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Why are used cars so expensive right now?

thehustle.co

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Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#51

Post by user-the-name »

tokamak-teapot wrote: post #24
ris wrote: post #14

An article as a series of images. Without even any alt text. I don't think I saw things as bad as this even back in 2006.

I was just reading it (on mobile) and thinking that it’s perhaps the easiest to read and clearest article I’ve seen for a very long time. Something to do with the headings and short explanations, the visual layout and the simple but not _too_ simple charts. 10/10 for me - but I don’t need the alt text, so I’m not disagreeing the images should have those, especially as they are important to the flow.

This is because doing it as images let you actually properly control the layout, unlike HTML and CSS.

Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#52

Post by brutus1213 »

textech wrote: post #49

How were rental car companies able to sell 770k+ cars last year? Where did that demand come from and who bought those cars?

I think it was because people freaked out on public transit. In fact, there is a run on getting licensed to drive (have multiple co-workers trying to book appointments; they used to rely on public transit but realized it was suboptimal during covid). I recall it was very expensive to buy a bicycle in my city this time last year (those had a dual purpose - exercise/outdoors + transit).

Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#53

Post by brutus1213 »

holoduke wrote: post #40
paulpauper wrote: post #22

Almost everything is expensive now. Look how much assets in general have gone up: stocks, real estate, collectibles, commodities, and so on. College, healthcare, and insurance too. No reason cars should be an exception.

Exactly. Nobody dares yet to tell it's inflation.

I was looking at the market charts (NASDAQ) and was floored. How can people look at such a massive increase during a global pandemic and say this is normal growth? I mostly missed out on this entire expansion (we were saving to buy a house; had to keep the downpayment liquid as our housing market is stupid and requires people to go through a dozen bidding wars before you actually succeed).

Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#54

Post by exporectomy »

jlg23 wrote: post #19
wvenable wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about land? My house is relatively inexpensive, the land it's on is worth like 10x as much.

Well, what about land? There ain't any new land. The supply is limited, well measured and it won't change much....

There's plenty of new land in America and most countries. It's unused because it's far away from where people currently want to be, but that could change depending on what society and industry needs. Maybe remote work will somehow really last and push people out of cities so they can buy an otherwise empty section of wasteland.

Even within cities, it can be creates by zoning changes. My city recently relaxed density rules, effectively creating new land out of nothing in an instant. Developers are now building on that "new" land.

Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#55

Post by brutus1213 »

throw123123123 wrote: post #41
toomuchtodo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equities and real estate. Housing and cash flows never go out of style.

This is not quite correct. In high inflation credit markets disappear. 80%+ of housing is bought on mortgages. If 80% of housing demand disappears you get a 2008.

Interesting counterpoint .. you are right .. why would I lend you a dollar if I expect it to be worth a lot less in the future. Any data to go with this assertion? In Canada, average mortgages are just for 5 years - this is very different than the US. I suspect banks are taking very little risk in such a scheme. In the US, I believe banks sell mortgages off/get insurance via govt. schemes.

Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#57

Post by gruez »

holoduke wrote: post #40
paulpauper wrote: post #22

Almost everything is expensive now. Look how much assets in general have gone up: stocks, real estate, collectibles, commodities, and so on. College, healthcare, and insurance too. No reason cars should be an exception.

Exactly. Nobody dares yet to tell it's inflation.

...except BLS reported high inflation this month?

Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#58

Post by forgotmypw17 »

cooktheryan wrote: post #25
prpl wrote: post #15

The Kia Telluride is selling for quite a bit more than MSRP, used. Apparently dealerships are asking for more than MSRP new and that is part of it (in addition to/because of low availability)

They have been saying that since the car released. Kia has been playing NY nightclub bouncer with the availability and enjoying the extra $$ they get on top. Of note drive an Optima so not a super Kia hater just what they have done with the release of this model

if you can do it with sneakers, why not cars too?

Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#59

Post by valbaca »

tl;dr of the article is that the pandemic caused a major hiccup in the new-car pipeline: first people halted buying, that caused manufacturing to pause. Even when the manufacturing started again, the chip shortage came in.

In general, it seems people started being more frugal and smarter with their money: people bought fewer new cards and people had few repos. Of course, what makes a car "used" is time, so fewer new cards last year also means fewer late-model used cards this year. Increased demand and decreased supply.

All in all, I think it's a major correction of the prices of used cards. It never made much sense that a new car had half its value fall off when you drive it off the lot, but it was just an accepted fact and a reality (as all value is determined by what's agreed up on explicitly or implicitly).

Re: Why are used cars so expensive right now?

#60

Post by mjevans »

user-the-name wrote: post #51
tokamak-teapot wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just reading it (on mobile) and thinking that it’s perhaps the easiest to read and clearest article I’ve seen for a very long time. Something to do with the headings and short explanations, the visual layout and the simple but not _too_ simple charts. 10/10 for me - but I don’t need the alt text, so I’m not disagreeing the images should have those, especially as they are important to the flow.

This is because doing it as images let you actually properly control the layout, unlike HTML and CSS.

I think I'd prefer web browsers to understand LaTeX, or a similar open and free as in both liberty and beer standard. Maybe SVG for webpages with URI remote resources would be a good alternative, just something else.

I do love simple webpages with minimal resources that don't get in the way of my own preferences and device rendering needs in their quest for pixel perfect publication. HTML and CSS are supposed to be meta-languages that describe to a client how data is structured and simple style elements (that might get over-ridden!).

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