If someone can't buy a new vehicle, they can't get rid of their used one.
Some of the big used dealers here in West Michigan have zilch on the lot.
If someone can't buy a new vehicle, they can't get rid of their used one.
Some of the big used dealers here in West Michigan have zilch on the lot.
I get that there is a general lack of availability. What surprised me more is that in the last 2-3 weeks a lot of car ads seem to have vanished. Maybe they were all scams?
John Welsh said:John Welsh said:A few servings from the fringe of the SUV offerings...
Both of these are very capable off-orders. Maybe after a year or more of street driving, you could retire either down to an off-road build. Maybe that could be your next, fresher motorsport.
Looks like the XL7 is already gone. Wow. I'm not that interested in off roading, at least not here in the mid-Atlantic. Might be different if we were still living out West.
I would like to spend more time touring on my motorcycles, and that tends to happen during the same season that general motorsport is on. Plus I was toying with the idea of getting a sport pilot or private pilot certificate and that's when all the disposable income and then some tends to disappear.
These are as capable as the JL but without the risk of damage to higher value JL.
LJ actually, not JL. Two-year only long wheelbase Wrangler that's somewhat collectible.
What about just driving the F250 you already have as the winter vehicle? The $10k that you're budgeting for a winter vehicle (plus tax, registration, insurance, etc) buys a lot of gas and maintenance on an old truck.
In reply to STM317 :
It's a 28 year old clattery single cab Powerstroke that my wife refuses to drive. It's also a little too much "honey, the handyman is here" vibe-wise for to take it to a client meeting. I don't have that many of those anymore, but I could do with something a bit more presentable when I have.
We'll also gloss over the fact that it seems to either need an oil change or 4k's worth of repairs every time it goes into the shop, and nothing in between.
Looking around my yard and driveway, there are still plenty of used cars. ...but My FB Market feed doesn't show nearly as many as it did a couple weeks ago. It happened abruptly enough that I expect that mostly it's a change in their algorithm rather than the local market. Instead of lots of car for sale, it shows a lot of other random stuff that I don't care about. As with most of Social Media I expect that it is working to influence me more than serve me.
Facebook Marketplace search is terrible. There is a Honda VFR for sale in the town 5 miles from me. The ONLY way I can find it is to search "1988 Honda vfr", the exact title text. I can't search Honda motorcycles. Searching "vfr" finds examples all over the state but not the bike right in the middle of the town my search is centered on.
BoxheadTim said:In reply to docwyte :
4 sports cars (2x 911, Elise, Rollerskate), wife's LJ Wrangler, my F250 beater truck. Plus the Range Rover P38 project that I'm slowly working my way through trying to unberkeley the work the egg spurts did on it that we paid for their expertise. At this point I'm not sure I can get the P38 back to a usable state, but I'm trying.
Given the fleet that you have, and the likelihood that the RRover is not coming back to the road, it seems what you are missing is something similar to the RRover.
I think a replacement vehicle could be an Infiniti FX35, FX45, FX37, QX70. The confusion of the Infiniti names might lead to some deals. Also, a less than mainstream, somewhat unique vehicle. This will be near the higher end of your budget.
Less lifted and less large is also the Infiniti EX35, QX50. This is generally a G35/G37 wagon.
Of course, the G35/G37 sedans also came with awd if that's your thing. Though the G35/G37 are mostly mainstream, I might gravitate more toward a M37 or the Q45's
FB is rather bizarre lately for buyers too. Put an 05 prius missing the exhaust up 2 weeks ago. Price started at 2500 but after 2 days I dropped to 1800 and rejected all offers to save my time and avoid shifty people coming by. In 6 days I had over 3000 views, 50 messages and 30 saves. Most bizarre unsavory group I ever saw in my days of selling cheap cars. My previous metric was 300-400 views = sold, this one was so frustrating I will use craigslist next time.
These comments make me glad I avoid FB.
In reply to kb58 :
There is that. The problem is that they grabbed most of the marketshare from CL, so for the cheap stuff they're almost the only game in town.
I had a cheap 1987 D21 Nissan pickup , it's a piece of junk driver on Craigslist for $1500 , no action , 10 emails in a week ,
I just parked it on the main road near my house and within a day sold it ,
it gets a new life being a Gardener truck and not sent to scrap or Pic a part.
I hate sending drivers to the scrapyard !
PS , no yearly safety checks here , this truck would not have passed :)
Hmm, ok. So what do you plan on using the Elise and the ac 911 for? How much have you driven both of them? Will you ever put enough mileage on both of them, using them as intended, to justify to yourself to keep them? You've got a dedicated race/track car, a truck and a trailer. The 997 does sports car stuff, at least street driving sports car stuff, better than the ac 911 and the Elise. It's just a better street car, it carries stuff and people, hvac works, it road trips, it auto-x's, it'll track too, etc.
Now granted, I have an issue with stuff sitting around not getting used, it drives me nuts. Hence me selling the corrado I lusted after for so long. So if it were me, I'd sell the Elise, the ac 911, dump the P38 for whatever I could get for it and then use that money to buy a nice SUV. In the $10-15k range a 100 series Land Cruiser is a great bet, or a Toyota Sequoia.
Then I'd decide if I was really wanting to get the race car back on track, like ever. If not, sell it, the trailer and maybe the F250. Although having a beater truck around when you need to do truck things is very useful....
BoxheadTim said:I get that there is a general lack of availability. What surprised me more is that in the last 2-3 weeks a lot of car ads seem to have vanished. Maybe they were all scams?
I've noticed the same thing. Both on cl and fb.
FB removed dealer ads unless they're paid, sponsored ads. They're removing people posting personally for dealers too. A lot of the small lots were posting because it was free. They're gone.
What about a Volvo XC90 or similar? I was noticing through the Covid used car mess that they typically were selling for under market value compared to comparable cars. Around here at least, no one seems to want an old Volvo. Not sure if the same thinking will apply in your region (supply of used Volvos here in New England is good), but it's worth a shot.
I've also resorted to looking at CL more than FB Marketplace. Seems like most of the scammers have migrated over to FB Marketplace, so CL actually has the "quality" listings now. Can't believe I'm saying that!
Here in eastern PA, some dealers seem to be spreading the cars out farther and farther from one another on the lot from week to week.
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