Car Buying During Pandemic Conditions

That arse has to be prepared to walk away with no action. A couple of years back we drove two hours for a $14k used car. Did the test drive, everything good. Came time to pay for it and they whacked on an extra $3.5K “cleaning” fee. Got my arse outta there. Probably worse now.

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That sounds more like a ‘clean out the customer’s wallet’ fee.

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You are right, your response is what my response would be, but it’s a lot harder if you have to drive 8 hours each way, and maybe suffer a hotel night for the trouble.

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A friend totaled their 10 month old car. Ended up with a check for $15k more than what they paid. Unfortunately has an expected 10 month wait for a new vehicle.

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I’m going to predict that by late 2023 there is a glut of cars at every dealership. The time to buy will be a year from now, especially if you’re paying cash.

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I hope you are right. Really, I hope you are. But I would bet against it. I don’t think the supply chain issues are going to have a large immediate solution. Which means if conditions improve, they will improve slowly over a long (multiyear) time period.

I think that sticker price + extra dealer markup conditions will last a few more years.

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Agree except I think they’ll simply boost the sticker price to incorporate the extra dealer markup.

That’s about what I’ve read. There are still massive shortages. Ford is currently out of blue oval badges to slap on the grill of some new cars. It looks like we have a year before we get things roughly righted, though a recession could dampen demand and cool prices.

i think i heard a few months ago that precovid, dealers would keep like 90 days of inventory on the lot. with covid, that shrank to less than 30 days of inventory. an upside to being leaner is that they can mark up as the number of buyers who want what is actually drivable home today is the same as it ever was. based on that, the story teller suggested they would want to remain lean relative to pre-covid inventory to keep the markups.

There are automobiles setting by the thousands all over this country waiting for chips. Demand is already subsiding and the chip business is about to catch up. When all those already built autos start rolling out in droves to lots and interest rates are setting at 8% for a car loan I’m not sure how the market doesn’t have to discount by the end of next year. The exact same cycle is happening in every consumer category.

First to get hit was retail goods, next is furniture and appliances, next will be autos, the longest out will be homes. I think into 2024 the inventory of real estate will be crazy.

If we go to a recession that is any kind of deep all of this will accelerate super quickly.

The nature of markets is that after a period of high demand there is always a glut. Demand cools before supply slows down.

Well, again, I hope you are right. I want to buy an SUV for myself, and I have been holding out for better market conditions and more available content choices. Right now, the dealers I have been to have so few cars, your only choice is to overpay and your only choice is to take one of the cars that are on the lot, which often are not equipped the way I would want them equipped. I am hoping to spend way less than 90k

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I’m still testing the waters here, I have about nine months to sort this out and it may take as long.

I am on about six dealer lists for a Civic Type R, those are just starting to arrive in the US and no allocations have been announced. I fear that many of these will sell for MSRP+$10k, and I’m not willing to pay that, so I may not be able to get one.

Plan B was a VW Golf R, these are also ridiculous to buy. My dealer said the last one he sold was in April, a customer put down a deposit, and six months later they know nothing. So best case it’ll be another three months, worst case who knows? There is currently one, and only one, new one listed on cars.com within 750 miles of me at $61k, MSRP is around $45k. Oof.

So now I’m thinking maybe a VW GTI Autobahn, that’s honestly quite enough fun. They seem slightly more attainable.

Still toying around with the idea of an EV, but I think the charging infrastructure isn’t quite there in the rural parts of Kansas I visit. But maybe.

I’ve been toying around with an EV as a next purchase. Concerns about charging infrastructure in out-of-the-way places I might want to visit led me to say that I’d just rent an ICE car on those rare occasions when I want to go to such places.

Your mileage may vary.

I am starting to like the idea of a Volvo SUV XC90 “Recharge” which is a plug in hybrid, capable of going up over 30 miles on a charge if you splurge on the big battery but also having a ICE as backup for longer trips. Unfortunately, they are in short supply, and seemingly having quality issues on those. But the concept is appealing for me in that my day to day could be electric but road trips could be petrol powered. But 80k to 90k without (or before) any additional dealer markup…oof da.

Toyota makes a similar type vehicle called the Rav4 “Prime” but nothing bigger than the Rav4, which is unfortunate. It’s a cheaper option.

If the Rav4 is too small for you, this one likely is too but I thought I’d bring it up anyway. The Hyundai Tucson has a plug in hybrid version that seems like a pretty good vehicle. Unfortunately it’s not sold new in every state at the moment, so if you want one and live in one of the other states it might take a bit more effort to locate one.

Thanks. Research tells me the Tuscon is roughly the same size as the Rav4. I was hoping for bigger. I found a list of all the Plug in Hybrids currently (pun intended) offered for sale (perhaps only theoretically) . It’s an interesting list. I can cross off the Ferraris, Bentleys, and Porsches. Several of them are also way too small for me to consider. I also don’t want any kind of sedan. Then the list becomes short. Rav4 Prime, a few Volvos, A Chrysler minivan (?) A Jeep GC and a couple of Lincolns. The Jeep and Lincolns have really small EV range though.

My gut is telling me to buy a Rav4 Prime and a big Ford pickup. Don’t try to get 1 vehicle to suit all my needs for 90k or more. Buy two with different capabilities.

I will wait and see what my gut is still telling me in 2023, and perhaps the predictions of a “buyers market” from Nick-PapaG will hopefully come true.

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linktotext

https://pdf.fivefilters.org/makepdf.php?v=2.6&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fsupply-chain-shortage-car-automotive-titles-11670770079%3Fmod%3Dhp_featst_pos5&api_key=&mode=multi-story&output=pdf&template=A4&images=1&date=1&sub=&title=Your+Personal+Newspaper&order=desc&date_start=&submit=Create

Our car is now a decade old, so I guess time to buy a new one and sell the old one?

Some notes:
We don’t like cars.
We don’t drive places.
I’m cheap.
My wife is not.

Should be a fun and exciting experience.

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One of our cars in now 13 years old. Should we do the same? It’s a low mileage Prius that we don’t drive all that much. I think we’re waiting til we pay off the “new car” which is now 3 years old I think before replacing the old.

And we may give it to our daughter to use at college rather than sell it.

Set it on fire? We’ve never had 2 vehicles, and as ride-sharing is increasingly common, I’m skeptical of keeping 1.