81–90 of 261 posts
If the free market is working, whoever managed to ramp up production fastest will reap the rewards and put everyone else out of business. Good for them.
Most people looking to buy a _new_ car are not pressed to buy that car right now.
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Disclosure: I work for GM. Anything expressed here is solely my own opinion and experience. I think each statement is true. Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. There's also a bit of a prisoner's dilemma: if any automaker wanted to trim inventories, the customer could go to a competing automaker's lot and buy today. Since customers will not wait to buy a c…
> Dealerships hate carrying extra inventory because it costs money to finance the vehicles until they sell them. Why aren't dealerships just consignment stores for cars? That seems like it'd work out better for everyone involved. (And they could still follow "manufacturers can't sell direct" regulations, by having the dealership buy the car from the manufacturer just-in-time to resell it, once they've already got a s…
It wouldn't be better for the dealership when you take into the fact that they are a dying business that literally everyone (car manufacturers, clients, etc.) hate. The only thing that keeps them in business is laws that were passed so f()cking long ago that your grand parent were not even born yet. The justification at the time were valid, they were helping protect consumers and tried to create a "fair" market place amongst car sellers. That was back in the pre-internet and for some people even pre-phone era. when society changed and they became a useless parasite, they never tried to innovate or adapt to the new reality, they just doubled down on their hostile model.
There is no long term future for most of them, especially not with EV cars that require less maintenance. If there were no laws protecting them, most of them would be gone and car manufacturers would let you buy direct from them online. None of the crap they force you to go thought would be tolerated if you could just pull your phone in front of the sales rep and buy the exact model you want on the spot at msrp.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disclosure: I work for GM. Anything expressed here is solely my own opinion and experience. I think each statement is true. Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. There's also a bit of a prisoner's dilemma: if any automaker wanted to trim inventories, the customer could go to a competing automaker's lot and buy today. Since customers will not wait to buy a c…
> Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. On the contrary, we recently added a 3rd car, and it ended up being a $4000 used Toyota Camry. My first choice would have been a Corolla or civic but none were available at a reasonable price, condition and mileage. Due to the well known rise in used car prices. It's in good enough condition and meets all the requirem…
Assuming you can afford to replace it on your own if you need to, this one really adds up.
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Idk where you live, but paying over MSRP is unnecessary where I live (tier 2 US city) unless you’re looking at a very high end car ($80k+). Most dealerships near me that priced gouged had to change course pretty quick. I bought 2 vehicles during the pandemic, both at the same dealership, both at MSRP. I think most people who pay over either don’t know other dealerships will negotiate to MSRP, or they just really want…
I have yet to pay MSRP for a new car. Twice, Ive gone in on Christmas Eve or New Years and make the guy wait around until he offers an employee discount. I’ve also gotten a discount (5% under MSRP) for being associated with a university which purchases in bulk from the given dealership. In one case I made the guy go into their system and show me I was buying it at cost to the dealership. People just don’t know how to…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disclosure: I work for GM. Anything expressed here is solely my own opinion and experience. I think each statement is true. Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. There's also a bit of a prisoner's dilemma: if any automaker wanted to trim inventories, the customer could go to a competing automaker's lot and buy today. Since customers will not wait to buy a c…
> In future American OEMs may move to a more European model where vehicles are built to specific customer order. This takes on the order of two months at the moment for many legacy reasons, but there is no need for it to actually take this long. You've been able to do this in the US forever; you just might have needed to pay closer to (or even at) sticker (now I'm sure it's higher than sticker).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disclosure: I work for GM. Anything expressed here is solely my own opinion and experience. I think each statement is true. Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. There's also a bit of a prisoner's dilemma: if any automaker wanted to trim inventories, the customer could go to a competing automaker's lot and buy today. Since customers will not wait to buy a c…
> Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. On the contrary, we recently added a 3rd car, and it ended up being a $4000 used Toyota Camry. My first choice would have been a Corolla or civic but none were available at a reasonable price, condition and mileage. Due to the well known rise in used car prices. It's in good enough condition and meets all the requirem…
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This is not permanent.
I'll wager the base is $6 after this. I'm currently paying $7 because I'm in CA and I have to buy Diesel after some drunk person totaled my non-truck.
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My friends who work at Ford all report a general feeling of being over the dealership. They’re just as sick of the dealer shenanigans as we consumers are and it sounds like they’re working hard on cutting them out. This didn’t have to be—but the dealers insisted on being scummy and not changing with the times and now they’re left friendless.
TBF there is a very slow moving pendulum. The manufacturers screwed the dealerships many decades ago, so the government passed laws to protect dealerships (see also: in some states you can't buy a Tesla at a Tesla showroom). The dealers in turn used those regulations as leverage against the manufacturers. General speaking: in times of high-margins, manufacturers want to kill the dealerships to capture a larger slice…
Just in time for $6 gas. Are people seriously going to buy anything other than a hybrid or full EV at this point?