With the help of our pals over at Edmunds.com, BusinessWeek has compiled a list of the 20 most heavily discounted 2007 vehicles still on the lots. They based the list on Edmund's average transaction price vs. sticker price. As you can imagine, the list is tilted heavily towards pickup trucks and SUVs; only two passenger cars are included. Imported vehicles are conspicuous by their absence (all the import-branded vehicles are rebadged versions of American-built vehicles). Oh, and someone forget to mention that depreciation is the single largest cost vehicle ownership. A two-year-old Mitsubishi Raider? You must be joking mate. [The percentage represents the discount, while the number in parentheses shows the supply on hand as of the first of October. The inventory numbers may include some 2008 models while the discounts only apply to '07s.]
Mitsubishi Raider – 29% (19 day supply)
Jeep Commander – 29% (84 day supply)
Dodge Ram 1500 – 28% (92 day supply)
Chevy Silverado Classic 1500 – 27% (102 day supply*)
GMC Sierra Classic 1500 – 26% (103 day supply*)
Isuzu Ascender – 26% (196 day supply)
Jeep Grand Cherokee – 25% (70 day supply)
Lincoln Town Car – 25% (78 day supply)
Dodge Durango – 25% (74 day supply)
Dodge Dakota – 24% (76 day supply)
Chrysler Aspen – 24% (32 day supply)
Mercury Grand Marquis – 23% (67 day supply)
Chevy Silverado Classic 2500HD – 22% (102 day supply*)
Chrysler Pacifica – 22% (63 day supply)
Saab 9-7x – 22% (113 day supply)
Dodge Grand Caravan – 22% (50 day supply)
Buick Rendezvous – 22% (12 day supply)
Isuzu i-Series – 22% (172 day supply)
GMC Sierra Classic 1500HD – 21% (103 day supply*)
Chevy Trailblazer – 21% (50 day supply)
(*The inventory for Silverado and Sierra are for all versions, not just the Classics. GM doesn't break the inventory numbers down by version or weight class.)
If I’m counting right, that means Chysler Corp. accounts for 8 out of 20 vehicles with a total of 541 days of extra cars. Way to go Chysler…..way to suck…
So with the Raider in such short supply, does this mean there will be no 2008 model? (Not that anyone will miss it.)
To my mind, the only ones worth considering are the Ram and “classic” GM full-size pickups, if you need such a beast and don’t mind not having the latest and greatest. Also, if you’re a diehard Panther car fan, your Grand Marquis or Town Car is waiting!
The rest — bleh!
There’s a Mitsubishi Raider?
Little surprise, some TTAC Ten Worst recipients and nominees are on the list – Rendezvous, Aspen, Saablazer, Commander.
One of these days, I’m going to write a piece about the best used car values (2005 and newer) in the marketplace.
The trick to doing this exercise is offering one best value in each segment and not just basing it on low purchasing costs. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of SUV’s, minivans, and subcompacts.
I’m guessing a Town Car has a sticker somewhere around $50K.
So there’s a $12,500 rebate (hidden or otherwise) on them?
Sid Vicious :
I’m guessing a Town Car has a sticker somewhere around $50K.
So there’s a $12,500 rebate (hidden or otherwise) on them?
Not a bad guess. Edmunds gives the average transaction price as $11,776 below sticker.
“Oh, and someone forget to mention that depreciation is the single largest cost vehicle ownership.”
Yet more proof that purchasing a new vehicle is a DUMB thing to do.
So to those people who say “I bought this CamCordMaximaWhatever because it has great resale value,” I say “you still made a BAD financial decision.”
Raskolnikov :
Yet more proof that purchasing a new vehicle is a DUMB thing to do.
So to those people who say “I bought this CamCordMaximaWhatever because it has great resale value,” I say “you still made a BAD financial decision.”
But don’t you just love the smell of a new car?
Cavendel: Yes, I love the new car smell but even more than that I love the extra $3K in my bank account because I bought the 2 year old Accord with 25K miles instead of the new one (and it probably still smells new too).
