Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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).
I can't believe people go to a dealer and are willing to drop $30k+ on a new vehicle that isn't to their exact spec just to drive away that day with something new. There usually aren't too many options on cars -- color, wheel design, a few packages. If I'm spending that much money on something, I'd want exactly what I want. I've even flown to a dealer a few hundred miles away to buy the exact car I want and drove it…
Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
191–200 of 261 posts
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of the safety driver aids seem to paper over incompetency and the fact that people can't put their phones down while operating a deadly vehicle. Been driving for 20+ years and no accidents. I also mainly drive older vehicles without any such tech save for ABS. Stay focused on the task at hand and be responsible. If you cant do that, then surrender your drivers license and use an alternative transportation method…
> Been driving for 20+ years and no accidents That is luck not skill. Humans are not good drives and never can be. > Stay focused on the task at hand and be responsible. That helps. It would help some more if you would also get updated training - safety engineers have discovered a lot of things over the years that few people know.
It's both. Even if an accident is the other driver's fault, there are plenty of cases where driving more defensively would have let you avoid it.
But yes, there's luck too. If you're sitting in traffic at a red light and someone drives into you, not a lot you could do to prevent it.
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#193I saw an article recently saying that dealerships and car makers want to keep inventories low because they like the post-covid margins they're experiencing. When I paid 5k over msrp a few months ago the salesperson claimed they wanted more inventory because salespeople were unable to hit the volume goals they have. Not sure who to believe but I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between.
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…
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#194Just in time for $6 gas. Are people seriously going to buy anything other than a hybrid or full EV at this point?
It's still hard to find an EV with a high payload capacity and good range, especially when towing, and used EVs are still crazy expensive.
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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).
Only on some makes and some models. Try doing this with a Japanese car or your average Volkswagen and you’d get nowhere. This apparently used to be more of a thing when American cars ruled the industry — custom orders could be quite profitable — until the Japanese makes came along with severely limited optional equipment as a quality and cost saving measure.
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've found (in the US at least) that automaker financing on new vehicles is usually better than any other banks. I'm now wishing I put zero down on my last car, because it's looking like my loan is way cheaper than inflation is going to be over the life of the loan.
Last time I thought financing might be a good idea, the dealership asked who I banked with, applied for a loan in my name without my permission, and presented it to me +0.5% extra profit for them. They were just going to insert themselves as an intermediary.
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#197I saw an article recently saying that dealerships and car makers want to keep inventories low because they like the post-covid margins they're experiencing. When I paid 5k over msrp a few months ago the salesperson claimed they wanted more inventory because salespeople were unable to hit the volume goals they have. Not sure who to believe but I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between.
Really glad that dealers in Canada can't charge over MSRP for new vehicles.
Oh, this explains it. I spend time in Wyoming. There appeared to be, last summer, a solid business of people buying cars across the border, driving them to Montana and/or Wyoming, and then re-selling them used.
I thought it was just the used car market being weird, though that didn't explain the Canada bit. This does.
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm all for frugality, but with a newer car you're getting vastly improved crash safety. Over the years crash safety ratings have gotten tougher and tougher. You can browse the IIHS crash rating history for the Camry (or any other car) and you can often observe that when the IIHS introduces a new test, cars often perform poorly on it (high likelihood of injury) initially, but get better later on. https://www.iihs.org…
That doesn't show you are getting vastly improved crash safety. Only looking at injury data in the real world would show that. It's my understanding new cars are not significantly safer than cars from 10 years ago.
How did you come to that? The new cars are new and there's no real world statistics for them yet, if you only go by real world data.
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
>Why aren't dealerships just consignment stores for cars? That seems like it'd work out better for everyone involved. 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. T…
Since the dealerships generate so mush tax revenue, they have a great deal of political power and won't go down without a fight.
Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing
#200I saw an article recently saying that dealerships and car makers want to keep inventories low because they like the post-covid margins they're experiencing. When I paid 5k over msrp a few months ago the salesperson claimed they wanted more inventory because salespeople were unable to hit the volume goals they have. Not sure who to believe but I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between.
Not sure who to believe either, but by default I'd put car salespeople the last on that list.