It's the Used Cars, Stupid
Duh. Total duh. We're not the brightest bulbs around... so when we read news such as "Most auto makers see sales gain (Poor Kia!)" we just figured more people were imported from China or Canada in order to make new buyers for these cars.
It never occurred to us that oh, "Used car sales in the terlit" -- sigh, we gotta go get some economic schoolin'. Anyway, AutoWeek reports, Despite domestic discount strategies, import vehicle sales remain strong and the relevant quote was
The employee discounts have "not affected my (new-vehicle) transaction prices," says Hugh Hall, owner of Performance Kia and Performance Nissan in Everett, Wash. "It has brought people into the market. It's got people out shopping. The only real effect it has had on us is we're obviously looking very hard at how we value any of the Big 3 domestic trade-ins. It's clearly affecting the resale value of those cars."So if you bought a Chevy (or other domestic brand) in 2003 it sure seems like you are bummin now -- resale-wise.
Carpundit Picks on Defenseless Governor
Ha! Sometimes it would be funny if these little posts could be in Podcast form. Carpundit can be a funny dude... might be even funnier if it was audio.
Jetta Wagon Delayed?
Man, poor VW. VW's going to introduce some fancy ass cars but there's no Jetta wagon for a few years yet? The Jetta is one of their most popular cars and the wagon counts for a large percentage of the Jetta's sales. Man... We still like the Phaeton. Maybe when VW stops making it, they'll ship us one. In white. With the 12-cylinder. Thanks to Autoblog for the link.
Everyone knew there would have to be an affect somewhere, everyone assumed it would be future sales (and that's yet to be seen) but it does make sense that used car sales and values would be affected. Like yourself, I wish I had seen it. But thanks for posting the article.
Posted by: bigfordfan | Tuesday, August 02, 2005 at 09:55 AM