New Car Shortage

[Coleman Smith]

I took my Toyota in for maintenance today and there was not a single new car on the show room floor and very few used cars on the lot.

I asked how long it too to get a new vehicle if you ordered one and the salesman said from 30 to 60 days.

 

[ZiprHead]

The GM dealerships around here are pretty empty too. Ford and Chrysler seem to be better. Kia seems to be well stocked. I haven't been by the Japanese dealerships since they are out of my way.

 

[Toni]

Yep. We couldn't even test drive the model vehicle we thought we'd buy from a Chrysler dealership. Instead we went with Toyota and all told, it will be a good 30 days or more until we have it. Wasn't even built when we ordered it and the salesman had to haggle to get one directed to his dealership for us. If we had been picky about wanting all wheel/4 wheel drive (as I thought we should), it would likely be sometime next year before we got it.

OTOH, when I took my Camry in for basic service, I picked it up with a card in it with a number offering to buy it back from me. I'm not selling...

 

[ZiprHead]

I've heard of BMW/Mercedes dealerships offering previous purchasers to buy their cars back for more than they paid for them and then sell them to someone else who is willing to pay top dollar.

 

[TV and credit cards]

I checked out my truck on KBB and it went up in value by a couple grand.

I wonder it dealerships are charging a premium for new vehicles. I know the Toyota dealership near me would regularly charge 5-7 grand over sticker for TRD model trucks in normal times.

 

[Tigers!]

In Australia we have long delays.
My wife took delivery of her KIA Seltos 2 weeks ago. Ordered in April this year.
My brother-in-law has been quoted 10 months for a KIA Stinger.
Japanese/Korean cars have the longest waits in Australia at present.

 

[Elixir]

Sittin’ tight. All 3 of our vehicles are under 100k and working well enough, despite being old. Everyone wants Mrs Elixir’s Tacoma TRD. A 1999 5 Speed x2 manual V6, it is a real truck. Every mechanic wants to buy it.

 

[rousseau]

We're in the market for a used Toyota Rav4 and it hasn't been easy. Although, I believe because we're looking at vehicles that are on the higher side price wise what we're looking for might be a bit more available. Worst case scenario we buy from an adjacent city.

 

[Toni]

Yeah, we couldn't even test drive a model we might have been interested in purchasing...whenever it might become available....next spring. Instead we purchased something that only took about 5-6 weeks to arrive. Different manufacturer. Salesman offered (again) to purchase my Camry....

 

[ZiprHead]

I think it's about time for the US to start producing their own chips and PCBs.

 

[TV and credit cards]

The last vehicle (Camry) I bought for my daughter was from Enterprise Car Sales. It’s been a good vehicle. Three years old and priced at the bottom of the KBB price range.
I was a bit concerned about how the vehicle might have been treated having spent the first few years of its life as a rental. But I’ve also read that vehicles suspected of abuse are auctioned off rather than sold on their lots. Makes sense if they’re concerned about maintaining a good name for themselves.
I’ve never treated a rental any different than I treat my own vehicle. But then again, I’ve been known to vacuum rentals out before I give them back so I doubt I fall within the norm.

 

[Ford]

I checked out my truck on KBB and it went up in value by a couple grand.

Back before the supply chain guano impacted the air conditioner, I kept an eye on the trade-in value of my car just in case I got the bug to replace it.

It was about what I figured. My car wasn't even something a dealer would clean up and put on their own lot. Just send it to an auction and see what they could get. Now that you mention it, the car was a former rental.

A few weeks ago, I found a new (to me) car I was actually interested in, and went to check it out, thinking there was no way in hell I was going to buy it. The only reason I went there was that KBB said my car was worth twice what I'd figured before. Then the dealer offered $1,500 over that number. My old high mileage Mustang paid for half the price of my new low mileage BMW.

It's a strange new world out there.

 

[rousseau]

Today we viewed a 2018 Rav4 in near perfect condition sitting at about 25k CDN. We mainly just wanted to check it out / take it for a drive, but if it doesn't get bought this weekend we may bite. According to the sales rep it had four other viewings today, so we're likely out of luck.

In the afternoon we went to take a 2016 for a test drive and it had been bought a few hours earlier. More and more it's looking like we're going to have to watch online like a hawk, and when something comes available just go buy it.

Luckily we have about four more months to find something, and even then we have a vehicle, just not one that can easily transport two car seats.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The last vehicle (Camry) I bought for my daughter was from Enterprise Car Sales. It’s been a good vehicle. Three years old and priced at the bottom of the KBB price range.
I was a bit concerned about how the vehicle might have been treated having spent the first few years of its life as a rental. But I’ve also read that vehicles suspected of abuse are auctioned off rather than sold on their lots. Makes sense if they’re concerned about maintaining a good name for themselves.
I’ve never treated a rental any different than I treat my own vehicle. But then again, I’ve been known to vacuum rentals out before I give them back so I doubt I fall within the norm.

Yeah, nothing says wandering mass murderer more than "yeah, I always vacuum my car rentals before returning them".

 

[rousseau]

We found a 2016 Honda CR-V in good condition with a solid service history yesterday, sitting at about what we want to pay (22k). We called this morning for a viewing and it had been sold.

We're starting to consider buying new as it's not much more expensive than what used cars are going for. An extra 7k will get us about a hundred thousand more kilometers, plus re-sale value.

