I am sitting on 5 good working registered cars at the moment. I could probably sell three of them and pocket 20-30k. My total investment in them is about 12k.
I am sitting on 5 good working registered cars at the moment. I could probably sell three of them and pocket 20-30k. My total investment in them is about 12k.
DeadSkunk (Warren) said:Given that the price of ratty Miatas seems to be climbing weekly, I've been inclined to put the $1800 Challenge Miata on the market and ask some stupid amount for it. If a normally aspirated version is asking $4-5K, then my supercharged one should be $5-6K. I'd pocket the money and wait to see if prices drop at some point and then go buy a newer, nicer one.
I haven't seen a Miata of ANY year for sale less than $4500 here in S OH. I could easily flip this $1250 car I bought last summer for $3K if I were so inclined.
Informal anecdote. I heard from all of you and all over the news that dealers are actually so desperate for trade ins that they're paying retail for trades. Granted, my trade isn't desirable for a dealer's used lot, but the local Ford dealer had one of those radio ads where they yell "guaranteed $2500 on your trade in... push, pull, drag it in.... subject to terms and conditions.... not all trades will qualify... blah blah." I got an offer for $2500 on the phone. I didn't pay much attention to it because I knew I could get $3500-4000 on FBM.
About a month later I stopped in to the same dealer to look at a used truck on their lot. 2018 Colorado, not very well optioned, 98k miles. Their price in the window was $34,900... on a truck that cost about $32k new.... and they offered me $250 for my truck. When I laughed they went to $275 pretty quickly. Maybe I could have pushed them to a whopping $300.
So I could have traded for a truck that was 20 years newer, the same mileage, for a cool $37k out the door. 
I don't believe the hype. The only thing I do believe is that dealers are still dealers and they are operating exactly how they always have. I did buy a vehicle during the pandemic. I had to work HARD to get a decent price and had to drive about 900 miles round trip to find it/get it.
Slight tangent...
The pandemic, used car market and economy have me reconsidering our timeline for replacing the Sedona. We've had it for 11 years and somewhere around 150k miles.
Originally we were planning to wait until 2022 or 2023, but now I'm thinking I need to do some more research and reading on the economy. I'm wondering if I should move up the timeline to avoid inflation and reduce the risk of rising interest rates, or wait it out for semiconductor production to catch up (latest news I heard says that could be years) and demand to drop...
Most experts are believe there might be some moderate short term inflation, but that's it. Vehicle inflation has some very specific, identifiable causes. If you buy a vehicle now, you're guaranteed to pay a premium. If you buy a car in two years, it might be 5-6% higher than the pre-pandemic value, but your yearly cost of vehicle ownership will be lower sticking with your old vehicle longer. I think it's reasonable to suggest there's some risk of medium term inflation being higher than projections, but we don't know what we don't know.
I do this for a living. Late model pickups are up over 40%. SUVs not far behind. "Cheap" cars have increased, but not as drastically. This trend will continue at least Fall, more likely into December/early 2022
edit: "trend" meaning prices will stay high, but will likely plateau through the rest of the year
dean1484 said:I am sitting on 5 good working registered cars at the moment. I could probably sell three of them and pocket 20-30k. My total investment in them is about 12k.
I've done exactly that with my bikes, then replaced them if/when I've found a deal on another one.
Caravans, at least locally, seem to be an exception. I see them advertised at 25% off pretty regularly and a lot of dealers still have 2020's in stock
L5wolvesf said:Antihero (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Placemotorsports :
Trucks have gone up a lot here
But here (AZ) not so much.
I've noticed that before. I really once seriously considered getting a hot-shot and starting a business buying '68-'72 Chevrolets in AZ and transporting them to NC and VA. For whatever reason, in the '00s they had little value in AZ but were highly sought after (even 4x2 long beds) in the southeast.
Is there any demand for 98 Chevy Luminas with leaking power steering racks and trashed interiors? It does run.
Sold my F250 quick and for decent money and stumbled on someone that needed to sell a 2500HD before going to Vegas so needed cash. Just a few weeks later similar trucks to the ones I was looking at are 30-40% more.
Late model F-250/F-350 are very high right now because there are not any new ones to buy. Same with Tacoma/Tundras. I sold my 2017 F-350 for $3500 over the original MSRP, which was $15k over what I bought it for new, the dealer that bought it sold it in 2 days.
Carvana is buying 2018/2019 Tacoma's for just over the original MSRP at the moment.
Not sure if this is true for other brands, models, vehicle types, and areas, but my FIL was looking for a newish used Lexus RX 350 recently. He wanted something no more than 3 years old and no more than 30k miles. The asking prices were surprisingly high, and dealers also weren't willing to deal hardly at all on price. He found a couple that were 1-2 years old and had 10-15k miles, but after a little research I suggested to him that he was probably better off spending ~$5k more and buying new so that he would get exactly what he wanted and have a full warranty. He thought I was exaggerating but after a few minutes at the Lexus dealership he bought new for only about $5k more than what he had been looking at used. When I asked about it the salesperson confirmed that it was largely the lack of new supply that was driving up prices in the RX 350 used car market. Oddly though, it didn't seem to be pushing new prices up much if at all. :shrug:
JBinMD said:Not sure if this is true for other brands, models, vehicle types, and areas, but my FIL was looking for a newish used Lexus RX 350 recently. He wanted something no more than 3 years old and no more than 30k miles. The asking prices were surprisingly high, and dealers also weren't willing to deal hardly at all on price. He found a couple that were 1-2 years old and had 10-15k miles, but after a little research I suggested to him that he was probably better off spending ~$5k more and buying new so that he would get exactly what he wanted and have a full warranty. He thought I was exaggerating but after a few minutes at the Lexus dealership he bought new for only about $5k more than what he had been looking at used. When I asked about it the salesperson confirmed that it was largely the lack of new supply that was driving up prices in the RX 350 used car market. Oddly though, it didn't seem to be pushing new prices up much if at all. :shrug:
So the moral of the story is if one is looking for a fairly new car (less than 3 years old), it's better to buy new than used?
According to the consumer price index report for April, the official number for used cars and trucks is 21%. That's how much they increased over the past year.
The overall is 4.2%. The highest it's been since 2008.
I have been buying and selling cars for a long time. Because of my general car knowledge I help friends and family with their car purchases too. I helped my mother in law get a CX-5 recently and a friend get a Toyota Tundra. Never before this year have I had such trouble getting dealerships to budge on price, options or even negotiate in a reasonable manner. Lots of dealers have 2020 leftovers selling for over 2021 prices with all their add ons and markups.
I was really tempted about a year ago to get a used ND Miata in the low teens as a daily driver, fun car and fuel sipper. That dream has been shattered by the events of the past year.
Chevy dealer I drive past every day has maybe 3 Silverados that don't have dump beds, toolbox beds, cherry pickers etc. And I can't tell if they're new or used.
Chevy dealer in town here is down to very little new inventory. Their used lot is still pretty full, I assume because their prices are high.
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