Fear of an Impending Car-Price Collapse Grips Auto Industry

[javensbukan]

Spending huge amounts of money on something that becomes somewhat worthless 10 years later doesn't interest me that much any more. Regardless of the deal - vehicles are still money pits not investments.

Preach! I get the itch to upgrade to a nicer car every few months now that mine is paid off.... but then I realize that my car is warrantied until 2025 on the powertrain and my current car works juuuuust fine.

I mean sure, buy a car that has not awful reliability, but aside from that, cars are TERRIBLE financial investments.

[MetroMPG]

Here's my Sample Size of ONE Comprehensive Authoritative Report on the state of the used car private market during the coronavirus lockdown:

• My car has been listed for 5 days now on 3 sites.
• It's had about 180 ad views
• I priced it at CAD $4900, which makes it currently the 3rd cheapest out of 63 Mirages (2014-2015) within 1000 km of me, as advertised on Kijiji (biggest regional used car site)
• The 2 or 3 cheaper ones out there, including a couple on FB marketplace, range from $3500-$4600, and have all been advertised for multiple weeks.
• I've only had one inquiry so far, which I think was probably just a scammer (they only asked what payment method I'd take).
• Most tellingly: I've had ZERO lowball offers. That's the first time that has ever happened to me when trying to sell a car. Usually a couple of people chuck offers within the first day or two (without coming to see the car) just to see if I'll bite.

What does all that tell us?

That last point in particular tells me the private market around here is probably dead right now for normally-priced cars.

(I'm pretty sure if I had listed it for $1000, someone would have bought it... but I'm not willing to test that theory!)

I may knock a couple hundred off and see what happens tomorrow & Saturday. In my experience, Fri/Sat are the busiest days for people looking at/responding to ads. If it doesn't sell, no big deal. I'll park it and wait until the fall and try again then.

[MacClyver]

I had tried to sell my sedan for a good few months last year on FB marketplace. had like 28 messages and a few offers between 150 and 300, I had wanted at least 450.

In all that time I had one woman who seemed genuinely interested come look at it and freak out that it was a manual. Refused even to try given the chance for a quick lesson. We had literally discussed the worn out clutch in messages, not to mention it was marked as manual transmission.

Second offer was a man who came, drove it, and insisted on $250 like 5 times. No, what insanity is that thinking you can just keep making the exact same offer and eventually I'll say yes? I took the ad down knowing it was destined to be my fourth car.

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I can't see how this is a car price collapse. Demand for cars is pretty constant. Even if people who would otherwise be buying are holding out with what they have right now, would these suppressed sales not create a surge of sales when this is over?

[MetroMPG]

I had one woman who seemed genuinely interested come look at it and freak out that it was a manual. Refused even to try given the chance for a quick lesson. We had literally discussed the worn out clutch in messages, not to mention it was marked as manual transmission.

A manual transmission is absolutely a negative selling point these days to the average person. I think it's possible some buyers don't even know what "standard/manual" even means.

My brother had the same thing happen - he advertised a car clearly saying "manual" in the ad, and someone drove a long distance only to turn around and go home because they didn't realize it wasn't an automatic and didn't want to drive it.

My ad says: "5-speed manual transmission - NOT automatic"

[MacClyver]

Oh, so auto refers to Tesla Autopilot & Cadillac Supercruise now.

So CVT's and slushboxes are manual

While stickshift is now the equivalent of muzzleloaders

[Subcompact Culture]

Is that Delica? Post interior pics please.

[Subcompact Culture]

That last point in particular tells me the private market around here is probably dead right now for normally-priced cars.

I'm literally chatting on Facebook with a guy I know who sell used JDM cars in Washington and he's saying it's really bad right now. He says he's had to let cars go for much less than they are worth to stay afloat. I have a feeling it's a really hard time to sell, which doesn't bode well if I'm going to try to move my Delica and possibly my Mirage; both are manuals.

[Fummins]

Here's my Sample Size of ONE Comprehensive Authoritative Report on the state of the used car private market during the coronavirus lockdown:

• My car has been listed for 5 days now on 3 sites.
• It's had about 180 ad views
• I priced it at CAD $4900, which makes it currently the 3rd cheapest out of 63 Mirages (2014-2015) within 1000 km of me, as advertised on Kijiji (biggest regional used car site)
• The 2 or 3 cheaper ones out there, including a couple on FB marketplace, range from $3500-$4600, and have all been advertised for multiple weeks.
• I've only had one inquiry so far, which I think was probably just a scammer (they only asked what payment method I'd take).
• Most tellingly: I've had ZERO lowball offers. That's the first time that has ever happened to me when trying to sell a car. Usually a couple of people chuck offers within the first day or two (without coming to see the car) just to see if I'll bite.

What does all that tell us?

That last point in particular tells me the private market around here is probably dead right now for normally-priced cars.

(I'm pretty sure if I had listed it for $1000, someone would have bought it... but I'm not willing to test that theory!)

I may knock a couple hundred off and see what happens tomorrow & Saturday. In my experience, Fri/Sat are the busiest days for people looking at/responding to ads. If it doesn't sell, no big deal. I'll park it and wait until the fall and try again then.

Wow, not even lowballers? I hate dealing with kiji . It usually takes me a few attempts to sell something. The best is when you say no trades in the add and get a bunch of offers to trade.

[MetroMPG]

You know the game... not even lowballers. That's a red flag.

I don't usually get trade offers though?

[Nobu]

Tree-fiddy.