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It's OFFICIALLY THE BEST TIME EVER To Buy a Car | Episode 984
It's OFFICIALLY THE BEST TIME EVER To Buy a Car | Episode 984
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About this episode
The discussion centers around the current car buying market, highlighting that December is historically the best time to purchase a vehicle, especially the last two weeks. With high inventory levels for both new and used cars, the hosts emphasize the urgency for buyers to act now to take advantage of year-end deals. They also delve into the challenges faced when negotiating with dealerships, showcasing real examples of misleading pricing and dealer tactics that frustrate consumers. Insights on future market trends and the impact of tax returns on car pricing are also shared.
Today on the CarEdge Live, Ray and Zach discuss how to time your year end car deal and why now is the time to get started. Tune in to learn more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Term
floor planning
"They finance their inventory. It's called floor planning."
Floor planning is a way that car dealers get money to buy cars before they sell them. They borrow the money, pay for the cars, and then pay back the loan when they sell each car.
Floor planning is a financing method used by car dealerships to cover the cost of purchasing and holding inventory. The dealer obtains credit from a lender or manufacturer, pays for the cars upfront, and then repays the loan as sales are made.
Car
Ford F-150 Lightning
"[837.0s] Yeah, there were F-150 lightings. You remember that? That was the big story yesterday. [846.0s] That Ford is killing off the F-150 lightening."
The F‑150 Lightning is Ford’s electric pickup truck. It replaces the gas version with batteries and can drive about 300 miles on a single charge.
The Ford F-150 Lightning is an all-electric version of the popular F‑150 pickup truck, featuring a dual‑motor setup and up to 300 miles of range.
Car
Nissan Kicks
"[916.0s] Oh, this was the Nissan Kick Suite that is well."
The Nissan Kicks is a small SUV that’s easy to drive and cheap to own. It has good gas mileage and plenty of room for a few passengers.
The Nissan Kicks is a subcompact crossover SUV that debuted in 2015. It’s known for its affordable price, fuel efficiency, and practical interior space.
Part
blower motor
"[1303.0s] And you know that when the first problem of the day is a clanking blower motor, [1307.0s] there's no need to break a sweat."
The blower motor is the fan inside your car that moves air into the seats. If it makes a clanking noise, it usually means something inside is worn or loose and needs fixing.
A blower motor is an electric fan that pushes air through a vehicle’s heating, ventilation, and air‑conditioning (HVAC) system. It powers the circulation of warm or cool air into the cabin and is essential for maintaining comfortable temperatures.
Car
2025 Subaru Outback
"We just bought a 2025 Subaru Outback and saved $2500 off the car."
The Outback is a popular SUV that can handle both city driving and light off‑road adventures. It’s praised for being dependable and having plenty of room for passengers and cargo.
The Subaru Outback is a midsize crossover SUV known for its ruggedness, all‑wheel drive, and spacious interior. The 2025 model continues the line’s reputation for reliability and off‑road capability.
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It's noon here in Venter City, New Jersey and our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.
And this is Courage Live for what days today, Wednesday, December 17th, with your hosts, me, Ray, here in Venter City and well, Zach,
coming to us from his living room in Washington, D.C. How are you today, handsome?
Doing well, Dad. Happy Wednesday to you. Today's show. It's officially the best time ever to buy a car we are in ever, ever for 2026 or 2025, at least. Dad, we are officially in that period.
We're going to talk today all about, if you're planning on making a vehicle purchase in the year 2025, do it.
We're in crunch time. We're at the finish line here. If you are trying to take advantage of year end opportunities, we're going to talk about market dynamics.
If you talk about often on this channel and my dad will spend some time really breaking down what happens at the end of the year.
That being said, today's show is brought to you by us, dammit car edge.com. Again, a friendly reminder back on our website.
We offer a car buying service as well as car edge pro. There are a few other things as well. We've really been harping on insurance recently because we need you out there to shop your insurance rates and save some money for those of you that are unfamiliar when you go to the website.
