US Car Market bubble bursting.

What part of the country is this at? I am a believer that you cannot look at the situation in the US as a whole, such a big country with a vast diversity of incomes & lifestyle.

 

Detroit, motor city USA

 

I know one thing, someone in this thread puts their pronouns on their resume!

If my finances keep going well, one more year and I'm really eyeing a Lexus LC500. I'm hoping the car market really pops this bubble and those drop another 10k. I have a feeling the really nice cars like that will stay where they are. It's the every day cars that will come back to normal after a year of repos.

 

i am looking. It’s my favorite car. I take it over a yellow ferrari or a porsche. Love me a wagon. But for 20-30 grand less in the used market, i settle for a sedan

 

Psychology 101....wanting is more than having.

 

There’s a few of us euro wagon nuts on the bbs. Elmer bought a killah Volvo.

and it was a fight on the S6 and the 911 before I flaked out. If there was a S6 wagon coming to the US I might have held it together a few more years and not taken up talking to squirrels.

 

FYI

as long as its not super rare and/or turns into a cult classic... generally, the fancier, more specialized model, more rare, less utilitarian a car is, the more drastic the depreciation. its actually go the opposite. a Corolla will depreciate and then hold its value pretty much indefinitely according to condition/mileage. on the flip side, i got my AMG at 2.5 years old with 28k miles for less than half its sticker. i once saw a lady come in to Lexus, special order one of those loaded LS460 long versions for $115k. A year later she decided she didn't like it and they gave her $55k on a trade-in. especially when nice/cool cars get a model or 2 old, but not old enough to be classic yet. real rich people don't want them, they want the newest hot shit, and they're not retro cool enough to be picked up by nerds. that's the sweet spot. the only real exceptions to that are cars that are just so rare/sought after it doesn't matter, or cars that were the fork in the road for a company's bad decisions, ie... high revving NA Ferraris, manual versions of something, new models so ugly that people say the company lost their way, etc..

LC's are mega dope looking, and i wouldn't be surprised if eventually they turned into some kinda niche following car, but you're prolly fine snatching one for a while at a good price. its a beautiful car.

 

I know it will make some mad, but you never buy a luxury car - outside of the special editions that will be collector's cars as said above.
Always lease luxury cars. You'll be far less out of pocket.

 

Yeah, every model has some failing or other. My '01 Dodge Cummins served me well for almost 200k then the 53 block cracked, leading to some significant disillusionment.
On the flip side, my '23 F350 7.3 has been problem free(so far).

 

He paid $3900 cash for the 2011 Toyota car with 1.8 L...turned out to be wires on his TPS connector which then car needed a relearn. Maybe he got some bad gas. Or a coil.
Its running again.

 

I will say the tariff nonsense is affecting the used truck market for sure. Dealers here were sending every truck they got across the border to auction, and making money on the exchange. Now, the volume has slowed dramatically.

 

you probably would have made out like a bandit on the secondary market.
I'm pretty sure the dealers here (Portland, OR) are just starting high and will come down a bit if needed.

Regardless, IMO, anything more than $350/month is either bad negotiation or a fundamental lack of understanding of how financing a car works.
Obviously, if it's a work vehicle, things may be different (depreciation, business expense, etc..) but cash out the door still hurts.

 

If you consider the 911 or the S6 I mentioned in that category you’re mostly right if I cared about resale or any of that crap. The 911 was going to be my forever car and then to my kid. Didn’t care about what’d it be worth in 5 to 7 years. The S6, well, it’d probably get me thrown in prison so, once again, didn’t care.

 

my first car was my mom's hand-me-down Camry station wagon. it made zero difference to any chick. not only that, but more than a few times... seats folded down, pillow and blanket in the back, quite convenient. after that i had my insane 240 drift car... that one 100% attracted more dudes than women, just like my Speed Triple haha. had an E36 M3. had a Scion xB. Lexus CT200h. Merc GLA45 AMG. Corolla hatchback. Porsche 993. none of it matters.

you only have to lead with money or "things" if you lack in other areas (looks, charisma, game, humor, etc...). keep the Prius, attract some sensible broads.

*edit*

oh also I meant to say on a serious note... depending on the year Prius, it might have had the same problem my CT200h had. there was a couple of years of that motor, where the stupid fuckin design of the plastic intake manifold, had some channels related to the PCV system that would get clogged up with soot and then eventually when that happens, it starts making misfires, which then lead to blown headgaskets on account of i guess the design is weak enough. it started happening to my CT after i gave it to my wife one morning. started it up, running ROUGH AS SHIT, knocking sounds almost. i immediately shut it off. check the oil, check the coolant, i'm like wtf everything seems ok. start it again, rev it a bit, it clears up. i'm like wtf. plug in the code reader, it had a misfire code. tell her to go drive it, let me drive behind, sure enough, puffs of white smoke.

what was happening was, headgasket was going near a coolant channel, leaking coolant onto the piston, coolant would blow out the spark, that's why revving it a little harder would clear it out. bought some new spark plugs, dumped a can of gasket fix into the reservoir, cleared the codes... smoke cleared up, codes went away, off to the trade-in she goes haha. i really really liked that car tho, i wanted to keep it forever. i like small hatchbacks, and it was nice inside, and got great mileage. sucks that shit happened. there was dozens of threads about it online, and Toyota knew about it, but would only warranty a motor if they replicate it, which they never could cause it was sporadic until they blow. the newer models fixed the design flaw.

dunno if its that, but its probably that. could always swap a used motor or do a headgasket job i guess as long as any knocking/rough running didn't fuck the bearings or rings. if the car is too trashed tho maybe its time to retire.

 

Give some of yours to me.

 

Is that a proposal?

 

Asian?

 

Not on the first date...or any one thereafter. I'm in it for the money.

 

BIL was hunting for a used E class wagon for a year. Soon as it hit the dealer floor it was sold.
If I didn't like him, I would have suggested a Dodge Magnum. But hey, I see they are re-releasing it. I'm sure it will be much better this time.

 

He has a 2011....that sounds like what's its doing or happening to his car.