What the hell is going on!?!? The lot was pretty empty a few months ago when I brought my wife’s Highlander in for service but today it looks like a fricking used car lot that’s about to go belly up.

There are ZERO cars in the show room and I would estimate the parking lot is maybe at 5-10% capacity. It looks like a Walmart parking lot on a holiday when they actually close the God forsaken place briefly. Compared to what it looked like circa 2018-2019 it looks like we’re going through the great new car famine of 2022.

Is your local Toyota dealership a ghost town too?

Most dealers regardless of make are ghost towns as far as inventory, it's show up, place deposit and order and wait.

I was at the Chevy dealer for service last Friday. No cars in the showroom. One new truck on the lot, a black RST something-or-other. Yup, a veritable ghost-town for new vehicles. They had a giant sign out front offering to buy your used car.

I'm about due for a new truck, but I'll have to wait it out for a year or two. Hopefully it gets better.

I drive past one a couple times a day and always look. I think the most new vehicles I’ve seen on the lot has been about 6. Various weekly. Could be Camrys one week, a few tacomas the next. Rarely see anything made in Japan there has only been maybe a few 4runners in the last 6 months

Same dealership family has lots of Nissans, Dodge and Jeeps further up on same road

All the dealerships by me have way more used cars than new. It appears that because of the lack of chips the manufacturers are using the chips in their most profitable vehicles which are trucks. There’s not much else on the lot. What are people doing that lease. I guess forced to buy out the lease.

Unfortunate norm around here too.
The DCJR dealers 'look' like they have a lot of stock, but I'm sure it's mostly used/CPO.

My dad stopped by his local Ford dealer right before a large storm came through, to look at a Maverick, and their entire new inventory fit in the showroom, tightly.

My Toyota dealer has more late model used cars than I have ever seen.

New inventory is very low though

My local big Honda dealer is looking like a used car lot more and more each day. Where there used to row upon row of shiny new Civics and CRV's, all you see now are used cars, hardly any actual Hondas and some of them pretty old. One I could see from the road was 9 years old!

Had to take the wife's car into the Nissan dealership for some AC service a few weeks ago and decided to cruise through the showroom.
I was shocked too.
It contained used cars and not all were Nissan.
I think they may have had one or two new Nissan sedans (don't remember the models) but it was very sad to see.

Like movie theaters, I think new car dealerships, AKA "Stealerships" are living on borrowed time.

Why have a middleman when you can order a new car right from the carmaker and have it delivered right to your house?

Don't get me started on the whole "service" game that they play. Take your vehicle in for some minor thing or an oil change and they try to have you believe your car is a complete piece of shit that will be unsafe to drive off the lot UNLESS you agree to have them do $1,500 of work RIGHT THEN.

Nope.

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Why have a middleman when you can order a new car right from the carmaker and have it delivered right to your house?

Likely because at this point none of the major manufacturers have any interest in selling cars directly to consumers.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

Likely because at this point none of the major manufacturers have any interest in selling cars directly to consumers.

But that is essentially what is happening now, is it not?

I was picking up hay yesterday and drove by a small town Chevy dealership
They only had 2 cars on their lot, 2 Bolts.

All the local Toyota shops are vacant (50+ mile radius, including another state) One told me in 2 weeks they were getting the 4runner we wanted. Color and options etc. I said I’m willing to pay msrp… oh we will be asking $5k market adjustment. Ok bro. Good luck in a year or so when the market recovers and people remember and your sitting here with 300 unsold cars.

I honestly wish all the makes would go to a build and buy online your car model. They could have some predetermined option packages and the dealers exist to take the car off the transit, do the DMV paperwork and charge a nominal fee for this ( or have it built into the cost and they must by being a dealer) and sell used vehicles. They would make their money on being the only place to get factory authorised service.

In a short time there will be 2 classes of people. Those who can afford a 50-100k new daily driver and those who buy used. It wasn’t that long ago a new, reliable basic car was under 15k. Fully loaded suburban and Jeep Grand Cherokee are pushing 100k. A nice wrangler tops out over 70k. Insane.

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But that is essentially what is happening now, is it not?

Not that I'm aware of. Which manufacturers are selling direct?

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In a short time there will be 2 classes of people. Those who can afford a 50-100k new daily driver and those who buy used. It wasn’t that long ago a new, reliable basic car was under 15k. Fully loaded suburban and Jeep Grand Cherokee are pushing 100k. A nice wrangler tops out over 70k. Insane.

I'm seeing more and more people running around in golf carts, side by sides, and similar now that many cities in my area are allowing them on the roads.

I was thinking about getting a sticker for my hovercraft and floating around on it.

For these and other reasons, I'm VERY glad it's unlikely that I will ever "need" another vehicle.

My 2013 Tundra has < 65K miles on it and a tiny bit of surface rust in one spot where I gouged the paint.

My 2020 RAV4 has < 12K miles on it and is pristine.

My 2016 Yamaha FJ09 has a hair over 20K miles on it and one way or another will be the last motorcycle I ever own.

I'm 71. By the time my truck or motorcycle are used up, I won't need another. By the time my car is used up, I probably won't have a driver's license.

Of course, that's assuming I can even afford fuel for any of them...

Tesla is the only big company I know selling direct. And there’s a waiting list. There’s a secondary market that people buy and sell spots in line. Nuts. Maybe some small boutique supercar makers are direct only but I don’t run in that price range. Lol.

Golf carts used to be a south Florida thing. I’m also seeing it around here. There’s some minimum amount of requirement to get legal tags for it but a lot of people are just violating the vehicle code and driving around town in their carts. Surface streets obviously not freeways or highways.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

But that is essentially what is happening now, is it not?

Not that I'm aware of. Which manufacturers are selling direct?

quote:

In a short time there will be 2 classes of people. Those who can afford a 50-100k new daily driver and those who buy used. It wasn’t that long ago a new, reliable basic car was under 15k. Fully loaded suburban and Jeep Grand Cherokee are pushing 100k. A nice wrangler tops out over 70k. Insane.

I'm seeing more and more people running around in golf carts, side by sides, and similar now that many cities in my area are allowing them on the roads.

I was thinking about getting a sticker for my hovercraft and floating around on it.

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Is your local Toyota dealership a ghost town too?

Pre covid my local Toyota dealer kept 450 - 500 new yotas in inventory and about 100 - 125 used toyotas in inventory. Last week they had about 5 new Toyotas with sale pending. They also had 400 plus used cars and trucks of various brands.

The motorcycle dealers around are far worse especially Yamaha and Honda. $1000 to $4000 mark up on what few they have. A Yamaha Tenere 700 MSRP of $10,299 was only $14,000

All the manufacturers are envious of the Tesla model. The car dealership is most certainly on borrowed time.

Currently we have about 60 vehicles in stock and 90 in transit, about half are my sold fleet orders, work trucks, cargo vans and cut aways. I am working on getting them delivered. The wailing and gnashing of teeth over them by people driving by and the sales turds is crazy. Sorry, they are not for sale.

As for direct sales, it's happening. GM's Brightdrop ev van is a direct sale only. Probably more to come. Some the start up EV makers are going that way too. Logistics is the problem. Rivian has mobile techs for repair and warranty issues, I forget which other that said they are going to use Pep Boys for servicing