We are a car buying service that takes care of the research dealer outreach and even negotiation. So if you're interested in using our services, check out car edge.com. But, Dad, let's start the conversation here.
Is it actually the best time ever to buy a car right now? Set aside the fact that there's an affordability crisis just timing the calendar year.
Is there a better time than right now to be in the market? I have all sorts of data to help inform our conversation, but your opinion first.
Well, typically, historically, the best time to buy a car if you're looking for a newer used car is the month of December.
And the best time within the month of December is the last two weeks of December. And the absolutely best craziest time to buy is from December 26th through 31st.
And the reasons for that are many, but you have to realize that the manufacturers typically offer their biggest incentives during the month of December because they're trying to hit their sales goals that they've said internally for the year.
They typically offer the dealers the biggest incentives because well, they want the dealers to be motivated to hit their sales goals for the year.
Sales managers and salespeople have sales goals that they're trying to hit for the year. And there's just a certain craziness and frenzy that overcomes a dealership especially the last week of the year.
Where everybody's just pushing to make numbers. And I was having this conversation yesterday with somebody.
I probably took some of the stupidest deals I've ever taken on cars during the last week of the year because you just you just put everything aside.
And we're going to move the middle. We're going to make a deal. We're going to make it happen. We're going to close out the year strong.
The salesman needs to deal. I don't care that we're losing a couple hundred or a couple thousand. Let's just make the deal.
Give finance an opportunity to make some of that money back. And that's how this time of year is approached in the car business.
And dad, we know just to pull some of the stats up on the screen. We know that we have the highest level of inventory we've seen all year long on the new car side of things over three million vehicles in dealer inventory right now.
And over on the used car side of things that we also have the highest level of inventory we've seen all year long used vehicle inventory hits new 2025 high.
As December begins to from an inventory standpoint right now is the best time of the year regardless of the seasonality.
It is truly the best time of the year because both new and used vehicle inventory levels are the highest they've been all year long.
These are dynamics that influence decision making the more inventory there is it's it's simple supply demand the more supply there is.
Doesn't matter if even if there is more demand of supplies outweighing it and that's the dynamic we've seen in the market, which again reiterates there's two weeks left in the year.
To your point, this is this is crunch time. This is like if you're waiting and holding out for something better, it's not going to happen.
And then you can start to prognosticate what's going to happen in January, February, et cetera, you know in 2026.
But for the month of 2025, it's not going to get me better than right now.
And you know the cost of that carrying that increased inventory even though the fed lowered the fed rate last week by 25 basis points.
That's a minuscule to what it's going to mean to the cost of carrying that inventory, the floor plan costs.
You know, you have to remember that dealerships don't pay cash for their cars.
They don't it's not like they've got I don't know $30 million hanging around or $15 million hanging around in cash.
They finance their inventory. It's called floor planning.
Many dealers finance their use cars as well as their new course.
So the cost of carrying that inventory is probably somewhere around three to four hundred hours per car.
So that's per month. So think about it.
If they've got cars sitting there and they're you know in the manufacturers might cover the cost of that interest.
In some cases, it might be 15 days. In some cases, it might be 30.
Some of the manufacturers do up the 60 or 75 days.
But after that, it's on the dealership.
And that's a huge expense if you're carrying thousands of cars.
Yeah, there's a motivating factor there to lessen your inventory, relieve yourself with those vehicles.
And just get the collision off the line. It's there's from having done it for 43 years.
There's no reason to go into a dealership as an employee if you have no intention of figuring out how to sell a car that day.
You're a commission based salesperson.
Sales managers get paid off of gross profit.
Well, the only place gross profit comes from is the sale of the cars.
So none of those people are going in there thinking, well, I'd like to trade a day of my life for nothing.
They're trying to figure out how to sell things.
At least at most dealerships, I won't say for all.
For sure. And again, I want to be clear here. This does not change.
We've got some good comments here. I think the show title forgot to add.
If you are part of the few who can afford the outrageously gross prices that they've gone up.
