Used Model Y Price Gouging

[nate704]

At the end of the day, consumers pay the same amount. Tesla keeps raising prices multiple times a year vs. dealer markups and hidden fee/additional charges all becomes very similar.
We are the suckers no matter what car we buy from what company. The big corporations are the ones that win all the time!

 

[iamnid]

i inquired about the bz4x. 10k markup so it's a 55-60k car. getting a tesla y instead.

Model Y just went up to $65k to start. Glad I got mine last year when it was $49k

 

[Pianewman]

At the end of the day, consumers pay the same amount. Tesla keeps raising prices multiple times a year vs. dealer markups and hidden fee/additional charges all becomes very similar.
We are the suckers no matter what car we buy from what company. The big corporations are the ones that win all the time!

...AND the "investors" in those "big corporations." The American Way.

 

[iamnid]

...AND the "investors" in those "big corporations." The American Way.

And the millions of people those corporations employ.

 

[Lloyd]

You should see the market for used airplanes! Up 10% across the board last QUARTER!

 

[DanDi58]

It's not really gouging if it's not a necessity. You don't HAVE to buy a car marked up that high.

 

[SteelClouds]

Its amazing to me in a way.. Car dealers have not gotten the message that the old way of doing business is dead. I just had an interaction with WinChevrolet where I had seen on CarGuru an upgrade to my current Model 3. A clean used extended range M3 version for an OK price. not great.. but OK..
First problem is I read ALL the fine print on their detail sheet which included text that read along the lines " we add "XXX protection to all our of cars for 2K and you have no say over this".. ah.. I call bullshit on that.. Interesting thing was when the dealer reached out because of my interest, I wrote back and said "thanks.. no thanks because of this" magically, the dealer said " we can lose that.. please come look"... OK.. Now I'm interested a bit more..

but because of work etc.. I didnt write back. So I get an email that night " are you interested still? we have had all kinds of interest in this car so it will not last.. blah.. blah.. blah" I wrote back and explained that I had no interest now.. gave a screen capture showing the car has been on the market for 14 days.. no interest other than me and they RAISED the price a week ago by 700 dollars so they can offer the "sale" price I was quoted.. Gotta love the internet and being able to research this stuff.. Yep.. no response to that email.. I"m sure they will sell it.. but i dont NEED it.. and I wont be THAT guy to get taken by them.

And yeah.. when I bought my used Tesla at JSTAR, it was the same crap and five hours of hassling with the dealer. Everything from trying to change the price ( I had a screen cap) to low balling my trade in ( offer in hand from Carmax) to that "paint protection " for 2500 extra dollars. OMG.. just sell me the car that you advertised AT THE ADVERTISED PRICE and stop with all the bullshit and pick up a new happy customer..

By contrast, my last two buys rom CarMax and Carvana were painless. Here's the price.. sales tax..license.. done.
Dealers are a dying breed.. and these two are exactly why.. and I have not even touched on dealing with dealer "service"

 

[kelpcar]

Why? You realize the Tesla Model S/X have had $30K price increases in less than a year, right? That’s the cost of the average new vehicle in price increases.

What difference does it make if the markup comes from the dealer or the manufacturer?

I'd say the manufacturer deserves the ADM more than the dealer does for cars that are sold before delivery. It's akin to a stock IPO where the first day pop is 50 or 100%. The initial price was too low and the company going public doesn't get that money - the IPO underwriters and their close customers pockets that money.

I think there's also legitimate reason to question the ethics and legality of surprise ADMs...lots of stories esp around the Hummer of customers being told their order is ready for pickup and then finding there is an extra 50k tacked on. At least with the Tesla order (aside from the CT list), you commit to a price and it doesn't change on you. You can make decisions about other options with that knowledge. Rivian briefly tried to alter the equation and then retreated. But these Ford and GM and Kia [and so on] dealers are content to assess at sale time how much more they would like to bank, usually targeting about all of the Federal tax credit as their own. That credit was intended to encourage customer adoption, not to increase seller profit margins.

And last, in this supply constrained environment, price gouging considerations and laws start to come into play. One doesn't need a new car, but most need a car, and the industry is taking advantage of the situation. The worst aspects of capitalism is its short sightedness and disinterest in the big picture outcome.

 

[doc333]

There is no such thing as price gouging. If you can't afford or don't like the price...DON'T BUY IT. This same complaint happens every time there is a hurricane in Florida. When I needed to buy a generator and they were all sold out because the gestapo would fine any retailer that DARED to raise the price, I had to drive 250 miles to get one. If a local merchant had one for sale for 4 times the going rate, I would gladly have paid it. But no, lets protect everyone by keeping the price artificially low. Only problem was you could not by buy one at that mandated low price locally...so there's that. If the price of items are allowed to reach what people are willing to pay (sounds a little like capitalism) , it works out. Price controls cause shortages, not excess supplies. If Tesla cut their prices by 25% the wait time to buy a car would be 10 years instead of 3 to 12 months.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

I was gonna buy a RAV4 Prime last year... Dealer wanted $15k over sticker, making it a $60k car.

I walked immediately over to Tesla and ordered the Model Y at list price. Took 8 months to get it, but totally worth the wait.

