How long will it last?

March 2020, everything was shutting down. Car dealers did not know if they were essential, vehicle prices were plummeting, Manufactures had crazy incentives. Fast forward 14 months. Used vehicles are selling for more than a new vehicle sticker price. If you are wanting a new vehicle you can't find it. If you order one we cant tell you when you are going to get it, because somebody ate all the chips!

What does this mean for car dealers. We have to find new ways to source inventory. Pre-pandemic we would get online watch an auto auction click a button and that vehicle would be back to our lot in 3 days. We can still do that, however the competition in that arena has increased drastically. The manufactures are releasing vehicles at a snails pace. Fortunately for the dealers they are prioritizing those units for customers. That has forced the rental car companies to buy preowned vehicles at the auctions where the usually sell.

What this means for consumers. If you bought your vehicle from 2017-2020 and didn't put a ridiculous amount on your ride, it's probably worth more than you paid when you purchased. Seller beware though, unless you have something else to drive you will pay current market value for your new whip. If you can go without your current vehicle now is the time to sell!

How long will this last? From reading article after article, and listening in on our monthly call with Ford my prediction is that this will peak late July early August. That is when our new inventories will start creeping back up. Once there is a surplus of new vehicles used prices will recede, and we will be back to the new normal.

If there are every any questions you have about vehicles please reach out to us at Hutcheson Ford. Even if your not buying from us or didn't buy from us we are here to help.