No wonder inflation isn't slowing down. If car dealers charge whatever they can.

[halfulglas]

A little story. My daughter and SIL live in S.C. A few weeks ago their house was hit by lightning followed by fire. There will be a little salvaged but not much. Luckily they were away and had their kitties with them, so they were all physically safe. Unfortunately like I said their house is almost a complete loss. Included in the total loss were their car and a truck in the garage and were also a total loss. They have the go ahead so far from the insurance on one of the vehicles to replace it while they are trying to work with the bank on the other to clear the title or something. Anyway, SIL goes to a Ford dealer and explains his situation and that he needs wheels and the dealer says, that's too bad. How about 12k over MSRP instead of our usual 15k? Uh, no. He goes to a Jeep dealer and gets a much better deal. The truck dealers keep hiking the prices and getting them while the yahoos complain about the price of gas and blame Biden for it.

[brooklynite]

1. Car dealers have always charged what they could...

...they couldn't charge more if there wasn't demand for the cars and a disrupted supply chain system limiting the supply.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. A friend recently posted his attempts to buy a new car.

Nothing fancy, one of the sensible Japanese imports, but is struggling to find any available to buy.

Makes me very grateful that I purchased my current car (a 2017 Honda Fit) in 2018, and it should be good for many more years. I traded in a 2004 Honda Civic I'd bought in 2007, so I tend to keep cars for a very long time.

Although losing one to lightning and a fire is totally unpredictable.

[helpisontheway]

22. We are shopping for a small car. The lots are empty. The website lists cars that are not available..

The in transit cars listed on the website are not available.

[csziggy]

25. Yeah, I bought a Honda Fit in December 2019

Best decision I have ever made! Because of the pandemic it only has 1800 or so miles on it so this car may last me the rest of my life. I'd gone in to look at a used Fit but they had some previous year new models in stock at only a little over what the price for the 2015 Fit. They also offered 2 years of free oil changes and an extended warranty as part of the deal. I haven't driven it enough to do ONE oil change so I "lost" on that part.

In addition, the Fit gets the same mileage as my husband's Prius V without all the extra tech to be dealt with.

My nephew recently had to buy a larger car - he had a third child and their other cars were not big enough to put three child seats in. It took him six months to find one and he had to pay well over the MSRP, something like 25% more than what should have been the price.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

28. I had actually intended to buy a brand new Fit.

The local Honda dealership didn't have what I needed on the lot. I always and only drive a stick, and he got lots of points not not even beginning to suggest an automatic. Just said he'd let me know when one came in.

Two days later the salesman called me to say they'd just gotten a 2017 stick shift on a trade in, and would I at least be willing to test drive it? Sure, even though I had my heart set on new.

In discussing various features during the test drive, the salesman told me that the 2017 was the last year they had a CD player, and the layout of the dashboard was such that there was no place for an after market one. I was sold.

One reason I really love my local dealership is that every few months the dash light about tire pressure comes on, and I just go there, they check it out, reset it, and I'm good. Even better, a couple of weeks ago on a long driving trip the tire pressure light came on. I also got this weird rattle that seemed to come from the engine compartment at high speed. Made me nervous, but I wasn't losing power or having any other problems, so I decided to wait until I got back home to deal with it. Had an appointment for today. They fixed the tire pressure light, and there was some piece of metal (can't recall what they called it) in the engine compartment that had lost a clip or two and that's why it was rattling. They replaced the missing clips. I was there maybe 15 minutes, no charge.

[woodsprite]

3. We're going used car shopping with my son tomorrow.

The deal is we pay the down payment and half the monthly payment until he moves into a full time job. Right now he’s in part time sales at Jos A Bank. When he goes full time, he takes over payments, insurance, and pays us back the down payment. Same deal his sister got a year ago. She just landed a full time job with benefits!

He said even used are at least $5+k more than a year ago and with about double the mileage than when we shopped for his sister’s car (Fusion). He found a decent Rogue in Swarthmore, PA, so about 40 min north of us.

Wish us luck!

