I've been considering, and prepping, to buy a Charger Hellcat. First step, prep the 04 GTO for sale.

Step two - Crap, wait for hysteria to subside and hope the markets don't take a long lasting hit.

Seems the used Hellcat sellers are also waiting for #2 to run its course. The used Hellcat inventory seems to have dropped 2/3 nationwide.

On the other side, my brother works at a new car holding pen/ distro place for Dodge, Chevy, and Ford. He said pretty much all dealers on the west coast are currently refusing delivery - no room on their lots.

Because of this, his yards are refusing delivery from manufacturers. Economically this has the potential for a huge cascading effect. The biggest ever, it'll be huge the likes no one have ever seen before. Huge. Next question, no not you [fake news right there, you know you are]. Yes you Judy. Thank you.

Car makers are already feeling the hit. Hence the basically industry-wide trend of "Zero percent interest for eleventy years and skip payments for the first sleben months" promotion that they all seem to currently be offering.

Translated, it means "Pretty please buy ours cars... Please. We're begging you."

I thought everyone had 0% interest but the Toyota salesman said the are at 0.9% on Tundras this month but no 0% now.

quote:

Originally posted by cheni:
I thought everyone had 0% interest but the Toyota salesman said the are at 0.9% on Tundras this month but no 0% now.

I'm seeing this as well when talking with a couple of Toyota dealerships. I'm in the market for a new Tundra and am finding conflicting info, best I can tell is it comes down to dealerships and what they're offering.

Whether it's 0% or 10%, shutting down production (or cutting back by 2/3 to 3/4) will have an undesired effect on the economy through the supply chain.

The floor plan payments I imagine are still going on despite the stores being closed for the duration. That is probably the bigger reason that those dealers are refusing to take those cars.

People have nothing better to do, so a lot of the owners are keeping them, driving them, and burning off steam and tires!

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
The floor plan payments I imagine are still going on despite the stores being closed for the duration. That is probably the bigger reason that those dealers are refusing to take those cars.

When you say floor plan payments, does that mean the spaces on the lot which a dealer needs to the manufacture (ie, dealer $100 per X.X% of spaces) in addition the the "in stock" (those VINs at the dealer and special order vehicles which have left the holding pen) vehicles?

[edited for clarity]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LS1 GTO,

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
The floor plan payments I imagine are still going on despite the stores being closed for the duration. That is probably the bigger reason that those dealers are refusing to take those cars.

When you say floor plan payments, done that mean the spaces a dealer needs to the manufacture in addition the the "in stock" (those VINs at the dealer and on the way) vehicles?

No, dealers generally have a 30 day grace period before they have to pay the manufacturer for the car. After 30 days it needs to be paid for by the dealership, either in cash/check/wire or financed by the manufacturer or some third party financing (called a floor plan), generally they pay the manufacturer a monthly interest payment on each car on the lot, that's been there more than 30 days. When I was a salesman, it was 1% per month (in 2003 when interest rated were higher) per car.

As for cutting down production, they have to. Demand on new cars is 10-20% of what it normally is. And, manufacturers are having supply issues on parts/components made in China, in order to build the vehicles.

Anyone who has a car listed for sale right now is going to get ridiculous low ball offers. Its probably easier to just take the listing down.

The wife works for a company that makes widgets for Ford, Honda, and Audi. They have furloughed their entire workforce of 1000 + for the duration. Trying times for the auto industry indeed.

Jimmy123X explained it pretty well how it works, percentages may vary slightly with the manufacturer or distributor.

Most of my years in car dealerships floor plan did not matter to me as I was in parts,that is considered Fixed Operations. In dealership language that encompasses all the departments except new and used sales and leasing.

I learned a lot about floor plan at one dealership. Upside of it was the manufacturers were more that willing to stock you up with new inventory. Down side is if your store got into a cash flow problem, well it's pretty sobering when you think of one car getting repo'ed. Try going to work one morning and seeing several car haulers there lined up there to repo all of your new and used car inventory.

I saw it once up close. One time was enough.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
People have nothing better to do, so a lot of the owners are keeping them, driving them, and burning off steam and tires!

That and with gas prices being so low. I paid $1.80 today for regular at BP.

I wonder how bicycle shops are doing. I've been seeing a lot of people out riding bikes on the trails, more than I've ever seen before having lived here for 3+ years.

Also seeing a lot of people actually walk their dogs now. Dogs must be happy but I feel for them after their humans go back to work and stop walking them. I walk 2 of our 3 dogs at least once a day, they enjoy walking. 1 of the 3 doesn't care for it.