SUV values starting fall off cliff

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/dealers-see-suv-glut-as-drivers-trade-in/n20080426102509990006 Look out below...worth practicaly nothing soon. Cars with 6 cyl motors will follow.

And little cars
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/demand-for-small-cars-crossovers-soar/n20080425134809990004 soon the dealers will charge the :toilet: out of us.

" Hey buddy, if you don`t want to buy this Pirus at $33,000...no skin off my teeth...the next guy will...and I`m being very fair with you...I`m offering you $3000 trade on that 2007 SUV of yours...I won`t be able to sell it...just scrap...nobody else will make you that deal. "

Yep, I can hear it already :mecry:

I've thought for the last couple years that I could make some money by buying up trucks and suv's during the summer when gas prices are jumping up a dime every other day and people are selling their trucks that suck gas like flushing a toilet at fire sale prices. Then sell the trucks/suvs in the winter when everyone who has to drive on wet pavement wants a 4x4 and gas prices have "fallen" again.

:buddies:

I think you're just seeing a fantasy bubble bursting. The folks who wanted 4x4 f250's to get groceries and take their kids to daycare are bailing. Those of us who need trucks just pay the price.

Actually, I recently bought a Dakota for day to day but have my 3/4ton Ram for big work. When you need a truck, you need a truck.

When I was in Florida a couple years ago, I had a chance to rent a big Ford F150 with the extended cab. My whole life, I've wanted a big truck. The car rental place gave it to me for the same price as a small compact car! So I took it and had a blast with it...went to Disney World, tailgated at a Marlin's baseball game (did you know they have cheerleaders for the Marlins??? nuts...)

But after 3 weeks of paying $70+ each week to fill up the gas...I finally caved and switched back to renting a Nissan Sentra. haha. But oh the memories...

I have an F150 and a Prius.

I predicted 6 years ago that if the technology worked right (and it does) that the resale price of non-hybrids will plummet. I think I might have been right. I figured by 2010 that most models will have a hybrid model available.

There will always be a need for trucks. I drove mine today for the second time this year. Or was it the third? The point is that when you need one you need it. I'm about to sell mine (1992 with 64K miles) simply because the insurance is too high to justify the occasional use.

Folks like Bigiron aren't really being shafted since there are a LOT of low milage used trucks and SUVs available for a song. Why buy new when you can get a good 2 year old truck with 30,000 on it for 80% off? I see nothing wrong with low resale if you can buy a replacement for a similarly low price.


Daniel

You know, if the north america manufactures would put diesel engines in more trucks instead of putting in 6 litre gas engine, it wouldn't be so bad right now.

I would love a diesel in mine (almost the same power but 2x the mileage), but unfortunately I don't have that choice.

jxmtl, if you'll really, seriously do the numbers, you'll find that the payout on the diesel premium won't show up for many 100K's of miles. Unless you have a specific need for a diesel like dedicated heavy towing or your're going to keep it for a million miles, you're better off with gas.

My 05 Ram 3/4t 4x4 5.7l hemi gets 12-14 mpg with my 2000 pound slide in camper and towing a 2000 pound boat.

Playboy Joe Schmoe has posted that his (same) truck, diesel, gets around 21 hauling a heavy trailer (great mileage for the job it's doing)

My truck probably cost $5 or 6,000 less than his. Gas is right now $3.39. Diesel is $3.99. I won't even go into the weight penalty (the diesel is 500lbs heavier), difference in maintenence costs, smell, noise, availability, etc.

When I bought my truck, I had to look long and hard for a hemi. Lot's of diesels around. I have diesel credentials, having owned cars, boats, trucks and tractors (and still have a diesel truck and tractor).

That said, if you want a diesel, that's reason enough to get one.

I don't know anything about diesel on big trucks, but rather on passenger vehicles. The one I had in mind is the 4 cyl diesel avaliable in jeep liberty. Compare to my 4.0L it easily get twice the mileage with minimal weight penalty, and almost the same torque. Don't know about premium, since it wasn't avaliable in wranglers.

Not sure about the newer diesel engine, but older ones you can convert them to burn straight vegetable oil, my buddy is doing it to his vw golf, and a couple of restaurants will let him take their waste oil.

They're loud, they smell bad, you have to idle them or constantly worry about the fuel lines freezing in the winter. Maintenance is more. I've never wanted one and I imagine I'll never own a diesel.

ampdude said:

They're loud, they smell bad, you have to idle them or constantly worry about the fuel lines freezing in the winter. Maintenance is more. I've never wanted one and I imagine I'll never own a diesel.

Click to expand...

