Forbes' List of Hardest-To-Get Cars

by Frank Williams

July 2nd, 2008 10:25 AM

Forbes, that Number One purveyor of "Top 10" lists, has devised a list of the ten hardest-to-get cars. They've based their selections on dealer inventory levels and retail turn rates (how long a model sits on the lot before it's sold). While some of the selections are obvious (anyone try to buy a Prius lately?), who would expect the 14mpg Lexus LX to be in short supply? The other two anomalies (considering gas mileage and purchase price) are the Audi A5 and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, both of which are selling faster than they can build them. Here's the entire list and supply level of each model:

Toyota Prius – 7-day supply

Lexus LX Series – 8-day supply

MINI Cooper – 8-day supply

Audi A5 – 8-day supply

Toyota Yaris – 13-day supply

Scion xD – 19-day supply

Honda Fit – 20-day supply

Honda Civic – 21-day supply

Toyota Corolla – 23-day supply

Mercedes-Benz C-Class – 29-day supply

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4 of 25 comments

Geotpf on Jul 02, 2008

The Lexus LX is newly redesigned. Lexus sales are very "streaky", in that new models sell like gangbusters and are impossible to find, but the sales of the older models fall like a rock. Sales were up 230.2% in June (not a typo). In any case, having five of the top ten hardest to find cars, as in Toyota's case, is the type of problem you want to have. That is, if your product is sold out, you screwed up by not building more, but that's a whole heck of a lot better than having it pile up like trash bags during a garbage collector's strike.

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Geotpf on Jul 02, 2008
trtl5000 : July 2nd, 2008 at 10:59 am Since I purchased a MINI I feel the need to point out that most owners are on a waiting list for MONTHS before their car is delivered. Does that 8 days start when it shows up or is it the odd car ordered by the dealer that gets sold? What it means is that they take all the vehicles of a given model in dealer's inventory and, by the published sales figures, figure out how many days it would take to sell them. That is, if there are 10,000 of a given model sitting on dealer's lots somewhere in America, and they sold 20,000 of them last month, they would have a 15-day supply of that model. Likewise, if there were 60,000 of that same model on dealer's lots, there would be a 90-day supply (or so; assuming a 30-day month here). Now, what I'm not sure about is whether or not that includes vehicles technically owned by a dealer but still in transit from the factory. I suspect it does, which means that actual supplies are lower than these numbers, as in zero or damned close to it for at least the top four models (IE, all or almost all dealers have waiting lists for those models).

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Rtz on Jul 02, 2008

Why doesn't the Nissan Versa sell more?

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Landcrusher on Jul 03, 2008

Why doesn’t the Nissan Versa sell more? I find it aesthetically challenged compared to the competition, and Nissan just hasn't got the name that Honda and Toyota do anymore.

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