Yet more proof that purchasing a new vehicle is a DUMB thing to do.
That is a foolish thing to say. Different people value different things, and lots of people value the newness of a new car. You certainly are not qualified to judge their values, whoever you are.
Particularly people who have had mechanical problems with used cars, or fallen into the cycle of repairing some new problem every month on an old car — they value knowing that there is very little possibility of mechanical issues for some years when buying a new car.
True that any car is consumption rather than investment. But so what, that’s true of nearly everything people spend money on.
Isuzu Ascender? I often wonder what goes through people’s heads when they make a decision to buy something like that.
-Matt
I’m guessing a Town Car has a sticker somewhere around $50K. So there’s a $12,500 rebate (hidden or otherwise) on them?
Sid Vicious: from what I’ve seen, $10,000 off sticker is quite commonplace. Seasonal rebates, owner loyalty rebates, widespread fleet pricing, etc killed the Town Car.
Relatively speaking of course: the factory switch aside, its still Lincoln’s best selling vehicle. Ouch.
If that Town Car number surprises anyone, you must live in a hole with ear plugs in. I would have thought it was closer to 15k per vehicle. That car has not been a competitive luxury vehicle since the mid 90s.
And as of yesterday’s sales report, the Town Car is now Lincoln’s #2 car behind the MKZ. #3 overall vehicle behind the MKZ and MKX. And those vehicles have fleet mixes around 5% as opposed to the Town Car’s 80%.
Yet more proof that purchasing a new vehicle is a DUMB thing to do.
So to those people who say “I bought this CamCordMaximaWhatever because it has great resale value,” I say “you still made a BAD financial decision.”
Well, my last vehicle I bought NEW in 2/2001 for $22K, drove it 5 years and sold it March 2006 for $17K. That’s $1K a year in depreciation, and NO costs for repairs, which would be likely on any used vehicle. And the car before that I bought new in 1998 for $21K, and sold it for $17K – about $1300 a year in depreciation.
I’ve done worse with used cars many times, and a lot of these results are from getting a great deal on a new vehicle, and selling privately to maximize the resale.
Woah, woah, woah, hold the boat.
Isuzu Ascender – 26% (196 day supply)
There’s more than 6 months of these things sitting on dealer’s lots? I’m just guessing that Isuzu sells about 1 a month then, ’cause I don’t think I’ve seen a newish looking one on the road in 2 years. (hmmm. maybe that’s why there’s 6 months worth just sitting…)
Steven Lang, that’s an article I look forward to reading.
It is pretty dumb that four variations on the GM “classic” pickup trucks got spots as it doesn’t add any information. Those four should have been lumped into one entry. Ditto the triple listing for Trailblazer/9-7/Ascender which are all basically the same vehicle. The days of supply numbers in this article are meaningless as applied to the Classics. GM switched the factories over to the new design in phases instead of all at once and kept making the old design at certain locations in order to smooth the transition instead of going cold turkey. Not a bad business strategy.
The only one on the list which surprised me is the Raider. I didn’t even know it existed, but then who has bothered to follow Mitsubishi in recent years?
A couple of comments from me. First, I like to buy new cars because for years, I had to buy other people’s cast-off gas-hoggish craptastic stuff ‘coz that’s all I could afford. Now I can afford nice new, or nicer used, I choose nice new. It used to be craptastic new bottom-of-the-barrel (maybe if I was lucky) or junque used.
And yeah, I LOVE that new car smell… both our cars have under 3000 miles on them right now. One (Hyundai Sonata) was such a deal, we nearly tripped over ourselves to snag it ($211 a month for 2 years, zero down lease, 12k mpy, we only need 6-8k mpy).
The other nice thing about new cars is that I don’t have to worry about whether my super good (or not so good) used car “deal” was a Katrina submerged car which was retitled in six states before coming to Michigan.
As for this list of “rides” which are “bargains” – I saw exactly NONE of them that I’d want in my driveway….
