Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Is This The Sound Of The Bottom Falling Out Of The Auto Industry?

Not quite, not yet, but it’s not good either.

Let’s hope that the problems piling up in the used vehicle market - and their impact on new vehicle sales, automakers, $1.1 trillion in auto loans, and auto lenders - is just a blip, something caused by what has been getting blamed by just about everyone now: the delayed tax refunds.

In its March report, the National Association of Auto Dealers (NADA) reported an anomaly: dropping used vehicle prices in February, which occurred only for the second time in the past 20 years. It was a big one: Its Used Car Guide’s seasonally adjusted used vehicle price index plunged 3.8% from January, “by far the worst recorded for any month since November 2008 as the result of a recession-related 5.6% tumble.”

The index has now dropped eight months in a row and hit the lowest level since September 2010. The index is down 8% year over year, and down 13% from its peak in 2014.

The price decline spanned all segments, but it hit the two ends of the spectrum — subcompact cars and the luxury end — particularly hard. The list shows the change in wholesale prices from January to February in vehicles up to eight years old:

More

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You won't need a car in another 15 or 20 years. Dubai is putting out the first airbourne pod cab, no driver, to be actually be put in use, in the next 3 months. This will be for actual use, and is now the future of transportation. Take you where you want to go on a straight line.
With tech. as fast as it is, these should rapidly take over.
We won't need all these roads, etc. much longer.

Anonymous said...

With cost of living rises of 20-30% and static incomes over the past decade, new cars are being put on back burners. It's a no brained - if there's no money, there are fewer sales.

Zorro said...

just wiggle your nose like Samantha did on I dream of Jeannie

Anonymous said...

Leasing is the only option now. You Must have decent credit to lease...

Anonymous said...

1:36 Only in poor areas, the rest of the educated, employed people buy homes, cars, boats, motorcycles and various toys.

Anonymous said...

1:36 PM yes and healthcare has added to the pain.

Taxes and healthcare ate up 50% of my earnings last year. No kidding

Anonymous said...

All I have to say is this. Salisbury's new & used car lots cannot hold anymore vehicles. Go look and check it out for yourself. On the north end of Salisbury starting at Zion Road and going, both, north & south every car lot is full to capacity. There is no more room for ANY MORE VEHICLES - PERIOD.
The car lots are 'chock full' of unsold inventory. The unsold cars are now occupying even the side streets and alley ways!!! I'm not joking, go check them out for yourself.

Anonymous said...

Yea go check out the north end and ed wilgus' garbage. Its amazing how much money you can make when you charge people 300% interest on loans. So much money you have millions of dollars in inventory just sitting around. That's one way to wash all that dirty money

Anonymous said...

New cars are so overinflated price wise. It's ridiculous. Some companies now offer 10 year auto loans. High end like Jaguar do this. Remember when luxury cars were no more than $25k. Won't even buy you a Honda Civic now days. And I'm talking 80s so it's not like it was 70 years ago. All those car regulations are coming home to roost.