Upside Down Now

That’s good to know.
Thanks!

Buy low, sell high.

1 Like

Well back to house talk but it does apply to cars and refrigerators too. You have to try and protect yourself against not being forced to buy when everything was high. During the last downturn, you could buy a nice nearly new house in Phoenix for $100,000. Don’t know what it is today but at least double or triple.

Now up until at least last year, large investment firms, one in particular from Canada, were buying up house like crazy in Florida and converting them to rentals. If you have to rent, you are at their mercy. If you waited you are now faced with crazy markets and no 3% money anymore. So you have to watch what is going on and avoid the swamp once the water rises.

If you go into the crazy times renting, leasing a car, with high debt, or ccs with flexible interest rates, no one will be there to help.

1 Like

The Ford Maverick is no longer on the dealer web site . I wonder if someone paid the full asking price or managed to get it at a some what resonable price by today’s standards.

Buyer behavior has always been of personal interest, not the least because of the opportunity to make money over irrational behavior. People with more money than sense buy a $70,000 “Delux” onlyto realize that 3 years later it’s worth only $20,000.

So you’re buying a vehicle for $10,000 over what the manufacturer and insurers (with their hoards of economists) and think that this is a “Fair Price” so what could possibly go wrong?

The vehicle could be totalled, in which case you suffer an immediate loss, or the vehicle could be held until resale/trade in, in which you suffer a later loss. In the alternative, 3 years later for some unknown and unlikely reason, folks may value a 2021 over the current edition and offer a premium?

Honestly, this is proof that a certain segment has more money than intelligence and a strong argument for raising the upper income tax rates!

3 Likes

I can’t disagree more with the last line. As we used to say when evaluating salary structures in personnel management, this is punishing success. Why would rational people want to do that?

I don’t know that the folks who are in the market for a Ford Maverick are the same folks who are in the upper income tax brackets anyway. Nothing against the Ford Maverick at all, but if it were a money is no object type of deal, I wouldn’t be shopping for a Maverick. A Maverick seems more like a middle to upper middle class rig - that someone probably paid the markup on due to lack of supply and financed it for 7 years. I’d wager it’s a “more credit than sense” rather than “more money than sense”scenario. An “I can afford the payments, don’t care what it costs” deal.

Unless the car manufacturers are in cahoots, (which is probably true), then somebody has to break the cycle.
Somebody, (say Ford for example) insists on selling their mid size SUVs for $42,000
Then somebody else, (like GM) comes in and says “I got the same level SUV for $32,000, plus a rebate”.
In theory that’s the way it’s supposed to work but, like I said, these CEO’s are all “having lunch with each other”, conspiring about how their going to keep prices jacked up.

I think what’ll happen ultimately is people simply won’t be able to afford new cars at the price point they’re at right now. Whether that’ll be due to higher interest rates, or whatever. As fewer people buy, and production increases, demand and price will decrease…eventually.

That’s what I’m holding out for, anyway. I’m boycotting the new car market right now! I’ve bought 2 new cars so far in my lifetime, so I’m sure my boycott is killing them :laughing:.

2 Likes

Seriously ?? When they are in some kind of supply the appeal will not be just for an income bracket .

Yes, seriously. I doubt the wealthiest people will be the ones that buy the Maverick…or the Ranger, for that matter.

Actually, no. At least one of the Big Three has told their dealers to stop with the massive price adjustments or they will limit the dealer’s ability to order replacement stock.

1 Like

I think that was Ford wasn’t it? If so, apparently didn’t work!

Yes, and Chev did it specifically with the new Corvette when it was hitting the showroom floors.

As far as I’m concerned it shouldn’t work. Ford or Chev have no business dictating to dealers what they sell their items for. If a dealer can get $10K over sticker for a car, more power to them.

I regularly (or used to) sell Ford or Motorcraft parts for significantly more than the dealer list price, why shouldn’t I?

From what my parents told me they paid sticker for their '78 Rabbit diesel but there was a waiting list, we do have a friend who wanted the Acura MDX with the talking navigation enough to pay $4,000 over sticker when the MDX first came out.

The manufacturer often is blamed for the exorbitant markups, not the dealer. I can see why the manufacturer would preferentially supply vehicles to dealers that wouldn’t mess with the car company’s reputation.

2 Likes

I believe it’s more a case of “wink, wink, nudge, nudge…” The dealerships are told one thing, but they know it’s all a case of pandering to the public. Make the public believe that real action is or will be taken and they (the public) fall in line like a pack of lemmings…

I do not believe the CEOs are doing it over lunch, too many lawyers watching out for FTC violations (it happens but blame that on stupid lawyers…). It’s more a case of the CEO’s underlings making jesters to their counterparts with phrase like, “I wonder what your company might do if we did so 'n so?” More Wink, Wink…

Which is why with so many promises, we see no action. So, I keep yelling, “Hey lemmings, you’re headed for a cliff.”

Of course, Chevrolet would do that with the Corvette. This car is sold to such a small niche market and they do not make near as many of these cars as other brands. So the supply line and manufacture would flounder if sales faltered. The factory would have to shut down, the third party supply lines would dry up, Experienced laid off workers would find other jobs…

If a high-end, family style car does not sell well, they can mark it down and “Average Joe” will now buy it as it’s now just a nicer family car… Mark a Corvette down and Joe is still not going to buy it (no room for the kids, the dog, the groceries, and no room to sleep in it when the wife throws him out of the house… Chevrolet does not want Corvettes stacking up anywhere, unsold, Period!

The government is tuned into this stuff. 50 years ago my employer warned every employee that went to a professional meeting to be aware of who was in the room. Steel companies were busted for conspiracy for setting prices because employees of several steel companies were in the hotel bar at the same time. The advice was to find another bar if this happened. Whether there were convictions or not, the companies and named employees had to spend a lot of money to get off.

1 Like

Just glad I bought my car 14 months ago, still got $2500 below list.