with the fleet manager or online sales manager such that when you go to the dealer, all you need to do is sign a few forms and take your car. Going this route STILL takes longer than you would like. Have your own financing arranged ahead of time. If the dealer financing is better when you go to pick up the car, then take it.
I do this even when the dealer is <10 miles away. For new cars, I only go to a dealer to either test drive prospective cars or to pick up the vehicle. Everything else is asking for a bad time. For used cars, good luck.
“I am here to test-drive only. I am comparing the BMW 5-series to the Mercedes E-class to see if either car is an option. No, I will not be trading in a vehicle.”
I’ve done this for the last 5 or 6 cars I have purchased. In those times, I was in the power position. If a dealer told me something I didn’t like or asked me to pay more than I wanted to pay, then I had the ability to say “sayonara” and move on to another dealer.
Today, it is not the same. The dealer who has a car on his lot is in the power position. There are likely multiple people willing to bid on that car, auction style.
The point is ultimately moot. I put a deposit down on a car for flat sticker price on a vehicle that won’t be delivered for at least 6 months. Over the phone and negotiated. I just am at the whims of Toyota who may elect to gouge me on the sticker price for the 2023 version of the car.
Thankfully, it seems the manufacturers aren’t jacking up MSRP. Well, Tesla sure did. But so far the legacy car companies are being reasonable.
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Thanks for the info. Your post is still helpful for others in the market. My wife seems to think we are in the market for a new vehicle. Sounds like I will be making sure my existing cars are in good running shape for a while.
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