I have said before that it was not time to buy a new car yet. Boortz made a good point this morning: in about a year, there is a high probability that people who traded in their clunkers for your cash, who will be darn sick of going from liability insurance premiums on a paid-for car, to comprehensive & collision premiums and a car note. Look for a pile of year-old cars to show up at fire sale prices, from the same people who are having trouble making mortgage notes on the homes they (also) couldn't afford. Look for it at the same time as dealers are trying to get rid of the 2010 (and 2009) models nobody wanted, to make room for the 2011 models.
That, plus the fact that the economy is still going down. Prices of everything will be falling, including prices of new cars.
Oh, and by the way . . . cash for clunkers is ending in a couple of days. Allow me to make a humble prediction: demand for new cars is about to fall off a cliff, to a level *LOWER* than before the C4C program started!
Actually, American cars are cheaper than they've ever been. We bought a new one last month that was $4000 less than it was four years ago. Of course, I was saving my money during the Bush boom waiting for another correction to come along and paid cash for it.
ReplyDeleteThat $4000 probably brings it down to something like cost parity with the Asian manufacturers who aren't hamstrung by ridiculous union contracts, and it was a very nasty row to hoe for the US manufacturers to get there.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations buying a new car with cash. If more people would have saved instead of charging everything, the last bubble would never have been blown, and we would not be in a depression right now.