I think that's a super fair point for those that have been on the sidelines waiting.
We've been talking about a buyer's market now for probably three months, at least a quarter.
We've been talking about for new vehicles, how it's a buyer's market.
And again, I am really cautiously optimistic about what's happening in the used car market.
The headline here, inventory hits new 2025 high as December begins.
That's good news for those that are used. Car shoppers looking for better value and availability there.
It's this confluence of events now.
It has been a buyer's market for at least a quarter.
And now the confluence of events is also is the last two weeks, literally 14 days from now.
It's the last day of the month.
And so we really are at that moment where, again, if you've been on the sideline, if you can afford,
if you've been thinking about it, we could, you know, let's spend a minute here.
What do you think will happen in January?
At a minimum on the new car side of things, the incentives are going to be worse.
The dealer desperation that I think is probably going to be pretty similar in January or February.
Like, I don't see that changing material.
But the manufacturer incentives, I feel like we'll probably see it pull back.
What do you think?
The manufacturers understand that either January or February, one of those months will be the worst volume sales month of the year.
Always has been, always will be there.
And typically it's January or February because in January, there has been so much pull ahead into December.
So so many of those customers that might have been January customers bought in December to take advantage of the incentives that were out there.
The manufacturers understand that January and February are slow months.
That's not to say that there won't be some incentives, but they know they couldn't be big enough incentives to really move the needle in those months.
And a lot of it is weather induced if you're in the upper Midwest or the northeast where it's cold and miserable and snowy.
The incentives could be huge.
But if you can't get to the dealership or you're not interested in getting to the dealership because I don't know there's been three feet of snow that fell and it's a 13 degree windshield factor, which enters into people's minds when it comes to buying a car in the winter.
The manufacturers know that they can incentivize it enough to get enough people to come in to really move the needle.
So yes, they'll be incentives. No, they won't be as good as what December had will some dealers be desperate towards the end of January and part of February because of the slowdown and foot traffic and everything else.
Absolutely, but they're prepared for it. They understand that they've lived through it.
It's not like this is the first winter in the car business.
There's been, I don't know, a hundred or so winters in the car business and they know what to expect.
For sure, but also I don't think we typically come in and go out of winter with inventories increasing materially.
Typically, this is actually when a lot of vehicles get liquidated and you get inventory resetting to a degree.
But I think that we're seeing a really clear trend this year, which is inventory, but for new and the nice thing is on use cars.
It's starting to build back up a little bit, which is going to put financial pressure to your point earlier around floor plan cost on these dealers.
Yes. And then the other thing you have to realize that by the end of February and the beginning of March is when we start seeing people getting their income tax returns.
And that is the start of a used car gold rush.
And since that suddenly prices for use cars are going despite the latter part of February all through March and April and into the middle of May.
So all those income tax return people who use those income tax returns as down payment or total cash payment for cars.
Those people will be in the market come the middle to the end of February and through the middle of May.
And that will materially impact pricing on use cars.
That is a time of year when we typically see use car pricing go up not down.
So if you're even if there's too much inventory or there's more inventory than there has been.
If you can't take advantage of that, say the first six weeks of the new year.
After that, because of income tax returns, it's going to be even more difficult to find a good deal. So we'll see what happens.
I completely agree, Dad, completely agree.
Okay, earlier yesterday on the show excuse me, I should say we actually put to the test that reaching out to some dealerships.
Yeah, there were F-150 lightings. You remember that? That was the big story yesterday.
I think we should use some follow up on that today. For those that were not on yesterday's show, we'll just set the stage here for a second.
That Ford is killing off the F-150 lightening. They're getting rid of their EV pickup drop.
Well, I think the appropriate terminology would be they're pulling the plug.
I love that. Yes, they're pulling the plug on their F-150 lightening.
So what my dad and I did is we went to the car edge car search. We'll do this again here and we went to shop new.
Let me open that up quickly here. We did Ford and we did lightning.
And we started contacting. We used actually the car edge carage per the AI agent to start contacting some dealerships.
