Time Machine Challenge: What Would You Buy?

The Thanksgiving leftovers are still on the table when the Christmas tree goes up at the Kreutzer house. Wherever we go in the world I am determined that some traditions will survive and Christmas is one of the constants that my children can count upon no matter how hard it might be for Santa to find us some years. We have a fair amount of decorations, mostly indoor stuff, and when the season has ended I usually spend New Year’s Day pulling everything down and carefully wrapping each piece in its own individual piece of newspaper. The newspaper wrapping is just as important to me as the decorations themselves because I know that in the years to come, those crumpled bits of newsprint will become little time capsules that will show where we were and what we thought was important. One thing I am always sure to include are the car ads.

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  • VoGhost Matt, I'm curious why you write that inventory levels are low at 74 days. Typically, 60 days is the benchmark for normal inventory.
  • Jeff Arthur Dailey--If you really want to see a similarity between Chevy and Cadillac look at the 71 Chevy Caprice compared to the 71 Cadillac Deville more similar in looks than the 61s. Motor Trend even had an article comparing them and stating that you could buy a comparably equipped 71 Caprice and save thousands. The 1971 Chevrolet Caprice/Impala: Value-Priced, Cadillac ... YouTube · Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History 16 minutes, 53 seconds Feb 3, 2024
  • Buickman mostly cut and paste information. where is Jack Baruth when you need him?
  • ToolGuy In a perfect world (we don't have that), and a stable world (also no), one might expect the used EV pricing curve to follow the new EV pricing curve but with a lag. Overall that might be sort of what we are seeing but I will have to noodle on it more. (I know you can't wait.)
  • ToolGuy Ok after listening to the podcast (and re-listening to the relevant part while doing a painting job in the hot sun, won't make any significant pronouncements at this point) I was curious about the methodology. ¶ Here you go: "Methodology iSeeCars analyzed over 2.2 million 1- to 5-year-old used cars sold in May 2023 and 2024. The average listing prices of each car model were compared between the two time periods, and the differences were expressed as both a percentage difference from the 2023 price as well as a dollar difference. Heavy-duty vehicles, low-volume vehicles, vehicles discontinued as of the 2023 model year, and vehicles in production for fewer than four of the last five model years for each period were excluded from further analysis." ¶ So for any specific model, you have age and mileage and condition factoring in (think of the volume curve for 'new' models over the past 5 years). ¶ The overall averages have a -lot- of model mix going on. ¶ Random question: is the 'listing price' the listing price (likely) or the actual transaction price? (It matters if the listing prices were too optimistic a year ago, i.e., some of the 'drop' would represent more realism in the listing prices.)