[helpisontheway]

23. Ha! We have the same deal with our son except we did not tell him to return the deposit

Good luck car shopping. We have been trying to find a new car for our son. Lots are empty and the cars on the website are sold out.

[woodsprite]

31. Paid a bit more than expected because we extended the warranty to 120k and

insurance went up since he's under 25yo, but it was a good solid 2018 with a decent maintenance history, and our son was comfortable with his part of the payment. I figure he probably won't have a full time job for another 18-24 mo due to school. In a plus, the sales person was one of the better ones I've dealt with and would definitely consider going back to him if we ever needed another vehicle.

[Kablooie]

4. Democrats proposed an anti gouging bill recently.

But of course Republicans killed it.

[BettyonRed]

7. On gasoline and fuel oil prices....not cars.

[3Hotdogs]

5. I'm happy I bought my car when I did. 2021 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. I bought it, Oct 26, 2020... just

before Covid.

I get free oil changes for as long as I own that car. For almost a year, there are no or few new cars on the dealer's floor. I've seen used Hyundais on the showroom floor sometimes there are no new cars on the floor.

[Scrivener7]

14. Me too. I gave my 15 year old stripped down Civic to my niece. She was a new

driver, and I wanted her to have a car with no bells and whistles, no distractions.

I set out to get a new Civic in 2020, but a local Kia dealer had a used Lexus hybrid in a discontinued model with only 15K miles. I don't think they knew what to do with it, so I got it for about 10K less than a new Civic at the time.

Love this car to pieces. Especially now, getting 50 mpg.

[PTWB]

18. Hmmm

I'm happy I bought my car when I did. 2021 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. I bought it, Oct 26, 2020... just before Covid.

What planet do you live on that COVID did not start until October 2020? On Earth, COVID started in late 2019 and was an official pandemic by March of 2020.

[3Hotdogs]

6. I glad I bought my car when I did. 2021 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid. I bought it, Oct 26, 2020... just

before Covid.

[sarcasmo]

8. Ford and GM warned dealers about over charging back in February. Link below

https://qz.com/2124564/ford-gm-are-cracking-down-on-dealers-for-inflating-prices/

[WarGamer]

10. Dealers still do it.

I was at a Toyota dealer TODAY...

kicking tires while the Prius was serviced...

Tacoma TRD Sport $5000 dealer markup

Camry SE $3000 dealer markup

Rav4 Hybrid $8000 dealer markup

[WarGamer]

9. Ironically... Tesla sells every car at MSRP

The "no-dealer" model works great.

[maxsolomon]

27. F Musk

Maybe one time I'd have considered a 3.

Not now.

[WarGamer]

29. It's OK to dislike Musk the person...

But Tesla has been revolutionary.

And the Model 3 at $50k is looking better every day as I see the Mach-E, Kia and Hyundai... the Audi E-tron and BMW iX and Cadillacs ballooning in price even before the stupid dealer markup.

[Happy Hoosier]

11. No new car for me in this madness.

I’ve never paid full MSRP for a car, much less a dealer mark-up.

[Chainfire]

19. There was a day when dealerships had to be competitive

Of course that was the day when the dealership was a one-off for a local owner. In my regional car shopping area, for instance, one owner owns the (only) Kia dealership and on the other side of town the (only) Hyundai dealership. Two brands with nearly identical products that would normally compete for your business. How competitive do you think that they are?

I feel like suddenly all suppliers of goods and services have discovered, that if they stick together that they can all fleece us at a much higher profit margin than before. I believe that the "shortages" that we are seeing will continue to increase because nothing makes an investor smile like selling less product and making more money. Our brand of "capitalism" is off the tracks. If the predator investors aren't careful, they will end up killing the goose that lays the golden age and we will end up in a depression where everyone loses.

The bad thing about it is that the consumer has no power to deal with the situation, we are just along for the ride.

