Comments on: Question of the Day: How Low Will They Go?

By: cretinx

cretinx — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:48:56 +0000

Marina Dodge in Rochester New York has been offering SEVENTY (70%) percent off brand new Rams.

By: jar527

jar527 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:19:33 +0000

My favorite is a local Kia dealer in Charlotte. They were offering a minimum of $12,000 for your trade in if you purchased a vehicle from their new car display area. A coworker went by to check this out. They had 3 fully loaded Optima’s to choose from each with at least $10,000 worth of dealer add ons. Now the offer is if you buy one of these you get a “free” 2007 Kia spectra.

And the areas largest Dodge dealer is now offering 50% off every Ram 1500 Quad Cab in-stock. In lieu of all rebates, must finance with CFC and requires a trade-in, not eligible for the 0% for 72 and there is a 699.00 admin fee!!

http://newspaperads.charlotte.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=479386&adid=6665375&cat=3379

By: shaker

shaker — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:19:17 +0000

I used to buy the Sunday paper to peruse the car ads until the ads essentially became falsehoods backed up with fine print to make them “truthful”. It would be informative to hear from someone who actually cut a 45% off deal like the ones above, and the “conditions” they had to meet.

By: lewissalem

lewissalem — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:05:19 +0000

Frank, it’s Rock Hill, SC. Just south of Charlotte.

By: jberger

jberger — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:08:15 +0000

A local Nissan dealer just started advertising 50% off on the Titan and Quest.
The wife needs a minivan and we’ve been waiting to see if there is any bottom to the market before we buy.

4 months ago, the dealer offered 2K off sticker and he would “work on” taking off the $675 in undercoating. Now they are advertising it 50% off.

WOW!

How low will it go?

It’s gotten so bad that even my used car dealing buddy is telling me to buy new, it’s cheaper than auction right now. I hate buying new, but it’s actually probably going to happen this time around, just too cheap to pass up.

By: dan8001rpm

dan8001rpm — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:08:27 +0000

These ads have stock numbers next to the pictures which means the deal applies to that exact vehicle only. When you arrive and ask for the deal that vehicle will be…. sold. Loss leader’s i think they are called.
Burning your customers resale to shift 3 trucks, nice.

By: TexasAg03

TexasAg03 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:48:28 +0000

Local small town (less than 30,000 people) dealer is advertising “employee pricing plus up to $8100 cash back”. I’m sure that $8100 is only on loaded Super Duty Diesel trucks, but that is a bunch off for a local dealer…

By: Runfromcheney

Runfromcheney — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:11:01 +0000

I kept seeing advertisements saying that you can lease a Dodge Dakota (They still make those?) for only $90 a month.

Well, not anymore, obviously.

By: rtz

rtz — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:17:43 +0000

So they are cutting the price. Who’s taking the hit for the loss? How much did the dealer buy these vehicles for from the manufacturer? How can they afford to do this?

By: rtz

rtz — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:07:42 +0000

Situation reminds me of the discount bins and tables at software stores and book stores. You can’t even give that stuff away. No matter the price on these trucks, no one wants them. Or as the case may be, the price is still too high.

I’m trying to think if I could get one of these new trucks for $5 if I’d bother. Do I want a truck? How much is the tag going to run me? What about the fuel mileage I’m going to have to deal with? Once I buy it, I’m stuck with it in a sense. Though the junk yard will take it off my hands.

Why don’t they just deport all these trucks to Mexico or Iran or Saudi where they have cheap fuel prices? Or put them in empty shipping containers and send them to China? Rural China could use them.

Or have the dealers convert all these trucks over to electric? Trucks are easy to convert..

I need something that is electric powered to get me back and forth from work.

I was at the gas station the other day and the person that used the pump before me for some reason bought 33 gallons of fuel and that cost them over $100. That would be a trip if that was the average price of a fill up for any car. Just wait till that price doubles or triples. You still don’t want an electric vehicle? 40 mpg is still good enough?

By: RobertSD

RobertSD — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:51:34 +0000

Around here, the Quad Cab Dodges are listing at $15k off. The Crew Cab F-150s and Silverados are running about $12k off total. The Crew Max Tundras are mostly $11k off. All of them have 0% for 72 months available except the Fords – I haven’t seen any advertised like that yet. The Regular and Super cabs do better with the F-150 and Silverado regular cabs are only about $6k off, but you can still get the Tundra and Dodge regular and super cabs for $8k-10k off.

Sienna AWDs have basically stopped selling. A local dealer has $10k off their stock. Ford Explorers and Toyota 4Runners are all running about $8-9k off around here. Want a brand-spanking-new-just-redesigned Sequoia or an Expedition? $12k off the MSRP.

