Well maybe not ever, but pretty close.
Time to buy a car. I have been looking at TrueCar, but it is all gunked up now. The dealers mass spam you with phone calls, texts, and voicemails, and they always add more b.s. fees on after the quoted price ($1500 for window tint & other such nonsense).
Going to look into Costco car buying service. Any other ideas?
I would look at Carvana and Vroom.
Find what you like and go test drive at a dealership.
Both very reputable at this point.
Only risk is if you change your mind in 7 days too eat the delivery fee.
I would try Costco. I just wouldn’t buy into whatever bullshit the dealers are telling you. You don’t HAVE to buy because of inflation or whatever, ultimately cash is and will always remain king.
Remember Weenut’s system. With an apparent shortage of new vehicles on the dealer lots, this is a terrible time to buy. I’m in the same position. I have 3 vehicles, when you average out the mileage among the three, it’s almost 250k. We’ve decided to wait until next year. If we go on a trip of much length, we will just rent a car.
Clark no longer recommends TrueCar because its just a lead generation engine and you end up getting harassed from dealers…just as you describe.
There is a short of rentals as well
Terrible timing for sure. If you have an extra, even a high mileage, now is a good time to sell. There are articles that claim it is going to take up to a year to work out the chip issues where new lots return to normal. The problem is a year from now, the raw materials might be sky high (especially if there is a “infrastructure” bill from congress).
Rental cars are also in short supply. A family member just paid $150 per day over the July 4th weekend for a regular sedan (I think it was a Camry). Back early in covid, travel froze and rental cars down sized. Now with the shortage of new, they can’t simply get new vehicles. This is probably still a better option than over paying for new car.
Yesterday, I drove by a ford dealership. They had 22 new trucks on the lot and no new cars. They had a handful on used cars and trucks but that used lot was about 1/3 normal inventory.
Before I buy airfare for a trip I look at rentals first. I’m going to Bozeman but a compact is over $400 per day. I stead im flying to Salt Lake doing a road trip.
I think I said before, a friend was planning a trip into Kalispell this month, when he saw the rental price for a small car was between $1300 and $1400 for a week, he said the heck with it. I checked the same for October and they were close to normal.
That’s also why it’s important to have refundable rentals