The Pandemic Approach to Car Buying Will Likely Cost You Money in 2024!

I recently helped a client who was looking for a 2024 Nissan Z NISMO model. Considered the enthusiast’s choice and probably what the original Z that was released last year should have been, minus it is only available right now in an automatic, it is being advertised as a limited model by a lot of Nissan dealers. Locally, there is a dealer who had one for quite a while now and has been asking $15,000 over the MSRP. The customer was curious if that was the best they could do. 

The logic that paying over MSRP for in demand vehicles, particularly sportier variants, is the result of what I call a hangover from the price gouging consumers were faced with when buying these types of vehicles during the pandemic when supply and demand were out of balance. It wasn’t uncommon for people to pay $5k-$10k over MSRP for a new Corvette or even the base model new Z last year. Fortunately, those times are over for most models, but the mentality around it is still lingering. 

Case in point, I was able to find another dealer a few hours from the client that had the same exact car at a discount of $2500 off of the MSRP. That is over a $17500 swing in price!! In talking to the second dealer, they told me they ordered the car for a customer and that the original customer ultimately passed on it when it came in. Then since then, it has had little interest to their surprise and why they are discounting it. That is becoming very common with these type of cars, as people realize that high interest rates and the boom around having to have the latest sports car has gone the way of the pandemic, resulting in most cars once again being depreciating assets. When the local dealer was presented with the chance to sell the car for close to what it could be obtained for out of town, they shrugged it off and said they were sticking to their price. They haven’t felt the winds of change yet or they are holding out for the uninformed customer to still walk in, which they may. 

The lesson here is to refresh your mindset when car shopping in 2024. We are not back in 2019 in terms of pricing and discounting (or supply to some degree), but we are closer to that then we have been in several years. You should approach your shopping with the mindset that a discount may be possible and spend the extra time to do your research on the particular model you are looking at in terms of supply and demand & pricing. As was the case with this Nissan, albeit an extreme example, you can save more than you may think. And don’t be afraid to journey outside your local market. Often a few hours drive can net you more than enough savings to make it worthwhile.  😀  #carguy4u #carshopping #nissanZ #doyourresearch #2024carbuying#hireme