I’ve even been seeing Camry and Accord ads for like $4-5k off MSRP. You can also get 0.9% financing for up to 48 months around here on Odyssey. There are really good deals on the brand new Pilots – 1.9% APR for 60 months or $5k off. I’ve never seen anything like this from Honda. The Corollas, Civics and Focii of the world are all running $2500-$3500 off in advertised specials, and they are supposed to be the “high-demand” cars.

It just sucks to be selling cars right now. I don’t think there’s another way around it.

By: 8rings

8rings — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:20:17 +0000

What a time to buy a truck if you need one. Deals on full size trucks have always been pretty good. I got 11k off MSRP on a F-150 I purchased 4 years ago and I got 8k off one of the new Silverados at introduction time. Good thing I leased the Silverado; the depreciation is not my problem.
I wonder if those huge discounts are available on leases, you could lease one for cheap and then hand it back over, depreciation be damned.
I think the Xterra deals are pretty sweet, they are offering 10k off in Oklahoma.

By: rudiger

rudiger — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:13:00 +0000

The guy that said “Bait and Switch” wasn’t far off. The fine print on these huge discounts needs to be looked at very closely. There are lots of caveats, including financing through the manufacturer’s credit company and the lame ‘owner loyalty’ cash, meaning you have to already currently own a craptacular vehicle of the same make as the one you’re considering buying.

So if you’re driving a competitor’s vehicle (like a Toyota) and want to pay cash or finance through your own bank, you’re SOL on the big 50% off discount.

When (and if) they start offering the big discounts without all the attached strings, I might start giving them some thought, but not until then.

By: cjdumm

cjdumm — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:04:37 +0000

Let me re-frame this question:

How long until manufacturers start repossessing their worst-selling cars and trucks from dealers and simply recycling them?

Don’t laugh; it could happen.

1) Steel prices soar;
2) Truck prices crater;
3) Unsold truck inventory is now measured in months (lots of them) instead of days.

Fire-sale prices will run up against a hard floor at some point. Hell, even a a Dodge Ram Hemi must have $7,000 worth of spare parts in it.

By: yournamehere

yournamehere — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:58:59 +0000

i work as an artist at a direct mail printing shop. 90% of our business is car dealers. I will keep a look out for highest discount. so far i think the biggest was $15,000 of Durango. and $12,500 of Jeep Commanders.

i remember when Daewoo went under they had “Buy 1 get 1 Free” sales…how long before that starts?!

By: romanjetfighter

romanjetfighter — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:37:08 +0000

I’d buy 10 and then sell it on Autotrader for like 3k profit each!!

That sucks if you bought an Xterra the weekend before the sale for full price. Hahahahaha!!!

By: Jordan Tenenbaum

Jordan Tenenbaum — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:35:07 +0000

Wow, makes me want a Quest.

By: 50merc

50merc — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:17:21 +0000

powerglide: “Would you buy a new car with almost no dealerships (I think the law required some stay open for federal regulations compliance) for 80 % off ?”

Yes.

By: powerglide

powerglide — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:08:43 +0000

After the Daewoo implosion, but before GM bought the Korean factory, the cars themselves (the Lanos, Nubira, Leganza models) had to be auctioned off.

Heard from someone who’d know that brand-new Lanos models were being dumped wholesale for
$ 2500.00.

Would you buy a new car with almost no dealerships (I think the law required some stay open for federal regulations compliance) for 80 % off ?

By: Nicholas Weaver

Nicholas Weaver — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:07:26 +0000

If I could get a new extended cab, long bed silverado for $12K OTD, I’d get one in a hot second.

However, the screaming 50% off style deals seem to be on the more imagy-trucks, rather than real work-trucks (the basic, bare-bones models)

By: andyinsdca

andyinsdca — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:03:59 +0000

Dodge dealers around here have a 50% off sale going on new (08) pickups. This, along with the coming crush of lease returns is bound to destroy the market for trucks and SUVs.

By: indi500fan

indi500fan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:03:15 +0000

That ad smells like bait and switch to me.
Of course with poor eyesight I can’t see the fine print.
Wonder if there’s a “with $5000 in trade” down there someplace?

By: guyincognito

guyincognito — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:55:43 +0000

Wow! I’d almost have to buy an SUV or truck if they get below $10K new, and I hate trucks.

By: dl_caldwell

dl_caldwell — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:44:50 +0000

I’ve been watching inventory at a few local dealers. They have several vehicles that have been sitting for a YEAR, two of which I test drove at the end of last December.

I’m waiting patiently for them to hit the panic button. Of course while I’m waiting there are 2008 used models hitting the market for $10K less.

It’s a good time to buy a car.

By: thoots

thoots — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:36:17 +0000

A local dealer here has been airing TV commercials screaming “$16,000 off!” on Dodge Ram pickups.

Doesn’t give you much faith that there’ll be anyone around when you come back in a couple of years with a warranty claim….