” I love the extra $3K in my bank account because I bought the 2 year old Accord with 25K miles instead of the new one … ”
Financially it depends on how long you keep the vehicle. If you are only going to hold onto it for 2-4 years then you are probably ahead. However, if you are going for ten years or more it might not be such a great deal. The first thing is that at 25k miles you haven’t worn out the original tires yet, but the time is rapidly approaching. Likewise brakes and other wear items are getting towards what is typically their first replacement cycle. Many hundreds of dollars are expense are going to come up more rapidly with your bargain than they would with a new car. You are also running out the clock on the original warranty should there be any covered problems. This isn’t as big a concern with an Accord as with it might be with some other vehicles, but it isn’t a zero risk.
Repair and maintenance costs begin to rise sharply after somewhere around 90k miles/7 years for most vehicles. Seven years from now your Accord will be nine years old while a new purchased one will be only seven years old. $3000 worth of repair costs can add up pretty rapidly.
Now if you were interested in a Chevy Impala the math is different. A two year old Impala sells for $5k-$10k less than a similar new one.
“There’s more than 6 months of these things sitting on dealer’s lots?”
Isuzu stated publicly years ago that they were getting out of the passenger vehicle market to focus on commercial vehicles and diesel engines. Instead of paying off the dealers in the US they are starving them to death.
One other reason to buy new – say they are going to drop a one of a kind vehicle, and you want to buy one and hold onto it as long a possible.
Let’s face it – a new mainstream vehicle are not much different than one 2-3 years old, and won’t be much different 2-3 years from now. They will all be a bland color inside and out, unibody, front wheel drive, and a carbon copy of what everyone else will be selling as well.
Someone mentioned the Ten Worst Awards. Wasn’t the unveiling set for yesterday? (Though I’m sure the automakers involved aren’t holding their collective corporate breaths.)
James2
Someone mentioned the Ten Worst Awards. Wasn’t the unveiling set for yesterday?
Delayed ’til Monday. A big deal news agency wants an PR exclusive and who are we to argue…
Wow, I just found out that there’s a dealer here in Maine that sells: Lincoln, Mercury, Isuzu, and Suzuki. I can’t imagine how much it must suck to be in sales at that dealership. I hope they’re at least selling some Suzukis. I had no idea Isuzu still made Ascenders, just like how I didn’t know the Grand Prix was still in production.
there’s a dealer here in Maine that sells: Lincoln, Mercury, Isuzu, and Suzuki
Actually that’s the part of hell where crooked salesmen spend the afterlife.
The Isuzu Ascender:
Curb weight, 2WD/4WD 4,417/4,594 lb
Payload2,3, 2WD/4WD 1,133/1,156 lb
Fuel economy (city/highway)
Automatic 2WD
Automatic 4WD
14/20 mpg
14/20 mpg
Okay, I think I see Isuzu’s problem.
I didn’t know the Isuzu Ascender still existed, but then again the only Isuzu products I notice are the cabover trucks.
Not to fuel the import vs. domestic discussion, but I did notice that none of the top 20 are actual imports.
Alanp: What cars did you buy that held up so well in value?
The buying new vs used is not always clear cut. I bought my only new car, a ’93 Saturn, because after looking at used car prices it became clear that there wasn’t much to save–in those days Saturns had very high resale values. I bought the car before that, a then 8-year old Toyota Corolla, for $450, and so suffered a mere $250 depreciation in the 8 years I had the car. True, I had repairs every year, but I knew enough about cars to handle that, and most years’ repair bills were less than $600. Total cost for the car over the 8 years and 90k I drove it: $10,000 (Would have been a bit more had I not known how to tune the thing).
I’m not buying (pun intended) the depreciation is the highest cost of a car purchase argument. Depreciation is only realised if/when you sell the car. If you drive it until the wheels fall off, it matters very little as compared to if you drive it for a couple of years and trade it in. It’s not a FINANCIALLY wise decision to do that anyway.
