Technobabble

Buying a New Car?

Posted by on Aug 3, 2008 | 4 Comments

New car sales have fallen off a cliff. It’s not just that buyers are staying away from the showrooms in droves, its that the new cars they most desire are in remarkably short supply. There’s little-to-no room to haggle on the hottest-selling fuel-efficient cars, while the gas guzzling belles of last year’s ball sit collecting dust.

This chart of new car sales clearly shows how far things have fallen behind the previous five years. It’s downright scary.

If you’re in the process of buying a new car, what’s it like out there? If you’ve decided to wait it out for a while, what will get you back into the showroom?

  • mike

    Just supply and demand…the big vehicles had their run now they are toast…it was only a matter of time anyway–economy aside.

    We can just continue to go full tilt on everything using up resources and expect it to last forever. Pay now or pay later and that goes for everything in life.

    Frankly, I think if you have a car now that runs, gets decent mileage and you have little to no loan on it you should keep it and perhaps put in a couple thousand for repairs and upkeep and keep it running longer. Beats taking on a new car loan for 20K or more.

    I think too many people “toss out” things before truly using them fully and cars are one of those consumables. Maybe now, with the economy the way it is, people will keep cars longer than a year or two before getting tired of them and trading in for more expensive models thus taking on more debt they can’t afford anyway-as it should be.

    Same could be said of televisions, audio systems, and any other gadget out there…the general public needs to wise up and stop buying into the hype that they always need the latest and greatest to ‘keep up with joneses”. That’s a loser’s game and more people would be better off keeping and repairing things until they are truly at EOL rather than trashing perfectly good products.

    I know I went a little off-course in my comment but this auto issue is part of a bigger problem in this country…this throw-away society of ours. Keep your 8 year old car longer…who is going to care anyway. If it gets you where you want to go why rush in on waiting lists and pay premiums for vehicles that will eventually become plentiful just like the SUVs did way back in the nineties.

    Peace all…

  • Janel

    I just keep thinking that the gas guzzling vehicle prices will go down, and I will one day be able to afford that beautiful, beautiful truck I need. Yes, need, not want. I’ll still keep my little car for running around town (oh how I wish it was a hybrid), but when I need my gas-guzzler, it would be nice to know I didn’t have to borrow someone else’s.

  • Petluv214

    Thank you Chris I completed the download but I only was prontes to pick a picture and this was used for the entire background no separate header and footer. Looks good otherwise. Petluv214

  • Guitarmarty

    I don’t get the option to select a photo, only colors for text and links.