You talking about diesel? No they don't do any of the things you said. Public perceptions like this are part of the reason diesel engines aren't widely avaliable in north america.

jzmtl said:

You talking about diesel? No they don't do any of the things you said. Public perceptions like this are part of the reason diesel engines aren't widely avaliable in north america.

Click to expand...

I think you mean the most modern ones don't.

I pulled up behind a Jetta diesel today. I could tell by the noise before I looked for the insignia. It was an older model, maybe late 1980s???

I keep hearing that the new ones are quieter, more efficient and (with a urea injector) rather clean. That sounds like good news.


Daniel

Yes, modern ones. My buddy's turbodiesel golf is pretty old, 96ish I think. But whenever I rides in it I don't feel it's any noisier than gas engine cars.

As for the noise you hear on that jetta, a car that age is probably full of holes everywhere, that must accounts for some of the noise, lol.

I'd imagine mobile homes are going pretty cheap these days too. Might have to buy one to live in one of these days if things keep going to hell. Be sure and buy the short ones you can park on the street.

It's funny how this thread and the "What do you drive" thread have converted to "this is how many mpg I get". haha

I my Scion tC gets 23mpg average mixed driving of 80% city and 20% fwy. I was going to sell my 03 Yamaha R6, but should gas get deep into the $4 range, I'll have to start riding more. 35/55 mpg is nice.

I like my diesel noise. My Dodge/Cummins has twin 5" stacks that stop just above the cab and no mufflers at all.

Yep, this is what a Cummins sounds like.

:buddies:

gadget_lover said:

I think you mean the most modern ones don't.

I pulled up behind a Jetta diesel today. I could tell by the noise before I looked for the insignia. It was an older model, maybe late 1980s???

I keep hearing that the new ones are quieter, more efficient and (with a urea injector) rather clean. That sounds like good news.


Daniel

Click to expand...

the new diesels are surprisingly quiet and clean, but the makers and proponents of Hybrid cars won't like you to know that though....:nana:

I had a conversation with an accomplished Physics/Applid Material research guy for a while, we kept having the debate on whether diesels or hybrids are the answer, and turns out he didn;t know that there are clean-burning small diesel vehicles for a while now, all his life he has been told diesels are those big, bad, foul smelling emission factories, especially by the salesmen at the Toyota dealership who pitched him the Prius(he settled on a Subaru).

We arrived at a consensus that a Diesel Hybrid with better battery technology than what we are using now would be the key(I see what you were saying about idling in traffic would kill milage on any internal combustion powered car no matter how efficient). But until we stop relying on Nickel, and to an extent current Lithium-based battery for the hybrid cars, I don't see myself wanting a hybrid.

As far as SUVs losing value goes, just sell them to China. If the big three don't their domestic makers are making as many gas-guzzling trucks as possible and have a hard time keeping things in stock, kinda like the Russian market the articles talked about.

BIGIRON said:

I think you're just seeing a fantasy bubble bursting. The folks who wanted 4x4 f250's to get groceries and take their kids to daycare are bailing. Those of us who need trucks just pay the price.

Actually, I recently bought a Dakota for day to day but have my 3/4ton Ram for big work. When you need a truck, you need a truck.

Click to expand...

Bout it. The only think I'm ticked off with my truck - At the time I bought my truck (a stretch bed Frontier) the Titan, equipped the same way, was within $200 in price, but the Titan only got 11mpg city - and the Frontier supposidly got 19mpg.

I get the Frontier - and I get about 10.5 mpg city. The Joke? I've borrowed a Titan - it gets 11 mpg - even though the engine is MUCH larger. It seems that the "Modern" v8 fuel injected design is just so much better than the V6 design that WAS in the Frontier (They replaced it with a new design V6 the next year, which does get in the 20mpg range)

In other words, I could have gotten better hauling capacity (which is what counts in a truck) for the same money and Gas mileage

jzmtl said:

You talking about diesel? No they don't do any of the things you said. Public perceptions like this are part of the reason diesel engines aren't widely avaliable in north america.

Click to expand...

Apparently you haven't seen my neighbor's Dodge Dually. It think it's about a 2002 or newer.

Believe me, in a farming state and having been around them all my life I'm well familiar with what diesels are and aren't.

I feel for the poor guy(girl) working for gm on the assembly line making another huge suv that no one is going to buy. I am sure he wonders about his job security. How a president of a company gets a multi-million dollar bonus each year when his company is loosing hundreds of millians is beyond me.

I am lucky. I live in a small (100k) town. I only drive about 10-15 miles a day. My car is paid for and gets about 22mpg city. How a poor single mom drives a gas guzzler to work 25 miles each way in a city and still makes ends meet with rising food (and everything else) prices is beyond me. I think we are going to be in for some pretty tough times as a country for a while.