81–90 of 340 posts
That's 15k to 20k for a car that is 11 years old at it's youngest and mileage under 150k is considered "low mileage"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was in the same boat. I usually avoid buying new but used cars are nearly the same price as new (if you can find a dealer that hasn't done ridiculous 'market adjustments'). So we bought new. We had to buy a car that was just off the delivery truck before the dealership had it inspected. The one we'd looked at two days before was long gone and they expected the one we bought to be sold the next day. My neighbor trad…
The narrative earlier in the pandemic was that the reduction in driving was brutal for mechanics as it meant a reduction in need for auto maintenance and repair. Fewer of us are staying at home these days, but it looks like we're still not quite back to pre-pandemic levels of driving[0]. I'd imagine it's probably a bit of a mixed bag for mechanics, depending on what sort of vehicles they specialize in, where they're…
I had only done light maintenance/upgrade work on my cars prior to the pandemic. In the last year I've replaced a rear main seal, front + rear rotors + pads on all my cars, new control arms, shocks, and struts on a sedan, a ton of electrical work, cold air upgrades, every single fluid drained and filled, etc. DIY content on YouTube is getting to the point where a middle schooler can fab a car from scratch given enough time and motivation. YMMV (literally).
I explored trading in my car a couple months ago and got lowballed by the dealership. I wonder if it's time to try again.
If you have another car you can use then it's a good deal. The problem now is any profits made from selling your car will be eaten up by the inflated price whichever car you are trying to buy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was in the same boat. I usually avoid buying new but used cars are nearly the same price as new (if you can find a dealer that hasn't done ridiculous 'market adjustments'). So we bought new. We had to buy a car that was just off the delivery truck before the dealership had it inspected. The one we'd looked at two days before was long gone and they expected the one we bought to be sold the next day. My neighbor trad…
>Mechanics are about to make a killing. If you're a mechanic and already have plenty of business, I imagine it's a tough call: do you jack up your hourly rates and take advantage of the windfall, at the risk of customer loyalty in the future? This insanity will pass, after all.
There was a multi-year period where the demand far exceeded supply, but they didn't seem to adjust their billing rates accordingly.
I never got a clear answer as to why. The one guy I talked to seemed scarred by a very demand-limited market some years prior, so maybe he was fearful of making any changes that might leave him under-employed.
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$7,000 to put a new engine in a 2011 GMC Terrain that was worth maybe $8000. The engine was recalled by GM for excess oil consumption, my engine had the fixed installed and still died 30k miles later. I went with a new one because that particular vehicle ended up costing me more monthly than a car payment.
Stop buying shitty GM's. I learned my lesson back in in the late 90's when I couldn't keep a GMC Sonoma running long enough to sell it (was like 3 years old). In 2000 I became part of the Toyota family (worked for FORD at the time) and never bought anything else since. The 2 Toyota and 1 Lexus we own are between 14-11 years old and look and run like they came off the assembly line yesterday (all 3 were bought used).…
Your Toyotas probably have well more than 5 years left in them too. Unless you're someone who replaces cars at 100,000 miles, which a lot of people do.
So is this a good time to sell my car if I don't really use it or should I hold onto it?
Yeah, you can potentially lose little to none in depreciation (or gain in some situations) selling your car currently. If you have another car or just don't need one, can be quite nice to get great value + reduce your insurance/gas etc. But if you will need another car again in 12 months I think it's a bit unclear whether it's worth it & where the market will be (granted - i'm no market analyst). If it's no issue to wait 24+ months I definitely think it's an amazing time to sell cars that get little use.
anecdotally; the lower end of the car market doesn't really seem affected. prices for 10+ year old cars that aren't "nice" but are easily reliable with regular maintenance still seem widely available and cheap. tangentially; I have always seen the premium for a nice car to be a really low value at normal income levels.
I bought a fairly well used 2006 Honda in Jan of 2020 for $5k. After denting the rear fender badly and putting 20k miles on it, it’s worth $7-8k.
A vehicle like that has never appreciated like that. Cash for Clunkers had an impact on availability of $1000 beaters, but nothing like what we’re seeing now.
How long can that bubble last? Is it the same globally?
One of the other oddities of this market is that prices for "normal" cars have increased at a higher rate than prices for "upmarket" cars. There is now some pricing overlap that never used to be there.