Incertus

With new car sales plunging like my hopes of ever getting caught up this semester, dealers are trying any number of tricks to get people in the door. This is a new one on me, but I have some doubts as to how effective it will be.

University Dodge in Davie is making an offer a truck buyer can't refuse: Pay full sticker price on a four-door pick up in the $30,000 to $40,000 range and get a two-door truck thrown into the deal.

All right, I'll bite. If I were a truck buyer, I might consider this at first glance, but let's take a look at the parameters of the deal. I'm going to work under the assumption that the two-door truck is new, by the way, because no one is going to go for the deal if we're talking about getting a beater on the side.

The logic of the deal depends on whether the buyers actually have a use for the second truck. If they do, then maybe this is okay. But if not, then the new buyer has to count on some pretty unlikely events to break even on the deal. First, they have to be able to sell the second truck for the difference between the sticker price of the new truck and whatever deal they might have struck. That may sound easy, but consider: you'll be selling what is now considered a used truck on an already flooded market and as a private owner, you probably won't have the financing options available that a dealer will. How much are you really going to be able to get for that truck in this market?

Second, they have to be able to carry the expense of a second vehicle until they can sell it. That means it has to be insured, it has to have tags, and it has to sit somewhere until it finds a new owner. This can be alleviated if the buyer has a deal worked out with a friend or partner, but that's a complicated dance at best.

Third, this is south Florida. There's a limited market for trucks at the best of times, and these aren't the best of times. Meanwhile, you've paid too much for your primary vehicle, and if something happens (and these are Dodges, which means the certainty of something happening approaches 1 pretty quickly), you're not just upside-down on the loan for your truck, you're pinned under a boulder and can't even reach your pocket knife to cut your own arm off. Good luck getting out from under that loan in 4 or 5 years when you're trying to upgrade.

And that's all assuming that you're getting a quality truck as the free half of the deal. This will no doubt be a good deal for some people, but I don't see how it works for the average car shopper.

Here's the Random Ten. Put your iTunes on Party Shuffle and post the next ten songs to pop up; no skipping songs to make yourself look cooler. "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" sucks no matter what kind of story you try to use to justify it. Here we go.

1. Orange Crush--R.E.M.
2. I Got a Woman--Snooks Eaglin
3. Mardi Gras in New Orleans--Professor Longhair
4. Zimzallabim--Mos Def
5. Nowalaters--The Coup
6. The Monkey--Dr. John
7. Who Do You Love--Jack Johnson and Ben Harper
8. Jane--Barenaked Ladies
9. Space Age Love Song--A Flock of Seagulls
10. Cato as a Pun--Of Montreal

So what are you listening to?

Posted by Brian at 8:03 AM |    
Labels: bad car deals, Random Ten