Toyota Dealers have 3400+ “New” 2023 or older cars on lots

Trading cars at a dealership is generally not a wise thing to do, so I always adjust my opinion of a person's automotive purchasing super-powers sharply downward as a result - although in truth buying a new car isn't exactly a stellar thing to do either.

I prefer new, base models to a used anything - so none of us are without our kryptonite scars when it comes to managing the expense of getting around.

 

Family members comments are the best proof for anything. Possibly they have some paper work. Maybe they are all sold and going into fleets. Every one of them may be a future tax write off and essentially the government is paying for most of it. Trucks are all over the place in businesses and government.
Capturing a single instant in an image and building a story is wide open.

 

During the chip shortages, some manufacturers assembled some models with some parts missing in order to keep the factories running. The cars or trucks were stored until parts were available.

 

^ That.
A less reactionary examination of that photo would quickly reveal that those FoMoCo trucks were not 'fleet units' because stripped-down units bought in bulk are almost never equipped with 4-doors, moon roofs, hood vents, and side rail caps. They're also universally painted white or some other non-optional color for the same reason that cars produced 100 years ago were almost always painted black, and barns painted red.
I know this because I've driven fleet units for over 40 years working for an uncle (Sam) or Ma (Bell.)
Ford has more base colors than GM does for their base models but these nearly always just have two doors.
My own fleet unit is a base model 4x4 - configured very grudgingly as an Emergency Response Vehicle when it was imagined that these units might require 4WD.

I also asked more than one person.

As it turns out, in some smaller cities in America there are black sheep in all families, and some of these are forced to take employment as city councilmembers, attorneys and court clerks.
Over the years, I've learned to ask the CLERKS first.

IYKYK.

 

There was a time when photos of a dozen or so parked Teslas were given as "proof" there was no demand for Tesla cars. Today, it is the difference between "Produced" and "Sold":


Over one quarter, there is a dip from the previous, local peak, -20%. However, the running average suggests a mole hill, not a mountain. IMHO, the prime interest rate has more to do with the dip than anything else. But some experiments that have yet to ramp up.

The promise of NMC, 4680 cells has been eclipsed by LiFePO blades. Manufacturing is hard and changing the chemistry does not appear to translate into 4680 cell format.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm hearing a lot of stories about softening demand for 'lectric cars - especially after last winter exposed one of their challenges.
I personally think that as more and more early adopters start taking advantage of the 'tax break for the wealthy' demand WILL soften before BEV's become more price competitive to more and more people on free soil (where gas is less than $3 a gallon.)
There's also the crushing effect of high inflation and interest rates brought on by the last two Administrations' foolish spending.
Yes.
It's true that 4-5% (real world) inflation and interest rates would have left people devastated by the 1970's double digit 'stagflation' dancing in the streets with joy - but this aint the 70's!!!
We had near enough to zero percent inflation and interest rates for enough years for the current rates to express themselves VERY negatively in the half-century since then. An eight year loan for a $60,000 car EVEN AT 5% would have been as much a form of science fiction as a self-driving car capable of going 250 miles (*) after charging itself in a garage overnight.

One of our own BEV owners made an observation that Electric Vehicles are something like an intelligence test that not everybody passes.
Self satisfied smugness notwithstanding - there's an element of truth there, and it will take all of the slack jawed rubes in flyover country a little time to bone up for that test - or at least save up a downpayment for their cars.
SO.....hopefully there WILL be a 'demand gap' where a superabundance of BEVs will mean that they will be more widely available.
This is a FEATURE, not a fault!
After all....only 'morons' would buy a $3000 desktop PC these days when one can (and I just did) get a refurbed high-ish end i7 notebook for <$200 (**)



(*) ALMOST self driving but close enough in 1970, and "about" 250 miles WHEN they're new.....driven appropriately....and not subjected to super low temps.

(**) For IOT and FT8/JS8Call development....where the walled garden in IOS is still too high it pays to let some poor schlub who leased a high end PC and let THEM pay the staggering depreciation costs.
INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH, this also applies to cars as well....

 

The 25% tariff, an inflationary 'sales tax', along with its sister, excessive Prime Rate interest spawned a substantial part of the excessive Prime Interest rate. IMHO, any tariff of 10% or more should have an automatic reduction of 5% per year until below 7.5%. The 7.5% lower limit gives a sliver for local labor and companies to handle overseas competition..

Bob Wilson

 

ANOTHER widely misunderstood FEATURE....

 

I don’t know if they are for fleets, it’s only an example of how a picture could be used to make up stories, and people believe them.

 

True that.
This is why I asked multiple WTH questions from multiple people who were in the same zip code as the trucks.
It's UNUSUAL to see 300-400 2024 FoMoCo trucks parked nutt-to-butt in an industrial parking lot 15 miles from the nearest rail head, and 20 miles or so from the plant.

A picture is worth a thousand words.
A thousand words from an uneducated person (or an over-educated person with a room temp IQ) is just 'word salad.'

 

The internet is full of pictures with wrong stories attached. A picture with no facts creates a thousand words is more like it. Then people run spreading the words and the whole story is actually not even true.

 

Yep, the auto business has changed a lot. I just searched our largest Colorado Toyota dealer (Arapahoe) and they have seven 2023's leftover...five POC BZ4X's ($52K) and 2 Crowns ($43 and $47). For 2024 new models, they have 585...WOW.
But with horrendous cost-of-living expenses and record-high new car interest rates (up to 22%), folks just aren't willing to buy. (Can you imagine paying 22% on a car loan? For a $40,000 loan, you're looking at over a grand for 72 months!! (POC is piece of crap and the Crowns are very nice but in very ugly colors.)

 

I can't imagine making car payments for 72 months!

BTW....Toyota Crown??
I encountered one of those in the wild yesterday being driven by an oxygenarian who should not even be allowed to drive a hoveround.

It looks like a Camry that fell out of a REALLY TALL 'ugly' tree and didn't miss a branch all the way to the ground.
Then I looked them up
$45k?!?!

I predict that there's going to be a LOT of those puppys left over!!

 

I've seen 180 month financing on RVs, keep it filed under "madness."

We only get the crossover version of the Crown. The honest sedan version is awesome, but Japan-only for now.

 

I’ve always managed to stick with that bit. That said, I’ve read some dealerships won’t do cash sales, talk about showing their hand.

 

i would do a credit card