Not Again! Your SUV Just Dropped In Value

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

It’s a rough world out there: First new cars and especially SUVs were pretty much unsalable. A few months ago, the recession drove used car prices sky-high. Then truck sales were back with a vengeance. Now that you finally have a new shiny SUV in the driveway (yeah!) you wake up and it has lost a huge chunk of its value, overnight. Says USA Today today: “The run-up in gas prices past $3 a gallon has been running down the value of used SUVs, causing prices to plummet below levels listed in well-known buying guides.”

Dealers find themselves drowning in SUVs again. “There are far more truck-based SUVs being traded in than customers to buy them,” says Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation.

Prices are falling so fast that the price guides can’t keep up: The average used SUV was selling for nearly 20 percent below the price listed last month in used car pricing publications such as Kelley Blue Book, CNW Marketing reports.

And there are much more cars that are not even on the market. According to USA Today, a lot of people “may be hanging on to their SUVs even after they buy new, more fuel-efficient vehicles, intending to sell them later when gas prices fall.

“A lot of folks are just abstaining from trading,” says Tom Kontos, executive vice president of Adesa Analytical Services. And they should. As long as the live in the Northeast, and as long as the roads aren’t cleared, they should be glad that they haven’t sold that SUV

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • BklynPete BklynPete on Dec 28, 2010

    This is all short-term nonsense. Most of the people posting here are smarter than the average bear and aren't going to trade an SUV they like and need for a Fiesta because gas hits $4/gallon. The best thing that can happen is a price rise to $4.50 or $5 gallon NOW, followed by a 40 cent gasoline tax when prices come down again. It's what we need to pay for our future in energy sources, product development, jobs and infrastructure. For 40 years, political cowardice and compliance to the oil industry's wishes has kept the U.S. from developing a cohesive energy policy. If we learned anything from 2008, it's that people will make smarter and more consistent choices when their pocketbook feels it.

  • Cheezeweggie Cheezeweggie on Dec 28, 2010

    Here we go again. So I guess I'll trade my 15-20mpg 4x4pickup for a 2wd 4cyl pickup that gets 20-24 mpg. What a huge $$ savings that 5mpg will give. Bottom line? Unless you want to drive a beer can, you aren't really gonna save all that much. Do you really need a truck? Well, A econo-box cant even pull a decent sized trailer. Count me out. I'll keep what i have.

  • Carlson Fan Carlson Fan on Dec 29, 2010

    3 boats to tow in the summer(one which goes almost 4 tons), a snowmobile trailer to tow in the winter and a family of 5 /w dog to cart around. The Tahoe isn't going anywhere for a long long time. My wife uses it to commute during the week but if she drives it right, doesn't burn more that 3 gallons of gas doing it. That's the beauty of cooordinating where you work and live. No 60 mile plus daily commutes for us in some little pop can thumbing our noses at those wasteful SUV drivers. Hey wait a minute....LOL The beauty is that in 5-7 years good BOF V8 powered tow vehicles like our Tahoe will be worth their weight in gold as good used ones become scarce and new ones are either too expensvie or non-existent alltogether.

    • Jaje Jaje on Dec 29, 2010

      Unfortunately for every one of you who actually needs a Tahoe, there are 10 others who bought the same and won't use it for such but only as a daily driver. These are the people who need to buy something more practical to them. Minivans are perfect for most people who have large families but they want the "minivan" image. Minivans can tow quite a lot of weight now. In fact I've seen an Odyssey pulling an enclosed featherlite trailer with a Noble M400 in it - he had a tranny cooler on it and a weight distributing hitch and rear airbag suspension to get it to work - it was his wife's minivan and she'd let him use it to tow his track toy. I use a pickup b/c I tow up to 6klbs and need the bed to throw in dirty stuff like tires, or grimy / dirty engines from parts cars.

  • Sastexan Sastexan on Jan 02, 2011

    No way. I just sold my father-in-law's old '99 Grand Cherokee for full blue book ("excellent" condition average from KBB, which was higher than Edmunds and NAPA when I ran it), and I was getting calls left and right. Yes, it was in great shape for a 12 year old vehicle, with really low miles, but EVERY person who called said that the Jeeps in the mid-Atlantic for sale were either dealer high prices or in terrible shape. If I was more patient I could have gotten a few hundred more, but my mother-in-law was antsy and I got tired of the BS dealing with no-shows and constantly fielding phone calls. Maybe it's neuroticism of people here, but if you want to dump your 4WD SUV, advertise it in DC area. You'll get what you want for it.

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