In general, fairly well balanced and informative.
By hook or by crook, the left will get that economic turn-down in 2020 to take out Trump.
Maybe if they drop the price to something more reasonable, things will work out fine.
I’d buy a loaded new Camry for $21k.
I’ve wondered what would happen if the market were to get saturated. I always assumed it could never happen, but maybe it can. I think it’s also possible that the prices have just gotten so high that people simply can’t justify the price. And I’ve heard that people are getting 7+ year auto loans. That also shouts that the zenith of auto sales may be behind us for some time.
I’m dumbfounded by how much pickups cost these days. And they are simply too big for most peoples’ needs. They need to bring back those 80’s mini trucks.
VW warns that there's been a slowdown, yet while sedan sales have stalled, SUV and truck sales appear to be using nitro. Just continuing the wordplay.
The hard truth is that the automakers have made new cars too expensive. Even adjusting for inflation, the average price of a new car today is twice that of a car in the 1970s and 1980s. The used car market is now very competitive, and people are holding onto their vehicles for much longer. Less people want new cars, and their high price tags.
The auto industry only represents 3-5% of the GDP. What it does mean is if you need a car, it about time to buy. Used cars will be pushed lower as well.
25%+ of 16-25 year olds do not have a drivers license. They use Uber and Lyft.
Young folks have crushing student loan debt and cannot afford a $30k + vehicle. 50% of the population are poor or heading that way
Peter Luft ex GM CEPO said in a letter last year in 12-15 years privately owned cars will be rare due to cost and self driving cars that will pick you up and drop you off.
If they stop putting the most expensive, latest technology into new cars and go back to simpler machines at lower cost sales would skyrocket.
But I guess that doesn’t help fund union benefits and pension plans.
No one wants to pay the astronomical price for a new car or truck when the world is going to end before the rig is paid off.
What crash in auto sales? They’ve been very steady, neither forming a bubbling nor declining. Although now that he brings it up, auto sales were crashing before the last four recessions (at least). So the lack of a crash may be very good news.
The reporting of world economic statistics in aggregate is being used to depict a looming recession in the United States which has quite frankly uncoupled from world trends with the advent of the Trump administration. The economy is doing quite well in the United States. The only bellyaching is coming from those states with housing bubbles being judiciously pricked before they got out of hand again, by the SALT deduction cap on federal deductibility of state property taxes on residential real estate. Consumer demand is strong, job growth is strong, housing sales are strong in those areas that are not in bubble territory. Don’t fall for the doom and gloom of cherry-picking statistics that do not necessarily apply.
The GM strike was to hide the 70 day inventory they entered it with. Now the expenses will be rolled in with the strike.
They used to use Strikes to re-fit the line.
None of this has to do with “the worker.” It’s a way to keep the charade going.
Cars and trucks are lasting much longer now because they are so well made, if you stick o the most reliable manufacturers such as Honda and Toyota.
Bought my wife a used loaded year-old used Honda Accord 3.5 years ago for about $24,000. She puts about 5,000 miles per year on the car. Once that is paid off in 2.5 years, we will never have another car payment as long as we live. That’s $400/month we will have to spend on other things; or not.
Women, children and Asians hardest hit...
Why do you suppose GM let the UAW strike for a month?
To reduce the oversupply of 2020 autos!
This nonsense about the strike "costing" GM $2 Billion is...well....NONSENSE!
Car/Truck prices are outrageous these days.
And one of the biggest reasons is the never ending “mandates” that the Gov’t puts on new cars.
Lane change assist, crash avoidance radar, backup camera, etc... all these things cost mucho bucks and are added directly to the cost of the car/truck. Add to that every wiz-bang gadget that is added into the new cars just to distract the driver and you looking at 6-10K on a new car price.
Now the “turbo” craze is hitting (along with junk CVT trannys) to eek out another 2 mpg or so, but adding a huge cost to a new car (turbo, innercooler, piping, etc..).
Turbos are great on Diesel trucks ... NOT on gas cars with 1.# liter engines.
Cut the the mandates and put out a good base model (and bring back the 6-speed manuals) and they will sell.
$30+K for a Camery is insane!
A local car dealer told me that there new car “sales” are now over 50% leases. He shared other “insider” concerns:
Cars last longer - 40 years ago few cars made it to 100,000 miles. Most cars now have a life expectancy of 200,000+ miles.
Depreciation - Imagine if your house depreciated at least 20% the day you closed on it. Cars are the only high priced item that drops in value a huge amount for no good reason.
The Internet - knowledge is power and now there is no reason for anyone to pay too much for a car - new or used.
Uncertainty - with states pushing unreasonable gas mileage standards and the rise of new technologies, people are leery of spending $30K+ on an item that will be considered obsolete before the end of it’s useful life.
There were more (including the issue of vehicles being transported having narcotics hidden in them) but it all boiled down to a really crappy time to be in the car business.
Cars are lasting much longer these days. I’ve had my Nissan Murano for six years now and it still looks (and runs) like brand new. It has over 120,000 miles as well.
They raised the average prices of cars in the past 5 years faster than people could absorb or beyond what people wanted to pay. 18 grand for a Hyundai accent subcompact without a lot of frills...! Some carmakers’ base model prices(no power windows or premium stuff) aren’t so bad but you can’t get them from the local dealers because they don’t want to go thru the hassle of having to order them from the manufacturers that way. They sell the cars with premium puff up the profits gizmo’s and insist that is the only way you can get them. Thus customers are saying.....Nope.
Also the High price/spread the payments out 10 years type deals going on hurts. People can’t get lower prices but some like families and people in small construction or other businesses still need a car. The used premium car businesses aren’t that much help in that the model prices stay very high up to 5 years from their manufacture. So they have these 7 to 10 year payment plans which lock people in so that the market falls off for new cars because people are locked into a payment cycle when they bought during the bubble.
Average people can’t pay 25 or 30 thousand for even a basic trim SUV...they could pay about 14k to 20k on average. The dealers’ base trim prices have risen 7 to 12k beyond the prices that would cause even a single person making about 40 to 60 k to balk at taking on such a monthly payment.
There are deals to made if someone can drive clunkers until they have saved enough to buy outright but many are stuck in the “can’t afford a car but need one just to get to my job” racket double bind. Used clunkers just aren’t plentiful and are more expensive to get and keep running; one is stuck considering a new car or leasing just for the protections the warrantees afford.(One pays the higher price but major car repairs which would cost mucho bucks are one thing one doesn’t have to worry about).