My dream car around 1980 was a VW Rabbit GTI. They called it a “pocket rocket”. 0 - 60 in 9.8 seconds. I believe the fastest Corvette of that era was just under 9 seconds. Things have changed.
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Interesting article in the Chicago Tribune:
(link doesn’t work)
Ongoing chip shortage shakes up car buying with fewer choices, higher prices and big profits for some Chicago-area dealers Nov 22, 2021
Rivian is an interesting all EV manufacturer. Just finished watching the Edmunds 25 minute video review of the Rivian R1T pickup truck. Does 0 to 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds or less. Very interesting features not found elsewhere such as the compressor & the storage area which offers an optional grill & sink for campers for an extra $5,000. Very attractive. 4 separate motors = one motor per wheel. Lots of ground clearance (up to 15 inches).
Base price = $67,500. Eligible for $7,500 federal tax rebate.
Rivian has a close alignment with Amazon. Recently dissolved joint development efforts with Ford.
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A report on CNBC this morning stated that Southern California is the largest pick-up truck market in the US. Also tops for Tesla–especially Model Y which gets a low overall rating from Consumer Reports.
Southern California has a very large population, relatively little of which lives in areas where public transportation and limited parking result in lower car ownership.
Husband needed to get new car and was wanting a Toyota 4Runner. We live in a smaller town and local dealership at first seemed eager to help order one. They aid it would take several months but after no updates from dealer my husband follows up with salesperson. Apparently they never ordered it even though we put a deposit. We were visiting relatives in Dallas (Toyota headquarters) and a dealer there wanted a deposit, a huge mkt markup charge and couldn’t promise what they could give us. Another dealership was able to help us find what we wanted. Just happened to stop by on our way home from visiting friends in another nearby city. Salesperson had to do some trading and was able to deliver exactly what my husband wanted. We started looking in March of this year and finally got a 4Runner in August.
I think finding the new car you want now is a matter of luck at this point.
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With Toyota, you can’t really order it. What you’re really doing is hopefully reserving one that the dealer is allocated. The dealer can adjust some of the port installed options at some point in the process to customize it to your wishes. When the dealer is allocated one, they can provide you the specific VIN and details after it is built. It may still be a month before it hits their lot. We put a deposit on one last year about the time it started shipping from Japan and got the exact VIN of the one we would receive.
As of today, November 23, 2021: Subaru continues to have the lowest inventory of any automaker at just 5 days supply.
- Ford F-150
- Honda CR-V
- Chevrolet Silverado 150
- Toyota RAV$
- Subaru Forester
- Subaru Outback (even more difficult if seeking the 260 HP turbocharged engine)
- Toyota Tacoma
- Ford F-250/F-350/F-450
- Honda Accord
- Kia Telluride
With Downtown Toyota of Oakland marking one up $40k, your typo is actually accurate.
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That is really funny. Thank you !
Thank goodness that I’m not in the market for a new car. Unless the car was some uber rare limited edition, I’m not accustomed to paying MSRP, let alone above MSRP.
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I have read some articles which indicate that vehicle manufacturers may engage in more direct to consumer marketing & sales in the form of pre-paid, special order sales model. Lower overhead & better profit margin.
But, some articles claim that in several states direct marketing of cars, SUVs & small trucks is not legal without an in-state dealer. Should make an interesting court case in light of interstate commerce & the commerce clause. Consumers just do not like the car dealership experience.
P.S. I did not mind paying MSRP because I think that inflation will lead to higher car prices soon & for a few years thereafter. I did not like paying $2,500 above MSRP. However, if I refused to pay the surcharge, we wouldn’t have this model new car with the turbocharged engine.
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Truecar.com is an interesting website for those who are seeking a specific make & model new vehicle. Listed 42 options for the make & model we bought, but many were already sold & many were marked up above MSRP, & all that were available involved shipping costs which exceeded $1,000 on top of the $1,100 or so delivery cost already factored into the price (secondary shipping costs from dealership to consumer typically costs 0.75 = 75 cents per mile, but can be as low as 50 cents per mile for long distance shipping). Plus, the market for new & used vehicles seems to change daily so not sure that this website is helpful in such a lopsided seller’s market.
Interesting that truecar was aware of cars that were yet to be shipped from the factory to the dealer while the dealership salespeople were not aware of the incoming vehicle.
When we got our vehicle last year, I found it from a reddit group where someone had created a spreadsheet from scraping a Toyota site and getting VINs when they were created. I found one I was interested in, contacted a salesman I had previously made contact with, and he checked to see if it was really allocated to them. Sure enough it was and we put a deposit down right then. Most were pre-sold or had a long waiting list, so it helped a lot to have a bit of “inside” info.
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You mean like how Tesla sells cars, but cannot do so in Texas (delivery has to be done out of state due to state law requiring franchised dealers)?
Yes, that is correct. Other manufacturers with traditional dealership distribution systems are now looking at the model used by Tesla.
Also, if I recall correctly, truecar.com had to change their business model in order to comply with the law in a few states.
Although over a month old, interesting article showing which are the most & least available cars by manufacturer & model:
Current updated version:
Subaru cars and trucks = the lowest inventory among all manufacturers.
Ford has the most inventory.
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Toyota:
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Sample of one place. Most of the car dealers are located on one road. When driving past…almost no cars at Subaru, very few cars at Toyota, but LOTS of new and used cars at the Hyundai dealership. Their lot is full!
Friends work for the local Chevy dealership…but say that especially trucks are hard to come by and sell immediately.
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Same here. We drove by a very large Mazda dealership last night. I counted maybe a dozen of vehicles in their front lot! They used to sardine-pack new cars in that lot!
Local Honda dealerships run a TV ad encouraging folks to sell their cars to them, trade in or not, instead of selling to a shady dude with a fake cashiers check. 
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