So yesterday on the show, we were thinking, okay, what type of discounts can we get?
Because when you look at these advertised prices, MSRP of $75,695, seller prices, $60,855.
If it's actually officially the best time ever to buy cars to the end of the year, everything we're talking about.
And the manufacturer just said, hey, we're pulling the plug on these things. We're no longer making them.
You've got to imagine these dealers would want to get rid of them, right?
Yes.
All right, here we go. Here we go, folks. So let's go to the dashboard here.
We've got three vehicles that we made outreach on.
Bell Ford, Lindsey Ford, Wheaton and Jim Coleman.
Oh, this was the Nissan Kick Suite that is well.
So let's actually look at one. We got an offer that we can look at. The other is still an active negotiations.
Let's start down here.
Let's take a quick peek at what's going on here and let me actually, yeah, we'll view it by timeline.
So we've got the latest message that was sent by the agent was yesterday.
So let's start at the beginning. Let's actually, let's go all the way down.
Let's start at the beginning of time. Oh, my goodness.
Okay. So we submitted on their CRM that we were interested in that vehicle.
Thanks for contacting us. We appreciate your interest in this vehicle.
Our team has received your message a few non-scheduled employment.
Okay. So then what did they say? Then they texted us.
Yes.
Hello, Zach. This is Addison Irving from Lindsey Ford of Wheaton.
Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate your interest in the vehicle.
Okay. They've received a message. All right. So then what did the agents say? All right.
I'm in DC. I'm handling everything remotely.
So I don't want to schedule an appointment or a call right now.
I already emailed your team asking for a simple Alpador breakdown.
If you can have that full OTTD with taxes fees and dealer add-on sent over a di-text or email,
that's exactly what I need to review first. Once I've seen the numbers, we can go from there by text or email. That's a good message.
Yeah. I think so.
So it texted that and then it looks like it also emailed a similar message to.
Okay. So it replied to the text that replied to the email.
Okay.
Then it looks like yesterday at 1236. Hi, Zach. Welcome to Lindsey. My name is Juan.
I'm a sales consultant. Thanks for requesting more information on that 150 lighting.
It truly is a fantastic vehicle.
What other models are you considering, which comparisons or questions can I answer for you?
How do you like to proceed?
This is, may I say something?
Yeah.
It is so ridiculous to me.
As to why dealerships absolutely make it like pulling teeth to get the basic information that you as the customer have asked for and have stated that you need that information in order to be able to move forward.
So it is the the AI agent made it perfectly clear the information that you need as the customer.
Let's keep going.
And the dealerships just ignore consistently what it is that you with the customer asked for.
And take out of it. Who cares if it's AI or a human being because honestly, this could just be anyone reaching out to the field.
Let's keep going. Let's keep going.
They all texted.
So again, we got an email from them and then we got a text.
They gave us their address. Good afternoon, Zach. How are you are you available today to come in and take a look at the video?
So Juan also sent that.
So then it texted back. Hi, Juan. I'm doing well. Thanks for reaching out.
I'm in DC and the lighting would be registered in my zip code.
So I'm planning to handle everything remotely and we'll come in for a visit.
I've already asked your team for a full out the door break down.
So I'm just waiting for those numbers.
Once that's in my inbox, I can review everything and we can keep things moving by text or email instead of in person.
It's a pretty good text message, I think.
It's pretty straightforward.
So then Juan replies.
You're assigned sales representative Juan has just attempted to reach you via text and email.
Opt out, reply, stop.
Okay. So we emailed as well.
We sent the same email.
Okay. So now we're emailing and we're texting.
Juan replies back.
And if the numbers work out, can you come in today and wrap up this deal?
And will there be a trade involved?
And how do you plan on purchasing the vehicle, lease or finance?
Are you military current, recent college graduate, first responder,
farm bureau member, or part of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce?
Okay. Great.
Couple questions.
Okay. So that was the text that Juan then sent.
Then we texted back.
I am not able to come in today or this week.
I'm planning to handle everything remotely and register the truck in DC.
