Posted on 10/03/2019 10:59:03 AM PDT by Red Badger
Robert Loehr’s dealership is hanging in just fine, much like Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s sales did last quarter. But just as investors doubt the U.S. car market can sustain near-record results for much longer, the Georgia retailer is apprehensive about a key issue: sticker shock.
“Prices are crazy on cars nowadays -- all of them,” said Loehr, who sells Jeeps, Rams and other Fiat Chrysler models from a showroom northwest of Atlanta and has been in the business for 35 years. “They’re crazy to me, and I do it every single day, all day long.”
New Jeep Gladiators -- the truck version of the rugged Wrangler model -- can easily fetch $50,000 and are emblematic of a trend toward eye-popping prices carmakers are commanding for the pickups and sport utility vehicles making up an ever-greater share of their sales. Even as manufacturers and lenders increasingly stretch out auto loan terms to more than seven years and subsidize interest rates with incentives, average monthly payments keep climbing.
Affordability could become more of a risk if the mounting concern that the American economy is headed for recession ends up panning out. Those fears drove the benchmark S&P 500 down more than 2% on Wednesday, to the lowest since August. General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. shares slumped by even more.
The U.S. car market has probably reached the end of a great run, according to Brian Irwin, who leads the automotive and industrial practice for consulting firm Accenture. “It’s a step down from where we thought we would be a few months ago,” Irwin said in a phone interview. “I expect to see stronger incentives coming out.”
For more on U.S. auto sales, click here for Bloomberg’s TOPLive blog
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I’ll bring my Miata. Most fun to be had for the money. The originals with the pop up headlights are starting to appreciate in value.
I paid $17,000 for a 2016 Honda Accord Sport this May. My limit is $10,000 for a car but I was “lucky” and got in an accident and the insurance company gave me about $4,000 and with some savings I got a newer car to bring me to that $10 grand limit....
No way otherwise as vehicles are way too expensive. Most is for electronic gizmos you do not need built in.
Please do.
I looked into a Honda Fit salvage a couple of months ago (repairs were professionally done and documented). My insurance company, however, who I have been with for years, was non-committal on insuring it and the best they could say was “You’ve been a valued customer and we will certainly consider it”. So I went back to buying the new Fiesta ST.
My daily vehicle is a 1999 Chevy Silverado with 100K miles. Manual windows, but it does have a cassette player! Lol. I did have to have the air conditioning fixed a few years back.
I agree. Jeep Rubicon if wanted to rough roads, for the money is hard to beat. Rubicon and the Toyota 4 Hummers are both tough to beat for design and durability. Both can be had used for a price and with a few bucks and can be made nearly as good as new.
People buy RVs, which are usually even more expensive, and depreciate more rapidly than cars and trucks.
And RV quality has taken a nose dive in the last 10 years. There are no national lemon laws, and very few states have lemon laws. The manufacturers know this, and have been pumping out units of horrible quality. The warranties are basically worthless, because your RV will simply sit at the dealer for months.
This video has been viewed over 625,000 times. Lehto is a lawer who specializes in vehicles and lemon laws.
I looked into some restored Broncos.
For one that was even halfway decent - $50,000. Prices then range up to $250,000 (no, I'm no joking).
Salvage title doesn’t mean it can’t be driven. It means it’s been “totaled” by an insurance company.
When I lived in Seattle, everybody said, “Don’t ever buy a salvage title car”. Then I moved to rural KY where the cost of living is much lower, but cars are still just as expensive.
“Everybody” drives salvage title cars here. In fact, when I bought my 2004 z71 silverado, I tried to get the loan through BECU (boeing credit union). They don’t even do loans on salvage title cars. So I went to my banker here and asked him if they did loans on salvage titles. His response was, “We’d better. My truck has a salvage title.”
One of my buddy’s sons rebuilds them for a living. In the 8 years I’ve lived here his facility has gone from one building/shop to five, and he’s working on the sixth as I type this.
I got a well equipped F250 supercab, not all the bells and whistles but everything I need or want, for $38,900.00 Sticker on it was around mid to upper 50's. I don't drive a lot either, so this thing should keep me for a long time, those few miles someone else had it for that kind of money was a trade I'd make any day. Still have the remainder of the warantee so after I had my mechanic friend check it all out I am happy. wanted the diesel, but that extra 10k just wasn't worth it for what I use it for.
Identical to this one.
I’ve been toying with the idea of replacing my Tundra with the Gladiator. Maybe Jeep will have a come to Jesus moment and bring the prices down to a reasonable level.
If you buy or fix one with a salvage title the insurance company may not give you full coverage on it. The stuff I have rebuilt was not worth putting full coverage on so it wasn’t an issue.
Copart allows you to set up a free account and bid up to $1000 but if you want to bid more than that you have to set up a bond on the account.
Note that the price rises over the bid due to fees like sales taxes, storage, internet fees etc.
The worst thing for AC is to NOT USE IT....Use it and it will last a lot longer...................
Nice truck. Who could want more bells and whistles than that? That is pretty close to what I paid for a mid range Dodge with the diesel and a 6 speed manual new 16 years ago.
I lean to the diesel though. Pulling a grade with gas just isn’t the same.
“Don’t ever buy a salvage title car”
In our area, salvage cars are sent to the Missouri scrap yards for parting out. Instead, they will cobble together two or three wrecked ones, repaint them and send them down into Arkansas where for $50.00 they can get a nice clean title, showing it had never been wrecked and “Only driven to church on Sundays by the salesman’s grandma.”
I had a wreck, 49 years ago in which my car was “totaled” with front end damage then bought by a scrap yard.
A few days later, I drove by and saw the entire front end laying in the scrap pile, and another front end from a rear damaged car placed on the car.
Same for a pickup truck I had 25 years later.
Our company had the plant manager, for company use, buy a brand new car off the lot. Several months later, I walked by, and the sun hit it just right, and I noticed the trunk lid and rear quarter panel were just a shade different in color.
I notified the boss, who then had our Maintenance men look at it and found the trunk and quarter panel had been built up with BONDO and repainted. This “Perfect” new car had sometime in the past been wrecked.
I’ve seen some real junk heaps on Ozark roads.
My new one is 385hp with 430fpt, doesn't get the greatest mileage, but she isn't happy unless she is pulling a heavy load it seems, then it all clicks together and she comes into her own.
My biggest thing is the manual locking hubs it came with, kind of a love/hate relationship with those. Unlocking them is nice for the wear and tear and mileage, but a PITA for when you need them in a thunderstorm and you have to lock them. That and I find people like to lock them when they walk by in parking lots on occasion, I so want to find the guy that does that to me...
Any car used now I have my mechanic go through with a fine tooth comb to look for flood residue now.
So many cars caught in hurricanes and floods end up in shops like that, power washers and dryers and *presto*, grandmas church on Sunday special for a good price.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.