New cars can definitely be cheaper than used cars given 1) the rebates that are given on new models 2) the financing incentives and 3) the vehicle history- if you buy a new car with the intention of keeping it 10-15 years, won’t you have taken much better care of it than the guy who buys it with the intention of keeping it 2-3 years? The wear in a short period of time by someone who doesn’t care for the car can be much worse than the wear incurred over a long period of time by someone who does take care of it.
Savage… I think the predominating thought here is that for the average late model new car consumer, depreciation will usually be the highest cost.
If I keep a car for 100,000 miles that averages 20 mpg vs. 30 mpg. Assuming a $3 gas price, the 20 mpg vehicle will cost $15,000 and the 30 mpg will cost $10,000.
However the average cost for a new car is approximately $24,000 today and after 7 to 8 years, you’ll typically be looking at a depreciation rate between 70% and 85%. That results in an average loss between $16,800 and $20,400.
In certain cases, fuel will indeed cost more than depreciation. But for most new car buyers who on average sell their cars within 7 to 8 years, depreciation is by far the biggest cost.
Interestingly enough, most ‘cost of ownership’ studies do not incorporate opportunity cost into their overall amounts or their cost per mile measurements. If you really want to make a case out of this, most buyers would be best served by buying an 8 to 10 year old car (that’s been well maintained) and keep it for 5 to 7 years.
Just out of curiosity, I took a glance at the sales rate for a few of these vehicles on Ebay over the past two weeks.
Isuzu Ascender – 0 for 3
Isuzu I-Series – 0 for 1
Buick Rendezvous – 0 for 5
Mitsubishi Raider – 0 for 18
Jeep Commander – 4 for 60, 1 Sold for 19,500 with 1800 miles and an MSRP north of 30k
Mercury Grand Marquis – 3 for 19, a GS model sold for $13,300 with only 8600 miles
Chrysler Aspen – 4 for 19… one wrecked, one salvage/rebuilt title. Thse types are usually sold at No Reserve.
Chrysler Pacifica – 2 for 30
All of these vehicles have just terrible designs. As I was glancing through the photos, I couldn’t help but think that some of these designers have yet to find their true calling in life.
Oh well. Hundreds of thousands of tons of metal wasted… and hopefully recycled.
They are all gas pigs.
Gee, this is really what the kids call “a no brainer” isn’t it? Notice that the entire list is composed of gas-hog suckin’ mothers.
It makes one think maybe H.L. Mencken was wrong when he said that “no one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public” – at least in regards to cars. (Given that he didn’t live beyond 1956, and distrusted all new technology, even the Bard of Baltimore might have missed one.)
As President Bush once again sounds as if he is ready to send American bombers on a mission to start – or is it to stop? – World War III, the fickle American public knows that the fix is in on gasoline prices. Given that, they may not be ready to embrace the Smart car (written about elsewhere this week at TTAC) but they sure as hell don’t give a rat’s ass about the Jeep Commander and its ilk now do they? They may embrace the new Chevrolet Malibu, from what one hears tell, but only if it allows them to weather gas at $4.00 a gallon.
If Chrysler goes broke, maybe someone there will understand that when they were thinking about taking the Patriot hybrid racecar to LeMans in 1995, as a development mule, they misjudged the future. Suddenly, it seems as if it’s 1979 again. Remember what happened to all the big gas suckin’ mothers back then? It won’t because of CAFE standards going up, or even the playing field being leveled between trucks, SUVs and cars, in that regard. Oddly enough, the gas hogs may go away thanks to President Bush. Maybe that’s what he meant in January 2002, when he touted a hydrogen economy.
In 2005 I bought a 1991 Honda CRX Si for $1,630. It had well over 100K miles and I drove it like crazy. I had to fix a few minor things on the car (Alternator, Distributor, Radiator, Tires, Battery) and drove it for about two years. It was a ton of fun, but I got married and a 2 seater just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. So I bought a 90’s Toyota with 60K miles and sold the CRX for $2,700. That’s what I call resale, I love Japanese imports!