No trade involved.
I'm leading towards financing either through you or my own lender, but I'm flexible there.
The main thing for me is the total price.
I'm not military, not current, or recent college graduate, not a first responder,
not farm bureau, not part of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Once you and the team finish bringing the number as you mentioned earlier,
I'm really looking to be at $59,000 on the selling price before taxes and fees for this specific lightning.
If you can get close to that with the incentives I qualify for,
will be in a good spot to move forward by text or email.
And this would be financing through us with Isaac with all the discounts and fees and taxes.
I have you at $64,436.15.
How did you get there?
Look at the text reply, Dad.
Just to be clear, I haven't committed to financing through you yet.
I'm open to it if the overall numbers make sense, but I'm also comparing with my own lender.
64, 436, 15, OTTD is a bit higher than I was expecting.
Can you send me a quick breakdown showing your selling price?
Any dealer add-ons, Doc, fees, taxes and tax?
I'm really trying to be around $59,000 on the selling price before everything else.
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What OTT were you expecting and what kind of rate did you have in mind?
The OTT is based on a selling price of $59,000 with taxes and fees
assuming Doc had costs in DC.
I was expecting to be in the low 62 range, not the mid 64s.
On rate, I'm mainly comparing you against a pre-approval that I have in the mid 3s for 60 months.
I'm flexible there if the total deal makes sense.
What can we do on this specific lightning to get a selling price closer to $59,000?
Tell me what features you need necessary to have in your lightning.
And I will try and find to the lowest MSRP lightning with all the requested options to save you money.
If you are set on the $59,000 sales price and good alternative,
it would be selecting a slightly lower MSRP vehicle.
Zach, thank you for the prompt and detailed response.
We are at $60,855 on the sales price to save our consumers' time and stress we present our best deal up front.
Why couldn't you say that in the first damn email?
That's where we are with them.
That's interesting.
Again, the dealer had advertised that vehicle.
Let's go back really quickly.
This is so interesting.
I love doing this.
Load, beta load.
Let me do a ref.
There it is.
Okay.
So this particular vehicle, it was this one.
So yeah, they're just sticking with their online advertised price.
Okay.
They're just sticking with their online advertised price.
The other one.
You just say that about 14 emails ago.
So let's look at the other one, Dad.
The other one here was this vehicle.
Advertised at $59,579.
Looks like we got an OTT from them.
So let's take a peek at this.
Wait for it.
This is fascinating.
Fascinating.
Holy cow, this is fascinating.
So again, dealer advertised price on this vehicle was $59,579.
And we can validate that.
Let's actually go to the dealer website.
Let me scroll all the way down here.
This is going to be so interesting.
Let's go to the dealer website really quick.
So they have this advertised online.
It says it right there.
$59,579.
Yes.
We contacted this dealership.
So let's come back here.
We can view all the communications.
We're not going to go through this line by line.
Like we just did right this second.
But we can view all the communications.
And ultimately, we got them to send us an OTT,
quote, an outdoor price.
And that image is what you're looking at right here.
Which was nowhere near a $59,000 selling price.
Dad.
No, nowhere near.
Dad.
Come on.
Dad.
So for those of you that listen to the podcast afterwards,
the selling price is $67,579.
Then they've added back $6,485 in accessories.
You add taxes and fees with the dock fee.
You're back up to $81,000.
This.
We did not plan this.
I didn't even look at this until the show right now.
This is why we do what we do.
This is BS.
This is craziness, dad.
They advertise the price at under 60.
Yet the actual selling price is $74.
What the actual F.
Yeah, that's a.
Ah, that sounds like typical card dealer BS.
And then and then card dealers.
Many wonder why their customers hate them.
Many card dealers wonder why.
Customers don't want to deal with them.
And this is why.
You can advertise it for $59,000.
Something dollars.
And then suddenly that $59,000 sales price becomes $74,000.
Why would anybody want to deal with you?
And I don't care if you're one of the biggest four dealers in the
Phoenix Metro area.