[Zeitghost]

12. Demand is high and supply can't keep up

Especially on fuel efficient cars. I had to park my Jeep Wrangler, I was content to drive it until it died and then rebuild the motor and drive it the rest of my life. I had no need or desire for another car or another car payment. $6/gallon gas killed that plan. Decided on a Civic hatchback with a manual transmission. Dealers were marking up $5K-$8K on new ones. I ended up getting a 2018 with 55K miles for the same as MSRP on a new model and that was only because I wanted the manual and was okay with the lowered suspension and performance modifications that had been done to it. Dealers had very low inventory and almost nothing that got >30mpg.

Still cheaper than 12mpg in the Jeep and with it being relegated to weekend camping trips, it should last me the rest of my life without that engine rebuild.

[Happy Hoosier]

20. For now.

I know in the aerospace industry, we are struggling to get the minor components we need to build stuff. The higher-end processors are actually more available for us since we don't use Chinese-made components for those. But industrial op-amps? Yeah, I don't think anyone in North America makes the kind we need. Ugh. We can get them, but it take months and they cost a fortune (comparitively speaking). There is a DoD effort to establish manufacturers capable of making all the necessary components in North America.

[stopdiggin]

13. some of this is our fault.

inflation has a habit of lasting - about as long as we insist on spending like drunken sailors. Yes, you probably did need the groceries you bought last week (at least most of them) - and the electric bill that goes towards heating and cooling the house, washing the clothes. But how many of you really needed that F-250 Power-Stroke (or alternatively, the Tesla)? The cute little 'getaway' in the Catskills? The ridiculously expensive wedding, or vacation - that you knew was perfectly ridiculous at the time?

The price of things will recede - when we stop shelling out ...

[Chainfire]

21. I think that it is wrong to try to beat the victims here.

The price of things will recede when we stop shelling out does not work when the businesses function as virtual monopolies. It is not a coincident, that when you drive down service station row, all of the prices are the same from the different dealers. When too much production and distribution is placed in too few hands stuff like we are seeing now is bound to happen. When our government was in the hands of the people, we dealt with the problem of unfettered greed. Now that offices are bought by the highest bidder that ship has sailed.

As it works today, if we sharply curtailed our buying habits, the prices of the would increase proportionately. My largest expenses any more are food and power, there is only so much I can cut back on them. Yesterday, where I live, the temps were 95F and humidity was 75%, producing a heat index of 128 F! When you are old and your internal cooling system doesn't work like it used to, you run the AC or die. I pay whatever is demanded for the cost of the power to run it.

[stopdiggin]

26. while I sympathize with your position

and predicament (and the many that share them). I did make a distinction between 'necessary' spending - and that which I deliberately caricatured as 'excess.' And I don't think you're giving my point the fair hearing it deserves. Yes there are things that we are compelled to buy - just as there are things that we really aren't. As a further example of the 'built in' excess that many of us contribute to - let's take a look at the iPhone. I think you would be inclined to agree that Apple simply would not be bringing a new iPhone to market almost every year ... If it were not for the fact that a gullible public keeps gobbling up the 'new and shiny.' If the consumer stopped buying (or simply started insisting that the shelf life on a $1000 dollar product had to extend longer than the baseball season .. ) - Apple would quickly adopt a new business model. And the consumer would be keeping a lot of money (representing rather needless spending) in their pocket. Agreed?

[Victor_c3]

15. The looming recession they're talking about will help to solve this

I read an article about a week ago saying that used car prices are down 14% from what they were in January, so things are trending better. I’m in need of a car myself, but I’m trying to hold off as long as possible. Prices usually dip at the end of summer and with talk of a looming recession, I expect that will help the situation even more.

[SYFROYH]

16. Yep, big ticket items are going for a premium.

I was fortunate to buy a new Highlander in October 2020 for below list and 0% financing.

[MichMan]

17. No one ever complains when car sales are down and they pay $6k under sticker though

[Novara]

24. I'm buying a new Subie

But I have the luxury of ordering it and waiting for it. My old car is still drive-able (knock on wood) until it gets here.

I told the dealer what I was willing to pay and we're within that window. The dealership isn't marking it up except for their accrued cost ($695) because I am ordering it from the factory. It won't be sitting on their lot.

Last week he told me that instead of waiting until August, the ETA is sometime this month. So I shall have my new car soon.