Price breaks on new Pickups?!

Thermoguy wrote:
I don't understand why so many people are buying new vehicles right now. With dealers charging a premium above sticker and vehicles coming incomplete with no seat heaters or no adaptive cruise, or whatever that chip they can't get did for the vehicle, why are people buying right now and why are they willing to pay a premium? I get it some have to for whatever reason, but many just want a new car. Can you imagine how the market would change if people weren't willing to accept incomplete cars, cars at a premium price, or cars that are going to be tagged "COVID" in the future? It's like buying something that was made the Friday before Super Bowl - remember the commercials? I would guess that in a couple years these cars will be worthless just because they will have known faults, workmanship issues, etc. If everyone only purchased what they had to have for work, etc, then manufacturers would have a slump in sales and would need to have incentives, discounts, lower the price, whatever they could to get people to buy. Sure, your used car value would go down, but its all relative, if they give me $10K more for my truck than what it is worth but then charge me $10K more for the new one, its the same difference. These vehicles aren't worth what were paying for them anyway, and the used market is a joke with nothing but junk. Just so you understand, I am not in the market. I would love to have a new truck, but my 2015 is low miles and looks and drives like new. I will wait until the manufacturers can produce a vehicle with all its components (and not using sub par suppliers to do it).

I agree largely with everything you said. The fact of the matter remains that MANY people just aren't as concerned with price, or their personal finances, saving money, etc.

I can compare our family to many very similar families that we are friends with that have very similar incomes/family situations/expenses.
A couple of them are smart with their money and they generally have more money and more toys and owe less, overall. And others are living almost paycheck to paycheck with $250k + combined salaries.
I'd say half of those folks wouldn't think twice about a new vehicle, regardless of price, because "the payment isn't THAT much more!"

There's a reason we have that big stupid brodozer truck in my signature (aside from it looks COOL! LOL).
I couldn't pass up a 4 year old deleted diesel with 60k miles on it for $37k when my "old" diesel had 180k+ miles on it and sold for $27k!
(Plus it was a straight across trade for our old truck and old TC, so the State got $0 tax out of either of us!!)

If I had to give $50k for the 2016 (which is what it's still worth currently with the recent inflation), I'd still be rollin deep in the 07 with over 200k now.