It's it's just not the way to do business.
If you ask the owner of that store,
and I know who you are,
since I used to work for you,
you ask the owner of that store,
I know you would not want to be treated that way if you went to buy something.
So why is it okay for you to treat your customers that way?
Why does it have to be that way?
Why can't you choose an easier path for your customers?
It just it just doesn't make any sense to me that you want to
that you want to piss off the people that are you're asking to spend
$81,000 with you.
You want to piss them off before you get them to do it.
Why?
I just.
I'm sorry.
I'll try and be good now.
Let's go to the conversation.
So again, what we've built just to be very clear.
It's got a lot of notoriety recently as well as we've built.
We have to be very clear, car buying services,
an incredible team of human beings that handle this for you day in and day out.
We've also built an AI agent that does this outreach and has a dashboard
where you can view everything that's going on.
Let's read the messages then.
So yesterday we started this at 1207s.
We were on the show when we started this,
and the agent sent a submission to the dealership via their CRM.
So they filled out the lead gen form on the dealership website and sent this message,
and we also emailed them directly this email.
The dealership got back to us.
It looks like at 1214.
It's a very, very recent after that.
I just shot a video for you.
Here's a personalized video.
They also sent this email, which.
It's still here.
This is David.
Thanks for your interest.
I'll be assigning a dedicated product specialist.
I know it's your inquiry.
It shows you're in DC.
Yep.
So obviously it'll be out of state.
And let's see here they gave us a breakdown.
I don't think they gave us a breakdown yet.
Let's keep going here.
I shot a video for it.
Okay.
Hi, David.
Thanks for the detailed email and taking the time to shoot the video.
I'm in DC.
I plan on having the lighting ships not flying out to pick it up.
Can you put together a simple Alpador price quote for this vehicle?
I just need to show your selling price after all the dealer discounts and forward incentives
you're applying, your doc fee and any dealer fees.
Also are there any current incentives?
I'm handling everything over email.
Great.
And it looks like we also replied back directly for the video.
All right.
Awesome.
They got back to us.
Thank you.
Anytime sounds like a plan.
We look forward to helping out.
I will get with David and make sure we provide that information efficiently in the accessories.
Okay.
In the accessories is the shipping in DC.
So that's good.
And it looks like, okay.
That's a they sent it as like a URL.
They sent that.
That's what this is.
They sent the Alpador price quote as a URL.
Okay.
Great.
Thanks for sending that over.
I pulled out the proposal link.
You sent.
It's $6,485 in a final price over $81,000.
A couple of things.
The quote you sent still has the Arizona tax.
The $6,485 in accessories looks like a lot more than just shipping.
Sure does.
This is such a good email.
Dad, I'm fine with shipping being listed as an accessory line.
But I'm not interested in any extra dealer add-ons or protection packages.
Open and shared door-to-door transfer to DC works fine for me.
I just need shipping broken out cleanly from any other products on price.
The adjustments on price on the proposal is $67,579.
Which is quite a bit higher than where I'm trying to be on this truck.
Based on what I'm seeing on similar lightenings and the incentives you mention
I'm looking to be somewhere closer to the high $57,000 range.
It's a great.
It's a great email.
Can you let me know how much of the $6,485 is actually shipping versus add-ons?
And how close you can get to this can get this of in to $578.
My apologies for the delay.
My response.
Okay.
We can sell it to you for $70,615.
But we purchased the vehicle for from Ford.
Then plus any rebates or discounts of $5,876, bringing you to $64,739.
Then part of those accessories, $3,400 is shipping to DC.
Of course, we have a less expensive source.
You can use them with a bill of lading provided.
Okay.
And yes, the rest of the accessories are Arizona, Wynton, Dorege, Guards, ClearBrop,
Pillar Protection, and Linux, Spray, and BedBiner, if applicable.
Over new vehicles, accessories, or tangible items, we have a reputable business
installed in for our customers here.
Of course, there's a little bit of profit to try and mitigate us from for some of our losses.
But we did pay to have those products installed.
