My Plans Have Been Wrecked

babock wrote:

bucky wrote:
The used car market is very volatile right now, all bets are off.

My brother runs an auto auction in California. According to him, its not volatile at all. Probably one of the most stable times for used auto/truck sales.

True statement. Economy is good, gas is cheap...ish. Cars are expensive!
Moreso now than I’ve seen in my 30 years of driving.
“Deals” are **** near non existent except on old or unpopular stuff.
To that point, been looking for a new(er) Charger SRT for the wife for over a year now.
Limiting myself to ‘15 and up for specific reasons, there are virtually none for sale by owner and I couldn’t get under $41-42k for slightly used at several dealers, as a serious buyer. Ended up getting a new leftover for $44k which is mind numbing to me, but it literally was the best deal I seen within 1000miles for a year. It was over $13k off sticker, so zero drive off the lot depreciation at least, but I’m accustomed to buying vehicles that I could re sell for more for say the first year and it ain’t happening right now.
We gave $18k for our 06 SRT 5 years and almost 100kmiles miles newer. If it had the same Miles now it would be worth the same from what I see. Zero age depriciation.
Heck, I’d only give up about 5grand from the purchase price on the Mega Cab 10 years and over 150kmiles later it I sold it tomorrow. Sounds stable to me.

Granted there are other factors besides the economy, like the instant internet access that normalizes vehicle prices across the board too, but IMO its a good time to sell, but not as good of a time to buy.