Used car prices are nuts, especially electric cars because... six dollar gas. That won't last forever, but then again, Ford just recalled every Mach-e they ever made and halted new deliveries so maybe this thing will keep going for a while.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Its amazing to me in a way.. Car dealers have not gotten the message that the old way of doing business is dead. I just had an interaction with WinChevrolet where I had seen on CarGuru an upgrade to my current Model 3. A clean used extended range M3 version for an OK price. not great.. but OK..
First problem is I read ALL the fine print on their detail sheet which included text that read along the lines " we add "XXX protection to all our of cars for 2K and you have no say over this".. ah.. I call bullshit on that.. Interesting thing was when the dealer reached out because of my interest, I wrote back and said "thanks.. no thanks because of this" magically, the dealer said " we can lose that.. please come look"... OK.. Now I'm interested a bit more..

but because of work etc.. I didnt write back. So I get an email that night " are you interested still? we have had all kinds of interest in this car so it will not last.. blah.. blah.. blah" I wrote back and explained that I had no interest now.. gave a screen capture showing the car has been on the market for 14 days.. no interest other than me and they RAISED the price a week ago by 700 dollars so they can offer the "sale" price I was quoted.. Gotta love the internet and being able to research this stuff.. Yep.. no response to that email.. I"m sure they will sell it.. but i dont NEED it.. and I wont be THAT guy to get taken by them.

And yeah.. when I bought my used Tesla at JSTAR, it was the same crap and five hours of hassling with the dealer. Everything from trying to change the price ( I had a screen cap) to low balling my trade in ( offer in hand from Carmax) to that "paint protection " for 2500 extra dollars. OMG.. just sell me the car that you advertised AT THE ADVERTISED PRICE and stop with all the bullshit and pick up a new happy customer..

By contrast, my last two buys rom CarMax and Carvana were painless. Here's the price.. sales tax..license.. done.
Dealers are a dying breed.. and these two are exactly why.. and I have not even touched on dealing with dealer "service"

Car dealers remind me of cable-tv vendors or other dying monopolies, eagerly screwing their dwindling customer base ever harder as they approach the end of their existence.

 

[TomServo]

The market will determine the price. It’s it mis-priced it won’t sell and will collect dust. The price comes down. If it sells then the price was fair.

 

[doc333]

There is no such thing as price gouging. If you can't afford or don't like the price...DON'T BUY IT. This same complaint happens every time there is a hurricane in Florida. When I needed to buy a generator and they were all sold out because the gestapo would fine any retailer that DARED to raise the price, I had to drive 250 miles to get one. If a local merchant had one for sale for 4 times the going rate, I would gladly have paid it. But no, lets protect everyone by keeping the price artificially low. Only problem was you could not by buy one at that mandated low price locally...so there's that. If the price of items are allowed to reach what people are willing to pay (sounds a little like capitalism) , it works out. Price controls cause shortages, not excess supplies. If Tesla cut their prices by 25% the wait time to buy a car would be 10 years instead of 3 to 12 months.

 

[sleepydoc]

There is no such thing as price gouging. If you can't afford or don't like the price...DON'T BUY IT. This same complaint happens every time there is a hurricane in Florida. When I needed to buy a generator and they were all sold out because the gestapo would fine any retailer that DARED to raise the price, I had to drive 250 miles to get one. If a local merchant had one for sale for 4 times the going rate, I would gladly have paid it. But no, lets protect everyone by keeping the price artificially low. Only problem was you could not by buy one at that mandated low price locally...so there's that. If the price of items are allowed to reach what people are willing to pay (sounds a little like capitalism) , it works out. Price controls cause shortages, not excess supplies. If Tesla cut their prices by 25% the wait time to buy a car would be 10 years instead of 3 to 12 months.

Umm...yes, price gouging does exist. It occurs when something is critically needed by people and in short supply or only available from a single source and the sellers take advantage an charge unreasonably high prices. When there's a storm and thousands of people are without power, tripling the price of generators is kind of the definition of price gouging. And you don't think that maybe the reason they were sold out was the fact that so many people actually needed them?

 

[doc333]

Thanks for making my point. I was willing to drive 250 miles to obtain a generator. If they wouldn't have been classified as "criminal", there would have been people who would have scoured the country buying cheep (normal priced) generators and bring them to the stricken areas to sell ( the horror) at a higher price (again the horror) for a profit. So, instead, there were NO generators at all to be had thanks to the gestapo! Take that you peons. Let the market work!

 

[Pianewman]

(doc333: Clearly, you don't understand the definition of "gestapo." Please stop.)

 

[doc333]

(doc333: Clearly, you don't understand the definition of "gestapo." Please stop.)

Uh, OK...why don't you enlighten me

 

[FOOLSLFDRVNG]

Most of the used sold from Tesla has FSD. Car salesman often don’t know anything about their own cars they are selling let alone the difference between autopilot and FSD.

 

[Geech72]

Thanks for making my point. I was willing to drive 250 miles to obtain a generator. If they wouldn't have been classified as "criminal", there would have been people who would have scoured the country buying cheep (normal priced) generators and bring them to the stricken areas to sell ( the horror) at a higher price (again the horror) for a profit. So, instead, there were NO generators at all to be had thanks to the gestapo! Take that you peons. Let the market work!

This is the textbook definition of price gouging; people have been arrested and gone to jail for this exact scenario. I don’t understand what the disconnect is here. People don’t have to buy a Tesla Elon musk doesn’t have a monopoly on cars or even EVs. Even if he did there’s no barrier to entry that is significant enough to prevent the massive multi-national companies that produce ICE vehicles to enter the EV market. You really believe tripling the price of bottled water and generators after a hurricane in the gulf or pharma bro raising the price of malaria drugs by 50,000% is the same as a company that makes up less than 1% of the us car market raising its prices by a few grand?

 

[doc333]

So it's better to have a cheep price, but no supply, than to be able to buy it if you REALLY need it at a higher price? Because I'm not driving 250 miles to bring you a generator at a $499 Costco price when there are NONE to be had. If that is your business model, go for it.