Buying a car in this economy

Mr. Blue Sky said
I am laughing out loud (literally) at everyone in this thread who claims that this is ‘unsustainable’.. people right here in this very thread have been saying this for over 2 years now, actually 2.5 yrs .. i was one of them, i was fairly optimistic, in 2021, that we’d seen the worst and that the market would cool significantly.. well here we are, cruising into mid-2023, and it hasn’t .. i think it’s time we all just admit that this IS the market.. it just is.. could we see a correction ? Of course.. but if people are willing to pay $1k plus per month for 84 months for an SUV then i dont see how logic really applies to this market, at all.. and so i dont see things changing .

Yup, i have to admit, the paradigm has shifted for this market. It may be years for it to change to lower prices. You've got car makers moving to EVs and using profits from ICE sales to fund it. We've still got component shortages as well. Used car prices started collapsing at the beginning of the year but all of sudden, they sprung back this month. I've seen nothing like it.

Some vehicles are no longer in short supply. Ford and GM both had to idle truck plants because inventories were creeping higher. Anecdotally, I'm seeing local Jeep and RAM dealers lots full of new product. I've been shopping for a Mercedes Benz Sprinter and there appear to be plenty to choose from but every dealer still wants $10K over MSRP for them. Markups are still around for those Jeeps, RAM trucks, etc. It's weird. I was planning to build a custom off road RV with a Sprinter van but I've given up on doing that for a while.

I'm glad we got our Rivian and Jeep Wrangler when we did. The Rivian would cost me $15K more if I bought it now and the Jeep about $10K more BEFORE markups. I was drooling over a Wrangler Rubicon 392 but they want $105K for it. Heck the base price on it is already $85K. That's a $15K increase over the last 3 years.

Well, at least this market has gotten me to stop buying new cars every year.