Guess what happens to the car market between Labor Day and Thanksgiving? Nothing. Nobody buys cars unless they absolutely need to during this time. You have no shopping holidays. No ‘tax season’ with refunds aplenty. Not even a hint of any government windfall or pork barrel rolling down Capitol Hill. This is the time of year where 2009s and even 2008s will slowly make their march to the ‘deep’ discount aisle. Should you buy?
Nope. Regardless of the extremist bullshit being pelted out by the MSM whore du jours, used is still where it’s at. You want American luxury for your travels? A three-year-old Lincoln Town Car or Cadillac DTS with less than 30,000 miles should only cost around 15 large. That’s cheap. Japanese or German? The G35s are still pricey.
But a five-year old E-Class or the orphaned Infiniti Q45 with low, low miles are cheaper than wore out mops . . . from Tiffany’s . . . about 18 grand retail before the dealer begging.
Or you can get truly medieval on yourself and order a 2004 Phaeton with the 4.2L V8 for only a thousand more. That’s a helluva lot better than a base Camry or a stripped out C30. But if you really want a deep discount, go for the unloved.
I’m looking at you, Pontiac Grand Prix! Saturns aplenty. Saab stories. Suburbans saddled with the 8.1 Liter engine. Aerios with no good Outlooks nearby and no hope of a Torrent of customers. From Aspen to Montana. The domestics and second tier-imports threw in such a gaggle of one car wonders . . . nobody will remember their names unless they’re into rarefied history or trivia.
Most of these models are already well represented in the $500 down lots (with GPS systems booted up). But if all you really need are wheels and your tastes don’t go any further than paint color or radio station, this may not be a bad time to wade the waters for a perfectly good used car at a perfectly cheap price.
I get that the market is soft.
What I don’t get is that dealers still advertise asking prices reminiscent of easy credit and 3% unemployment.
When will price competition come to retail level?
I have been watching the 08 Dodge minivan prices, hoping to score a cheap one this winter. Unfortunately, this summer’s C4C seems to have eliminated a lot of inventory. Used car prices look to have gone up across the board!
Completely agree about that E-Class. Boy are they cheap used. But, there’s a reason for that. The cars have electrical issues. I think about getting one, but I’m not sure if I can stomach the repair time and costs.
The second tier imports must really be suffering. The Mitsu dealership near where I live went belly up. There is a sign up now saying ‘Kia Coming Soon!’. Sign of the times. I wonder what deals were available on the remaining Mitsu’s. Not that I’d trust them.
I’m waiting for 2010 Suzuki SX crossover. New Japanese, fun to drive, costs like a used car. Sporty 4 door hatch with AWD and plenty features for the feature-happy.
Although idea of clean low mile Buick or 500 does appeal.
Find the cars coming in from the rental car fleets. They ain’t sexy but, boy, did they take the depreciation hit up front!
The ex-airport runners (black Crown Vics, Marquis’, and Town Cars) are particularly tempting.
We recently got a letter from the Honda dealer saying my mother-in-law’s 2004 Buick LeSabre (which we arranged financing on due to her bankruptcy– long story, trust me) is worth an estimated $7,400 according to the “Black Book,” and that they were willing to pay us even more than that for it. I dunno what planet they live on, but apparently used car prices there are not nearly as good as they are here in the real world.
Yes, I recognize the letter as pure, unadulterated BS.
I keep trying to figure out the sweet spot for a driver like me. My current theory is that the best value for money proposition for a daily driver is to buy a 3-year old lease return, drive it for 3 to 4 years, then sell and repeat. I my case, I now drive relatively few miles a year (say 7,500) so I can save on a high mileage car and it will have below average mileage when I sell it.
@findude:
Despite the up front hit you take getting into a Beemer, it sounds like you may find your “sweet spot” there because their deprication takes an initial drop and flattens out quite quickly.
Therefor, buy a used Beemer, don’t put a nickel into maintenance, trade it in for another new Beemer for chump change. That chump change will be a whole lot less than the maintenance put into the Beemer while you drove it had you done so.
I have a friend who does this with Caddies. I did the math and as much as it pissed me off that won’t so much as do an oil change, EVER!, he really was ahead of the game….
I dunno about me, though. I’m too anal. I’d be afraid the Earth would come to an apocolytic end if I didn’t.