 

[TV and credit cards]

We found a 2016 Honda CR-V in good condition with a solid service history yesterday, sitting at about what we want to pay (22k). We called this morning for a viewing and it had been sold.

We're starting to consider buying new as it's not much more expensive than what used cars are going for. An extra 7k will get us about a hundred thousand more kilometers, plus re-sale value.

And you can order exactly what you want if you don't mind waiting a bit. It's what I've done in the past. If you're going to fork over that kind of cash, why settle for something that has most of what you want.

The last vehicle (Camry) I bought for my daughter was from Enterprise Car Sales. It’s been a good vehicle. Three years old and priced at the bottom of the KBB price range.
I was a bit concerned about how the vehicle might have been treated having spent the first few years of its life as a rental. But I’ve also read that vehicles suspected of abuse are auctioned off rather than sold on their lots. Makes sense if they’re concerned about maintaining a good name for themselves.
I’ve never treated a rental any different than I treat my own vehicle. But then again, I’ve been known to vacuum rentals out before I give them back so I doubt I fall within the norm.

Yeah, nothing says wandering mass murderer more than "yeah, I always vacuum my car rentals before returning them".

I'll never stop looking for Mrs. Right.

 

[rousseau]

We found a 2016 Honda CR-V in good condition with a solid service history yesterday, sitting at about what we want to pay (22k). We called this morning for a viewing and it had been sold.

We're starting to consider buying new as it's not much more expensive than what used cars are going for. An extra 7k will get us about a hundred thousand more kilometers, plus re-sale value.

And you can order exactly what you want if you don't mind waiting a bit. It's what I've done in the past. If you're going to fork over that kind of cash, why settle for something that has most of what you want.

The last vehicle (Camry) I bought for my daughter was from Enterprise Car Sales. It’s been a good vehicle. Three years old and priced at the bottom of the KBB price range.
I was a bit concerned about how the vehicle might have been treated having spent the first few years of its life as a rental. But I’ve also read that vehicles suspected of abuse are auctioned off rather than sold on their lots. Makes sense if they’re concerned about maintaining a good name for themselves.
I’ve never treated a rental any different than I treat my own vehicle. But then again, I’ve been known to vacuum rentals out before I give them back so I doubt I fall within the norm.

Yeah, nothing says wandering mass murderer more than "yeah, I always vacuum my car rentals before returning them".

I'll never stop looking for Mrs. Right.

That's true too. We're lucky that we started looking early as we should be able to get something in our hands before baby arrives. Worst case scenario we have to play car-seat musical chairs for a few months.

Another motivating factor is that I want to enjoy our pregnancy, and not spend the next two months obsessively car hunting.

 

[Toni]

Hubby was due for a new vehicle and ended up ordering his with the options he wanted. It cost more than we had hoped to spend but it's a good quality vehicle and is hybrid, which made it attractive. I think it took about a month or so to arrive (hadn't been built yet). The dealership of his first choice (different make) couldn't even get us something to test drive so I dragged hubby to the place where I got mine and he decided to go for that. I honestly thought he'd just opt for the used one sitting on the lot but used cars are not the bargain they used to be at least in our area. He decided for that kind of money, he'd rather have just what he wanted.

It sounds like you have a good idea of what you'd like to get, so I wouldn't waste time obsessing over which is the 'best' choice. It's a car. My sister has driven a RAV4 for years and loves it. If you are certain of what you want, you can always talk to your dealer and ask them to be on the lookout for you. Or to place an order for you. I think dealerships are being rationed as far as how many of what kind of vehicles they can even access months down the line.

 

[rousseau]

Hubby was due for a new vehicle and ended up ordering his with the options he wanted. It cost more than we had hoped to spend but it's a good quality vehicle and is hybrid, which made it attractive. I think it took about a month or so to arrive (hadn't been built yet). The dealership of his first choice (different make) couldn't even get us something to test drive so I dragged hubby to the place where I got mine and he decided to go for that. I honestly thought he'd just opt for the used one sitting on the lot but used cars are not the bargain they used to be at least in our area. He decided for that kind of money, he'd rather have just what he wanted.

It sounds like you have a good idea of what you'd like to get, so I wouldn't waste time obsessing over which is the 'best' choice. It's a car. My sister has driven a RAV4 for years and loves it. If you are certain of what you want, you can always talk to your dealer and ask them to be on the lookout for you. Or to place an order for you. I think dealerships are being rationed as far as how many of what kind of vehicles they can even access months down the line.

We've asked a few dealerships to contact us if anything comes in, but one of the things giving me reason for pause on a used car is that we don't want to rush into buying one. If we do find something I'd want to have it thoroughly inspected before we buy, and yet we're having a hard time just getting a viewing in before these vehicles are being sold.

I have a feeling that many people buying these cars can't afford something more expensive, so they find the vehicle then show up and sign papers without much more thought.

At this point I'm pretty much all in on buying new, financially it's really not a big deal for us. We also plan to keep our Chevy Cruze that we really won't need anymore, so that's a bit of a luxury. It's my first car and I'm irrationally attached to it - it's also great for city driving.

 

[Toni]

Basically, that's why we ended up at a different dealership than we had thought we would: we are a mixed family, with me preferring my car/brand, and hubby preferring his. But, I did convince him to just look at my dealership after having no real luck with his in weeks, and honestly, there was exactly ONE vehicle and that wasn't there the first time we went in. The only reason he bought new was that it was only a little bit more than the used vehicle that had 70K miles on it. Oh, and we had to wait.