Most of our customers in the area see value in those items and it saves them time,
rather than going to a bunch of different businesses for more work.
Now, I do know this might be different with you respectfully,
inquiring from out of state.
But most of our competitors out there out here see us use the same items
and charge more for things like low jack.
With the shipping, yes, kind of the taxes updated.
However, if you're trying to be at $57,000, or like the $1,000 at the end selling price,
I wish we could say, yes, how did you arrive at that number?
Probably use the advertised price on your website.
But no, no.
Keep going, Dad.
No, we see where we're headed.
And we know where we're headed.
You got that out the door price from.
It is crazy.
It is still a far cry from the $59,000 that it was advertised for.
So the question in my mind that the agent should ask when they say,
just have a curiosity, what information do you use to come up with a selling price of $57,000?
The agent should say, well, I don't know.
How did you come up with a $59,000 selling price that you're not selling?
Yeah.
I mean, here you go.
And how I got to the high 57 number, I started from what you're advertising online.
Yeah.
Given that the truck's been an inventory for a while and where lightning pricing is overall,
now I seem to be a bit more room.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they won't even sell it for the $59,000.
So this is just...
This is what's wild about it.
Yesterday on the show, we're talking about a manufacturer pulling the plug on a vehicle that is way over price,
that dealers are advertising to be clear here, y'all.
We're not like making up some bullshit.
It didn't mean to curse.
We're not making up some BS.
Dealers are advertising this vehicle.
Let me find a dead back on the car edge car search.
The MSRP, I'll pull it back up.
The MSRP on this vehicle is $73,455.
The selling price that they advertise is $59,579.
We just got confirmation from then that the invoice price is around $70,000.
Great.
But they're advertising it $14,000 below MSRP.
It's not.
It's not even close.
The actual price, given the accessory, is that $67,000.
Yeah.
You can't go in and buy it for the $59,579.
And then the other part of the day show that we're talking about is inventory levels.
There's the highest we've been all year.
And it is crunch time for these dealers to make deals.
Make it make sense.
Well, you know, part of it is I am certain that they would think to themselves,
okay, he's in Washington, D.C.
Do you have any idea how many Ford dealers that transport truck would have to pass paths?
Yeah.
Yeah.
To get that lightning.
Well, he ain't never buying it from us.
Okay.
So that would be part of it.
But but the reality is that you don't advertise something at $59,579.
And then show, well, no, it's really $64,000 or $67,000, whatever the hell it was.
That is just bait and switch.
I mean, right there, I mean, you're providing the proof in writing that you had no intention of honoring the price that you have listed for it online.
And again, that's why people hate dealing with car dealers.
That's why so many people in the comments say, why can't I just buy directly from the manufacturer?
When are they going to do away with the dealers?
They're the impediment.
You guys, the dealers are the impediment.
And you don't realize it or maybe it do realize it and you don't care.
Maybe you do care, but you don't care enough to change.
And and that, you know, I mean, I did it for 43 years.
I tried my best to make small incremental changes that wouldn't feel so threatening to the owners that I worked for so that we could do it in a more customer centric way.
But this is, you look at it and you just have to say, it's short of lunacy to do it like this.
Where else can you advertise a price for something and then not have to honor the price that you just advertised it for.
There's very few businesses to get to get away with it would be it would be like going to a gas station.
And the big sign says it's 299 99 again.
If you charge it to your credit card.
And then you pull up to the pump.
And the 299 99 again and is 349 99.
And it's like, well, where did all the 50 cents come from?
Well, you know, the 299 was just to get you to pull into the pump.
It's not the price you're going to pay for.
I mean, can a gas station get away with that?
Can the grocery store have an advertised price for bananas at 75 cents a pound.
Can you go in and you pick up your bananas?
Oh, and suddenly they're 99 cents a pound.
What other businesses get to advertise a price that they're not really so at it for just to get you there.
It is, it, it, it exasperates me because I know that none of these people that worked there would want to be treated this way.
So why is it okay for you to treat people this way?
