February 18, 2014

Great Deals Abound

  – Plenty of opportunities that need careful vetting    What’s Hot! Diesels in a word! These are not the stinky and slow diesels of the past but clean burning and amazingly lusty to drive. There are great opportunities right now to buy a Mercedes or BMW diesel and we scored a number of these recently at prices comparable to the gas engine versions. 2010-2011 BMW 3 series are cheap right now – we are seeing 2010 328xi sedans with 20k miles trade for about $18k at auction – that is a lot of car for not a lot of money. 2011-12 Acura MDXs and Lexus RX350s are plentiful and excellent values 2011-12 Toyota Camrys, Hyundai Sonatas and Nissan Altimas are plentiful and the prices have eased – 1374 of the 2011 Camry LEs were sold last week at the Manheim auctions. 2011 Infiniti G37xs and M37xs are priced right How about nicely equipped low mileage 2011 Mercedes C300 4matics trading for about $21 k? These prices have been pushed down by the introduction of the very popular CLS. What’s Overpriced? Subarus – everyone of them are overvalued due to the shortage of new vehicles – in many cases you can get an Audi for the price of a Subaru. Full size trucks are still bringing crazy money Jeep Wranglers,Toyota FJ Cruisers and Honda CR-vs hold on to value big time Honda Accords and Civics when you compare them to Corollas, Sonatas, Altimas and Camrys Audi Q5s are popular and […]
February 18, 2014

Tidbits #3

 In 2013 new vehicle sales increased for the 4th consecutive year – NADA predicts 2014 to be a banner new car year with sales of better than 16 million. Rental fleets have been adding to their inventory at record levels – the highest vehicle procurement pace since 2007 To end 2013 Subaru had the fewest vehicles in stock of any manufacturer Every manufacturer had fewer cars in stock on January 1, 2014 than they did on December 1, 2013. A Morgan Stanley analyst noted that since new car sales dipped in December to a 15.4 million sale annual rate from 16.4 million rate in November 2013, the market is “in an increasingly aggressive incentive environment”. There was a new high in December for outstanding vehicle loan balances and a sharp increase in subprime repossessions – this could eventually lead to credit pullback and higher interest rates. Repo volumes increased 5% in 2013 to 1.37 million vehicles According to NADA, in 2013 luxury cars depreciated 21%, large suvs and pickups depreciated 8.4% while compact and midsize cars were at 17.2% and midsize suvs hit 15.7% Toyota and BMW agree to develop a joint sports car platform – who would have predicted that alliance even 5 years ago? Leasing at 3.2 million units in 2013 hit it’s highest output since 2000 – this bodes well for future decreases in used car prices due to the burgeoning inventories of end of lease units. This will give all of us opportunities. NADA reports that […]
September 26, 2014

Greetings!

  The Autumnal Equinox is here and the retail and wholesale vehicle markets are in full bloom ready for harvesting. You will see from the Last Ten Sold posted at the end of this missive that we saved our clients $40477 or  an average of $4047. We have seen a combination of increased used vehicle inventory from maturing lease portfolios, massive rental returns and dealer trades. Prices have been slipping and we will identify where there are some amazing deals in Market Watch. New vehicle sales are at their highest volume since 2006 and by the end of the year sales may surpass that level. This has put downward pressure on used car prices. August marked the fourth consecutive monthly decline in wholesale used vehicle prices according to Manheim’s chief economist, Tom Webb. Luxury cars have experienced the largest decline in pricing over the past year. New vehicle inventories are low. There are not a lot of 2014s left on the lot. Subaru has only 11 days supply in dealer inventory when the standard inventory level desired is 60 days supply. We continue to refine our process to partner with you in the most effective ways by paying attention to theDETAILS of what you want, what the markets will yield, and of the vetting process of throughly checking out each vehicle so you know what you are getting. Without paying attention to the details you have nothing. We start with the details but subscribe to completeCOMMUNICATION with you so you know what we know. We finish our process […]
September 26, 2014

Great Deals Abound

 What’s a Deal? Diesels are still high on our value list right now. These are not the stinky and slow diesels of the past but clean burning, fuel sipping and amazingly lusty to drive. They hold their value when they get higher mileage way better than their gas engined counterparts.There are great opportunities right now to buy a diesel and we have scored a number of these recently at prices comparable to the gas engine versions. 2011 BMW 3 series are cheap right now – we are seeing 2011 328xi sedans with less than 30k miles miles and factory warranty trade for about $20k at auction – that is a lot of car for not a lot of money. They sold 305 of them at Manheim auctions last week. 2011 Toyota Camry LEs are plentiful -789 of them sold at Manheim auctions last week. We can buy them for about $12k with less than 30k miles. Nissan Altimas are thick -1032 sold at Manheim last week and the prices have eased – less than $12k for less than 20k miles! 2011 Infiniti G37xs and M37xs are priced right How about nicely equipped low mileage 2011 Mercedes C300 4matics trading for about $21k? Any European luxury vehicle including Mercedes GL450s, ML350s, E350s, Audi A8s, BMW 5 series, X5s, 7 series are all deals. Convertibles and sports cars are experiencing their end of season price swoon. If you are thinking about one for next spring you might want to reevaluate and look […]