Sales drop could be sign of peril for American muscle cars
yahoo.com
yahoo.com
No, I think it still does, it's just that the younger crowd doesn't have the money to buy a V8 muscle car. The price of these cars keeps going up, and when you combine it with packages, the price goes even higher.
I can afford it, in fact, I can put a 50% downpayment on a new corvette. I can afford the monthly payment. But why would I? Cars pretty much always depreciate. I certainly wouldn't be able to keep it up as a collectors quality example, even if it ever became one. And in 99% of my use cases, a used Corolla or Accord will provide a similar experience.
Meanwhile, in 1966, Ford Mustangs apparently cost around $20k adjusted for inflation[0]. That's mind boggling. If a sports car were that cheap, I'd own it. Even the Toyota 86 and Mazda Miata are around $30k new now.
[0]:https://www.cjponyparts.com/resources/mustang-prices-through...
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/New+Cars/cars+under...
All the money has shifted to classics where you can own a car for a decade and have it be worth the same or more. Maintenance will be somewhat expensive, but after you factor in depreciation it's a far cheaper way to own an interesting car. Some of the blue chip classics like air cooled 911s are basically liquid assets since you can turn them into cash with as little as a few hours notice.
I also think the every-model-year-update to appearance (for appearance sake)[1] enhances the acceleration of depreciation for any desirable car.
[1] (trucks are probably the worst at this - as it's obvious no other part of the body changes)
I can imagine a babied performance car is just as much as a slam dunk. Then that extra $20k can go towards something else.
Is it just me, or does a foreign car not seem to impress a date the way a Corvette does?
I had a '99 Mustang GT convertible. Loved it, worked on it, drove it for 14 years. A brand new Mustang GT coupe starts at $35,355 but a more realistic configuration would put you around $43,000. That's a car that gets 15-25 mpg.
Instead we picked up a Model 3, which after tax rebates in CA comes out to $41,000. It's not the most fun car on the planet (though it does match the Mustang GT's 0-60 times). But for driving around when I need to run errands and stuff it's just fine. But I don't use the Tesla for my commute. I'm in the Bay Area, and my commute is about 40 miles. That'd be 1:45 hours in, and 2:30 to get home, so a little over 4 hours of commute per day.
For commuting I have a motorcycle. I dropped $9000 on an almost-new bike that gets ~50 mpg. It's more fun than the Mustang was, peppy, perky, and with reasonable lane splitting (i.e. no more than 15 mph over surrounding traffic) my commute drops to well under an hour to get in, and under an hour and a half to get home.
I do about 20,000 miles in commuting per year, so for the Mustang that'd be $4000 in fuel per year, with the Tesla it'd be ~$200, and on the bike it's about $1500 plus around 400 hours of my life back (which is a trade I'm happy to make). My total was ~$50,000 vs. ~$43,000 for a new Mustang.
So I have no idea where a "muscle car" would fit in my life.
Teslas actually can be negotiated, at least the Model S can. My wife drives this and we were able to get a 75D with enhanced auto-pilot and the rear-facing seats for about $75,000 (list is $86,000). It was right around when they were phasing out the 60, and part of the negotiation was knocking $4000 off the price to software limit the 75 kwh down to 60 kwh.
This is crazy! (In a good way).
So I assume in a few years you can throw $4k at it to get better battery life and performance?
Put money down on a tesla instead, was exactly the same cost on the website, very happy.
That's... very hard to believe. What were the curcumstances around this? Obviously Joe Schmo dealer isn't going to tack on 40k and expect to make any sales.
I believe it for models with low production numbers like a Shelby. Quote $40K above list, maybe some sucker will buy it. With the assumption that this is very unlikely, you'll still have a halo model sitting on the floor until you decide to drop it to MSRP and get rid of it. Dealer either gets more than it's worth, or they get a nice-looking marketing write-off for a while.
I'm thinking of the Ferrari 458 sitting on the floor of the local Chevy dealer in central Florida where Mom takes her Corvette. It's been there the last couple of years I've visited. How many $250K Ferraris are sold in central Florida? Doesn't matter, the dealer's got the money to let it sit on that showroom floor, and it sure looks cool.
I've been buying new cars on and off for going on 35 years. As a control, the buying process sucks neither more nor less than it did decades ago (but it does still suck). So there is another factor at work.