CerebralPrimate
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I've been watching the market for a bit now. Initially I started because I saw a YT video (more than half my feed is vehicle related content) that talked about how cheap used Teslas were now, and how you can test the battery so you can protect yourself somewhat from the most catastrophic cost in the EV world. That gave me a sense of comfort, though there are no guarantees in life. Eventually I moved away from Tesla thoughts and settled on the Lightning. This then lead to me using AutoTempest and the nationwide search feature to look at pricing trends.
I wanted a Lariat with 30-60K miles, with a good battery test. I found none had bad battery tests due to them all being only a few years old. Ok, got it. About 2.5 months ago, I was seeing advertised prices as low as $43K-$45K, but I had been advised by a friend in the biz that the online ad price is almost never the real price as they are allowed to advertise prices minus all fees. If you insist on the ad price, they will often refuse to sell ya the truck. So expect them to want $1500-$2500 more than the ad price for all their dealer fees, fee-fees, finders fees, keepers fees, whatever. Even when they promise no haggle pricing or a one price guarantee, more often than not fees are somehow excluded from that policy and get added on at purchase because they are "mandatory".
Even with that being the case, it's possible to track the trend of ad price over time. With the tax incentives going away, I think there's 2 things happening in the market right now. Some people are making the decision to buy when they might otherwise have waited because of the dwindling window for the tax credit. But a lot of people dont know the rules around that, havent looked into it, they heard it went away and electrics must be bad somehow if the current administration is taking away the incentives, so they arent even looking at EVs- and this latter group probably constitutes the majority of the market, as EVs account for something like just 7.5% of total sales this year. So there's some small temporary upward pressure because of the closing window, but overall big downward pressure as EV sales slump in general.
I looked around this morning as I got my coffee and felt like mentally wandering on the internet. It seems that similar trucks to those that were the "good deals" at $43K-$45K just a month ago are now at $40K-$42K. Bear in mind, this is the ad price, not the real price, but still... it seems like prices are dropping quickly from my initial glance. I got a screaming deal on mine, but I figured prices were going to drop as we neared that Sept 30 tax break deadline so there was temptation to hold off until the last minute. However, I posted my old (ICE) F-150 on FB and was shocked when it sold in a day, so I needed a vehicle and didnt want to rent a car for 2 months while waiting to see if my theory would pan out to be correct.
As it happened, I didn't get the tax break and didn't care when it came time to pull the trigger. The truck was too good of a deal to pass up ($37K with a 99% Bat test). As it was a 2022, not a 2024, it feel under the "used" rules, for which the max income is $75K if you're single. So yeah, No Soup For You, CP! Still, I am interested to know how others feel about pricing in the market and if they wished that they'd have waited, or if they bought new do they wish they'd have bought nearly-new instead and let someone else eat the depreciation, do ya feel like ya got a good deal overall, etc...
I wanted a Lariat with 30-60K miles, with a good battery test. I found none had bad battery tests due to them all being only a few years old. Ok, got it. About 2.5 months ago, I was seeing advertised prices as low as $43K-$45K, but I had been advised by a friend in the biz that the online ad price is almost never the real price as they are allowed to advertise prices minus all fees. If you insist on the ad price, they will often refuse to sell ya the truck. So expect them to want $1500-$2500 more than the ad price for all their dealer fees, fee-fees, finders fees, keepers fees, whatever. Even when they promise no haggle pricing or a one price guarantee, more often than not fees are somehow excluded from that policy and get added on at purchase because they are "mandatory".
Even with that being the case, it's possible to track the trend of ad price over time. With the tax incentives going away, I think there's 2 things happening in the market right now. Some people are making the decision to buy when they might otherwise have waited because of the dwindling window for the tax credit. But a lot of people dont know the rules around that, havent looked into it, they heard it went away and electrics must be bad somehow if the current administration is taking away the incentives, so they arent even looking at EVs- and this latter group probably constitutes the majority of the market, as EVs account for something like just 7.5% of total sales this year. So there's some small temporary upward pressure because of the closing window, but overall big downward pressure as EV sales slump in general.
I looked around this morning as I got my coffee and felt like mentally wandering on the internet. It seems that similar trucks to those that were the "good deals" at $43K-$45K just a month ago are now at $40K-$42K. Bear in mind, this is the ad price, not the real price, but still... it seems like prices are dropping quickly from my initial glance. I got a screaming deal on mine, but I figured prices were going to drop as we neared that Sept 30 tax break deadline so there was temptation to hold off until the last minute. However, I posted my old (ICE) F-150 on FB and was shocked when it sold in a day, so I needed a vehicle and didnt want to rent a car for 2 months while waiting to see if my theory would pan out to be correct.
As it happened, I didn't get the tax break and didn't care when it came time to pull the trigger. The truck was too good of a deal to pass up ($37K with a 99% Bat test). As it was a 2022, not a 2024, it feel under the "used" rules, for which the max income is $75K if you're single. So yeah, No Soup For You, CP! Still, I am interested to know how others feel about pricing in the market and if they wished that they'd have waited, or if they bought new do they wish they'd have bought nearly-new instead and let someone else eat the depreciation, do ya feel like ya got a good deal overall, etc...
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