Commando:
Your friend’s attitude is exactly the reason many people have legitimate fears about buying a used car– especially a luxury car. Fleet queens are largely taken care of by the fleet maintenance supervisor, but a private owner is much more likely to skip critical maintenance items.
As someone who likes to run his vehicles into the ground, this genuinely scares me. It’s also why my truck was (and my wife’s next car probably will be) a low-mileage fleet trade-in. At 15,000 miles on a bone-stock white Ford Ranger, I could pretty much rest assured it had been used as part of a parts store fleet or some such and had probably seen regular service as recommended by the dealer.
Lease returns are to be avoided like a plague. People who lease cars don’t take care of them because it is not their property. Every single lease return I have seen felt like it had 200k miles on it. Every single person I know who leases treats their car like a piece of garbage.
The Comedian in the stream above asked “when will price competition come to retail level?” Excellent question. It’s truly what the solution is for consumers and frankly speaking for automotive retail business. What’s absent is honest, transparent, and open price competition.
It’s really here now if you work hard on many portals to find vehicles, share that info with dealers, and drive them to your point of view. A lot of hard work. Keep an eye/ear out for ronsmap.com. That site is planning to change the way consumers buy cars. It’ll be the way we want to buy cars and I believe it will drive honest competition re: pricing.
Life is too short to drive a POS!
Now that the used car market won’t be buffered by the inefficient and putrid winds of CFC, expect even lower prices on high end models in the pre-owned market as wealthy Americans, in particular, see much of their wealth decimated.
If you don’t believe this, used some tag words on Bloomberg or the Wall Steet Journal.
“Wealthy” Americans everywhere are selling assets to raise cash like never before.
A lot of them are either in retirement or about to enter retirement, and got sucker punched by Realtors, Wall Street andInvestment Bankers, though their own greed and lack of protection were their primary enemies.
I had a long conversation with a used car manager who actually wasn’t a lieing scumbag(the nicest guys selling cars I have ever met). And he confirmed what I expected that Cash for Clunkers has driven up the price of almost all the cars and trucks he buys wholesale. Now is not the time to buy ANYTHING unless you really need it, and unfortunately I really need to buy something, anything and soon. Typical unintended consiquences from our stupid government hurting people who buy used and actually try to live within their means.
>>Typical unintended consiquences from our stupid government hurting people who buy used and actually try to live within their means.<<
I don’t see this as unintended consequences at all. As always, government is all about rewarding the irresponsible and penalizing the responsible. You are acting responsible, ergo you get penalized… Why is this a surprise?
My current system for buying used (I haven’t bought a new car in 20 years) is to look at Consumer Reports’ annual auto review, find the cars with the highest expected depreciation coupled with the highest recommendation, decide which of these I like, then shop online. Depreciation is fine with me since I keep driving the car until it’s barely worth anything anyway.
@ClutchCarGo
It is a simple game once you know the rules.
Who does your research? Show me some 06-07 DTS’ with under 30K on them for 15 large. Me, dad and dad-in-law will all take one apiece.
@Steven_Lang
So is this the current view ( in the past week ) of what is happening at the auctions? I agree with others that the dealers are still in another reality and the prices are high, even on used, unloved nameplates. Will the prices come down due to dealers not selling in the coming months.
I’ve been looking for a winter driver and have only found a couple of unloved models that fit my bill. One is a luxury brand with a bad history. But, it’s not a pure bred. Look at the prices for Jaguar X-type’s and there are some deals to be had. Ford Mondeo (gen 2) here we come.
But for the rest of the models i have been looking at, there seems to be the unrealistic pricing expectation.
1) Negotiate
2) Give it time
3) Screw new
Rinse, lather, repeat
@ronmorrison
I see ronsmap, but it does not seem to be active. When will this mysterious force enter the universe?
I have window measured in days.
Or…buy a very cheap vehicle that is popular with a large parts availabilty. Yes, you do more initial repairs but they don’t cost much. Look for one with aggravating (but non-critical) problems that will shoo away buyers.
I’m currently driving an old Cherokee. Bought dirt cheap due to a cracked exhaust manifold and bald tires. It sounded like a Sherman tank when I picked it up. $200 and three hours later it was quiet and a decent travelling companion.