I don't use my car much.. thinking about selling my 2019 and buy back a 2022 for the same price in a year, if I get lucky.
Used car market gets even more bizarre
251–260 of 340 posts
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought a RAV4 over the summer. There was no inventory (hint: dealer web sites will lie to you about what's actually available to purchase), I ended up reserving one that hadn't been shipped to the dealer yet and waiting for around a month for it to arrive. Autotrader shows zero of the same trim for sale used within 500 miles so not even sure what it would sell for.
Bought a new Subaru Impreza this spring. We had been saving for a couple years for my (close enough) dream car (wanted the WRX STI, but that maintenance is a real bitch). We have now had 4 calls from the dealership where we bought it offering to buy it back for thousands of dollars more than we paid this spring . So far their best offer was $6500 more than what we paid. It's outrageous.
Does this mean the dealership thinks they can sell it for $10K+ more now even used?
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#253A brand new 2020 Toyota Landcruiser is worth a lot less than a second hand one in Australia right now. $160k+ for a second hand one :(
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIUC, you're implying that that mechanic is disdainful of poor customers, and that this just provides convenient political cover. If so, I'm not sure why you'd assume that. It seems more likely to me that the mechanic is simply choosing his work based on personal interest and perhaps profitability. I don't see why we'd ask anything more than that from him.
I'm not assuming. Everyone even remotely close to the industry knows that mechanics don't like the people who want to do the bare minimum amount of work all the time and that fairly strongly correlates to "poors". Of course given the choice a mechanic would rather do an oil change on a '15 4Runner owned by some yuppie he can upsell a cabin air filter to than do a timing set on a '03 Outback for someone who'll decline…
> mechanics don't like the people who want to do the bare minimum amount of work all the time
Does anyone?
> oil change on a '15 4Runner owned by some yuppie
Yuppies don’t drive 7 year old cars
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems like a futile effort to avoid cars with GPS if you carry a device around that is connected to a mobile network. Is there anyone that does not carry around a dumb phone, if not a smartphone?
Presumably you are the only person with the password to your phone unless you use biometrics, with which you can be forced to unlock it. The car's black box, on the other hand, can be dumped by warrant (at the most).
I am referring to the mobile network operators in the country having knowledge of your location at all times if you have a connected and powered on mobile device, which is then available to the government.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#256A brand new 2020 Toyota Landcruiser is worth a lot less than a second hand one in Australia right now. $160k+ for a second hand one :(
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s the opposite: Normal market: “this product costs $2.60.” ‘Wasn’t it like, $2.10 a week ago?’ “Yes it was.” Cars: “This car is $26k. Oh, also you have to pay a $2k market adjustment, because man things are just crazy.” That is, in normal markets, you just raise the price , you don’t need to refer to an explicit “market adjustment”, especially not as a random addon.
On a used car, they do as you describe. On a new car, the sticker generally starts with something like “manufacturer’s suggested base price” then various options, then local adjustments. You can’t just claim that the manufacturer’s suggested base price is $2K higher than it actually is.
I mean you _could_. MSRP is not unique to cars. Graphics cards are sold in online stores for higher than MSRP. It's just not something that dealers are likely to do, because they gravitate towards fees over changing the price.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#258Earlier 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…
I bought a tesla about a year ago. I only had to wait a week for it. 0 down and something like 2% APR. I feel like I really lucked out there
It's regional. I got one some months ago "barely used" with 12 miles on it, delivered within a month. A friend's Model 3 got flooded and insurance paid for a new one, he was able to get a Model 3 Performance within two weeks, brand new. This was one month ago in the Northeast. A friend in Denver, CO, was not so lucky: casually looking to buy in September, a delivery timeframe of Jan-Feb 2022 presented itself.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Might be anecdotal but on top of that, I've noticed that many car owners who previously only had services performed by a shop began doing their own maintenance. A friend who works as a service manager at CarMax had similar observations in conversations with some customers, including one DIY-er who forgot to torque their oil drain bolt correctly, lost the oil, and is now the recipient of a refurbished engine. I had on…
> one DIY-er who forgot to torque their oil drain bolt correctly, lost the oil, and is now the recipient of a refurbished engine.
Shops make sure this doesn't happen by lazily hitting that bolt with an impact gun. Might never come off again.
Re: Used car market gets even more bizarre
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's insane. If only all the small US banks and credit unions held off on their (~2005) indirect lending strategy and saved it for now, it might have actually been profitable!
Are you saying that doing indirect lending around 2005 makes them unable to do the same in 2021?
I believe so, yes, indirectly.