duodallas

News stories around here about a flood of trade-ins as people take advantage of 0% financing from Detroit. One Chevy dealer here sold a year's worth of Corvettes in 3 weeks. The bottom is dropping out of the market for used Detroit iron, especially 2 and 3 year old stuff.

Of course, the market for used Detroit iron tanked 25 years ago on the West coast. Any indication that Japan or Europe will follow the lead?

Seattle Scott

around. It really costs a lot to do (lost profits) it but does increase sales for awhile. Ford and Chrysler felt they had to follow suit.

Article didn't mention European makes. Prediction was sales will be "dead" for these guys come Jan. Feb. as people rush to get zero percent now.

April

Newer cars are expensive to repair and maintain. Buying a recent model used car is more of a gamble - the cars are designed to be more reliable over a certain operating lifespan, but are more expensive to fix should something go wrong. The warranty is paramount.

Interest rates or lease terms favour new cars.

More than ever, people view cars as a pure commodity. Detroit stuff is the ultimate short term car. Even the Koreans are building better cars ! The reputation the Japanese makes have for reliability is slipping. However, there are still a lot of folks unwilling or unable to buy a new car, that just want a cheap reliable 3 year old car, and the Japanese do that very well.

The shelf life break-down is like this:
Detroit cars - 3 yrs/45K - turns to junk after this.
Japanese brands - 5yrs/65K - favourable loan term cut-off.
European ( not counting Saab or Volvo ) - 4yrs/70K - shorter term but higher miles due to prestige factor.