Venting about used car prices

[robertm]

New car supply is greatly diminished due to chip shortage. This puts addl pressure on used car market.

The government flooded the country with money. I've received $10,000 just this year from Feds. That doesn't include the latest scheme.

So low supply and lot of money floating around.

[JasonDot]

Originally Posted by BeastieBombRacing

For what it's worth, Carvana has not been honoring these offers lately. But it's a good indication of where the market is.

A great tactic is to leverage Carvana's offer with local dealerships to match or beat their offer.

[243Racing]

Originally Posted by JasonDot

A great tactic is to leverage Carvana's offer with local dealerships to match or beat their offer.

I agree, but even local dealers are getting wise to it.

I had one place bring it up out of the blue even though I wasn't shopping Carvana's offer (it was a couple thousand lower than the offers I was getting locally)

[TheWatchGuy]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

This phenomenon is really only on used cars that are low mileage and three or less model years old (i.e. coming off lease) I've driving around a lot, as usual. The typical suburban and rural used car joints have plenty of decent used cars like they normally do.

not even close.

i sold my 10yo BMW for almost double what blue book was earlier this year.

And i have offers from dealers to buy my truck for just a couple thousand less than i bought it new 4 years 75k miles ago.

luckily with the BMW, it was an extra car and I was already looking to move on from it. Unluckily with the truck, i need to replace it with a new one for work and there arent any good deals on new ones right now.

[BMWCCA1]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

This phenomenon is really only on used cars that are low mileage and three or less model years old (i.e. coming off lease) I've driving around a lot, as usual. The typical suburban and rural used car joints have plenty of decent used cars like they normally do.

My wife totaled her 2008 "Year-One-of-the-1" 128i Sport a couple of weeks ago. We spent one long day driving for over ten-hours looking at various potential replacements and found nothing I'd ever want to buy. Condition was awful in person, and prices were not good. Meanwhile my insurance company was trying to low-ball me with a number based on the average of five examples they called comparable, adjusted for their lack of options. They thought her Sport steering wheel with paddle-shifters was the entire sport package, for instance. Careful arguments using their own examples (they showed actual VINs and I pulled photos of the highest in their group from the dealer web site with torn seats, etc) got them to increase their evaluation over 50% to about 34% more than I paid for the 128i around two-years ago. And this was a car with over 100k-miles.

[Flacht3]

Originally Posted by robertm

New car supply is greatly diminished due to chip shortage. This puts addl pressure on used car market.

The government flooded the country with money. I've received $10,000 just this year from Feds. That doesn't include the latest scheme.

So low supply and lot of money floating around.

I mean, this is it in a nutshell. Anyone with a pulse should understand the massive inflation event the entire economy is in right now.

I disagree that it's "greed". Prices are systemic and right now it's pretty black and white.

Cash was injected into the economy, so purchasing power went up (along with less spending on vacations etc.) so what do people want to do with that money? They want to buy cars!

But cars aren't being produced fast enough. Supply chain is crippled (chip shortage, material shortages, shipping backups).

Since new cars aren't being pumped out of the factory, where do buyers go? Yup, used cars.

So when an F8X is sitting on the lot for $50k, but you have a dozen buyers for it, what do you do? You raise the price and see how far you can take it.

That "artificial" price increase is inflation. Question is how long it will last or if will get worse. There are some good arguments on both sides of that question but only time will tell.

[F32Fleet]

Low and inconsistent supply from factories. Consequently dealers must sell their limited inventory at a higher price. After all everyone has bills to pay.

Good news is that it won't last. Negative Equity will become the new buzzword.

[dreamingat30fps]

I'm just glad I'm set on vehicles for as long as needed. Also had an extra corolla that we didn't need so I sold that to vroom for a couple grand more than I paid for it. I wanted to trade my F350 for the new F150, but given the current prices and the fact you can barely find any on dealer lots, I'm not doing shit for a while. Also considering selling the RV if I get the right offer.

[chassis]

Maybe a break in the weather. New vehicle SAAR could be softening. Lumber prices are dropping. Metals, however remain high. So not out of the woods yet, but the sky may be clearing ahead.

Softer prices in 2-3 years will align with my planned vehicle replacement. Hopefully some powerful German SUVs on the cheap will be available!

[TXSTYLE]

Ahhhhh.... But there is a plus for guys like me with pre-owned vehicles that are in high demand. Heck I'm simply waiting to locate a specific X5 M so I can trade in my X5 xDrive50i that multiple local dealers contacted me about buying.
So sure, the used market is kinda inflated. But there's always a plus if you know how to work it. 😉

[supra93]

I saw a stealership asking $20k for a POS 2016 Nissan Altima with over 200k on the odometer.

[am3r1ka]

Originally Posted by supra93

I saw a stealership asking $20k for a POS 2016 Nissan Altima with over 200k on the odometer.

Sad thing is people are considering it. It's like a new generation of car buyers are out and actually think prices like that are fair.

[E92inNC]

Originally Posted by am3r1ka

Sad thing is people are considering it. It's like a new generation of car buyers are out and actually think prices like that are fair.

What’s worse is they don’t have friends/family that are car nuts like us that know better and slap them upside their heads

[supra93]

Originally Posted by am3r1ka

Sad thing is people are considering it. It's like a new generation of car buyers are out and actually think prices like that are fair.

I think it actually sold. Haven't see it on the site or lot.