I just, I just don't get it.
This is why on carage.com.
It says carst like should you think prices will get you the real one?
We've been able to build a business out of it anyway.
Fascinating.
I guess we could thank the dealers for that.
Yeah, for real.
Crazy man.
Absolutely crazy.
Now let's come here.
We had earlier in the chat from Seabrew.
Thank you for this.
I want to thank the carage team for all the car buying knowledge.
We just bought a 2025 Subaru Outback and saved $2500 off the car.
We found a dealership that we will get.
That will be a repeat business for us.
Thanks guys.
Absolutely love hearing that.
That's one of the best possible messages we can receive and we absolutely appreciate.
And thank you for the kind contribution and for sharing your experience.
Yeah, man.
What a day.
What a day because it is officially the best time ever to buy a card.
But holy cow, do we have the receipts for how these dealerships make it so difficult to buy a car again?
They keep us in business, so I will promote the services that we offer.
The car buying service still is $150 off carage pro, which is what I was demonstrating today.
That's 15% off.
So, you know, thank you to all of the folks out there that I don't know for whatever reason.
They choose to make this way more difficult than it needs to be which to be clear dead.
I actually have some empathy because we know that the dealers who do try and shoot it straight,
they end up losing out to the dealers who do take advantage people because the online advertised prices being BS.
That's how you win on, you know, the other competitive marketplaces.
There's no policing in this industry.
It's really bad.
And obviously we're trying to find some ways to level the playing field for everyone involved.
It just, it just, it just amazes me that this is the way an entire industry chooses to operate.
And it really, I might get it, but it doesn't have to be this way.
It's a choice.
Every, every dealership owner makes a choice as do how he or she wants to operate their business
and how they want to fit into their community.
And when you do things like this, that to me doesn't indicate that you are a good corporate citizen of your community.
That doesn't indicate to me that the way you're trying to do business is the way most people would want you to do business.
And, and yes, people are to a degree.
I mean, one of the things that I used to always say to people, do you want to do you want to reward the dealer that lied to you to get you in?
Or would you prefer to reward the dealer that was honest and upfront with you from the beginning?
That's your moral dilemma.
My hope is as a consumer that you will choose me because I was the one that was willing to provide you with the information that you asked for in an honest and transparent manner.
And if you don't think that's worth it, I get it.
I'll be disappointed with you, but I get it.
And there's too many people that give in and just go, well, we're here.
Yeah, I know they lied, but I expected them to lie.
And so they reward them for having lied to get them there.
And so I would implore all customers out there that if you find yourself in a dealership where they lied to you to get you there,
don't reward them.
They're not entitled to that reward of having you as a customer.
You need to do a little bit better as a customer and decide that you're only going to reward those that you find that are at least to a larger degree, a bit more open and honest with.
That's my take.
Speaking of open and honest, if we can help you out folks, same message as always, caredge.com, telephone to telephone.
Dad, let's be back here tomorrow.
Do it all again for a Thursday for some more car edge live.
Thanks, everyone for tuning in and joining us and let us know in the comments.
What vehicles do you want to see us? What dealers do you want to see us reach out to?
Let's do a few more, you know, live experiments on the show tomorrow.
Sound good, Dad?
Absolutely.
I'm looking forward to being back.
And yes, please tell a friend.
Hell, not only tell the friend, bring the friend.
Bring the friend.
Bring a friend and have him pull it up on a separate computer or multiple views.
Yeah, multiple views.
Yeah.
Yeah, please.
Yeah, I just have to have to have to stuff.
All right, Dad, I love you. Enjoy the afternoon.
You two here.
Hey, girl, what's happening?
Is that your anti-perspirant?
Yeah.
Let me see that can.
Aluminum butane.
Sit, sit.
I cannot pronounce that.
You have to switch to native deodorant.
Native simple formula has only clean ingredients.
It gives you effective 72-hour odor protection with no hydrocarbon propellant.
Wow, this smells heavenly.
Clean effective 72-hour odor protection isn't a myth.
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