New car sales dwindling due to high cost

I was in a new car yesterday where the salesman drove it and I wouldn't buy it because he brutalized it in his own stupidity... too dense to understand beating it like a race car in front of a customer be stubid..
Yeah, there's some real characters out there in the wild. Trying to use logic to splain to them why never works either!! 🤣
 
Too much tech ( ^ $ ) , give me simplicity ( v $ ) . Miss the Festivas' , Colts' ( Champ ) , Novas' ( Corollas' ) . etc.. Also got just as good fuel economy with those vehicles .
 
Maybe we've reached peak "People buying stuff they can't afford but think they have to have". Can't bury 40k of negative equity in a 20k vehicle purchase.
 
I cost of the vehicle is half of the equation. It is currently higher interest to burrow money for said expensive vehicle. That makes an expensive vehicle absurdly outrageous. It's the situation we're in right now. Then add in fuel.
I just checked my credit union prior to posting. The new car loan rate is 4.74% if you allow them to take it out of an account.
What are high interest rates?

And before I forget...
Kumbaya to the beater boys....!!
 
Too much tech ( ^ $ ) , give me simplicity ( v $ ) . Miss the Festivas' , Colts' ( Champ ) , Novas' ( Colorollas' ) . etc..
I am or was a big Festival fan. Had a few of them.
Put in a new engine in my 92 when I had my lift in the garage. You can spot the power steering reservoir I installed...which was a premium option.

But at 1700 pounds it was a death trap!! 😂

92 Festiva 017.webp


92 Festiva 032.webp


92 Festiva 020.webp


92 Festiva 013.webp
 
Getting very difficult to buy a new vehicle under $20,000 . Where did $12,000 and under go ? 🚗 < small hatchback .


Cox automotive or someone recently said that new vehicle sales would likely only hit 15.8 million units down from a high of 17 million pre pandemic. By the beginning of the fourth quarter 2025 2.2 million vehicles had been repossessed. Estimates were closer to 3 million by the end of the fourth quarter.
 
I am or was a big Festival fan. Had a few of them.
Put in a new engine in my 92 when I had my lift in the garage. You can spot the power steering reservoir I installed...which was a premium option.

But at 1700 pounds it was a death trap!! 😂

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The Festivas' had plenty of head and leg room for driver , front passenger and those on the rear seat . Also liked the fold up rear seat for extra cargo room . Last , great in snow with the 12" tires . Even better with 12" studded snows .
 
After all the title, taxes and related fees here in Maryland you will pretty much have to pony up near 30K I honestly don't think you could get anything below 25K out the door including insurance.
 
The Mitsu Mirage met all of US standards but didn't sell. New car buyers wanted something nicer.

There's not much of a middle class that buys new econoboxes anymore. And the rest of us who buy used, don't count towards what the automakers design.
Nearly no dealer support was the reason I wasn't interested. If it was a Honda or Toyota I bet it would have done well.
 
I havent bought a vehicle since my 2006 Tahoe, 28k off msrp as the 2007 were already out. Tough looking at all these new prices
 
Nearly no dealer support was the reason I wasn't interested. If it was a Honda or Toyota I bet it would have done well.
Doug Demuro said it was great for what it was but for a while there were rumors that Mitsubishi was jumping ship making people hesitant to buy. Mitsubishi is now in talks with Nissan to build a new small truck in the USA.
 
I just checked my credit union prior to posting. The new car loan rate is 4.74% if you allow them to take it out of an account.
What are high interest rates?

And before I forget...
Kumbaya to the beater boys....!!
Mine is 2.5% locked for 10 yrs. Expensive would be different for different folks but I'm sure it would start effecting the buyers eventually. It seems like at the current rate of interest, on average, seem to be slowing down purchases. Of course along with the high purchase prices.

Before I forget
I don't drive a "beater". 😉
 
Late in every economic expansion credit standards always grow lax.
Extravagant vehicle sales go with easy credit just like cabbage goes with corned beef.
If the economy cools significantly and the pace of defaults grows worrisome, credit availability will decline as credit standards are tightened.
Vehicle manufacturers will have no choice but to offer less costly new vehicles or to die.
 
You sure about that?

As the lending spree is unlikely to end anytime soon, nothing stopping "buyers" from getting everything their imagination can dream of.
Look at the early stages of every postwar recession.
Lending tightens even before anyone really acknowledges that the economy is in a contraction.
Easy credit will continue until the lenders feel actual pain due to defaults followed by repossessions of collateral that cannot bring enough at auction to discharge the outstanding balance, with the typically now jobless buyers filing personal bankruptcy to discharge the debt.
 
Getting very difficult to buy a new vehicle under $20,000 . Where did $12,000 and under go ? 🚗 < small hatchback .


How long ago were cars $12K?

Too much tech ( ^ $ ) , give me simplicity ( v $ ) . Miss the Festivas' , Colts' ( Champ ) , Novas' ( Corollas' ) . etc.. Also got just as good fuel economy with those vehicles .

No one bought them. Low lever trims have never sold well, not for decades at least? I am not saying your wrong, but most of the general population wants something else.
 
Mine is 2.5% locked for 10 yrs. Expensive would be different for different folks but I'm sure it would start effecting the buyers eventually. It seems like at the current rate of interest, on average, seem to be slowing down purchases. Of course along with the high purchase prices.

Before I forget
I don't drive a "beater". 😉
OK-so it's not a auto loan-but another loan instrument? Most take out car loans instead of setting up a HELOC.
 
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