2010 BMW 335d
Two recent stories on GreenCarReports caught my eye, and I’d like to comment on them. One gives five reasons why diesels don’t do well in the U.S. The other reports that gas engines will be with us for decades.
Neither piece is big news, really, but many people can’t understand the economics (and politics) behind our country’s lagging acceptance of diesel engines when it’s clear they outperform even some hybrids in fuel economy. The newer diesels are powerful, very torquey, and clean.
John Voelcker has been writing about the problem for at least a year, and he authored both the articles in question. First is the cost factor. Diesels cost about 15 percent more to build than an equivalent gas engine, and emissions equipment is quite expensive and complicated, because U.S. emissions laws are much tougher than those in Europe.
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Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Politics, CarGurus Features and Updates, Electric Vehicles, Foreign Cars, Gas for your car..., General Chat, Green Updates, Hybrid Cars
Indexing 2+ Million “live” listings a day, CarGurus helps consumers figure out if a car listing is “under” or “over” its real regional market value.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., October 27, 2010 — CarGurus® (http://www.cargurus.com/), a leading online automotive community, announced today that its DealFinder service has just added Regional Pricing to its offering.
Based on a daily analysis of 2+ Million “live” car listings as well as historic pricing models, DealFinder calculates what a car listing is really worth. This analysis includes factors for mileage, car model, car trim and options and then compares that “instant market value” to the seller’s listed asking price for the car. Consumers can then see first-hand if the car in question is above or below its real “instant market value.” Based on a consumer’s search criteria, the resulting car listings are ranked based on which cars offer the best savings (below the real “instant market value”). Consumers can quickly see which listings are “good” or “bad” deals.
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Car Minded, Car Shopping, CarGurus Features and Updates, General Chat
CarGurus’ DealFinder finds used American cars offer the best values. Low-mileage used cars can be bought at up to 37% less than original MSRP. Chevrolet and Jeep lead the pack.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., October 6, 2010 — CarGurus® (http://www.cargurus.com/), a leading online automotive community, examined the pricing of top-rated low-mileage used vehicles to find the best values in the used sedan, SUV, compact SUV, and minivan segments. Based on its DealFinder car valuations, CarGurus found the best values across these segments to be American cars and the savings compared to original MSRP to be as high as 37%.
American cars took top used car value honors in three of the four body styles analyzed. The Chevrolet Malibu took top honors for the sedan segment. Jeep took top honors for both the SUV and compact SUV segments with the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Liberty respectively. Kia took top honors in the minivan segment with its Sedona.
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Car Minded, Car Shopping, CarGurus Features and Updates, Domestic Cars, General Chat, Trucks & SUVs
CarGurus finds hybrid vehicles cost more to own than comparable gas-powered vehicles.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., September 10, 2010 — CarGurus® (http://www.cargurus.com/), a leading online automotive community, has determined that the majority of hybrid vehicles cost more to own and drive than comparable gas-powered vehicles. Based on the analysis of 45 hybrid cars which have similar non-hybrid, gas powered models, on average the Hybrid models cost 25% or over $2,200 more to own and operate than their non-hybrid counterparts.
Buying a new Hybrid carries with it a substantial cost premium over comparable gas-powered vehicles. Often time this cost premium can be quite substantial. In the 45 models studied, the average MSRP of hybrids was almost $6,400 more than that of their gas-powered counterparts. But the popular idea that hybrids actually cost less to own and drive via higher resale values and reduced gas expenses proved false in 76% of the cases examined. In the large majority of cases, the gas savings from hybrids did not overcome the substantial price premium paid at the time of purchase.
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Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Shopping, CarGurus Features and Updates, General Chat, Hybrid Cars
Historically popular and highly rated Asian brands fare poorly in CarGurus brand loyalty study, with Honda placing second to last.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 25, 2010 — CarGurus® (http://www.cargurus.com/), a leading online automotive community, today announced the results of its online car shopping brand loyalty study. As part of this study, 1.7 million car searches were analyzed for consumers using CarGurus’ DealFinder online car shopping service. The consumer’s initial search was then compared to any subsequent searches for other cars to gauge the consumer’s propensity to consider brands other than their initial brand of choice.
Of people who searched for a Chevrolet vehicle, 70% would not consider any other brand during their car shopping experience. Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen shoppers showed equally brand loyal behavior with 69% and 67% of consumers respectively not considering any other brand. At the low end of brand loyalty, more than half of those who searched for Land Rover and Honda vehicles searched for cars from other brands. Surprisingly, none of the historically top-selling Asian brands like Toyota, Nissan, or Honda were in the top five manufacturers for brand loyalty.
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Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Shopping, CarGurus Features and Updates, Classic & Vintage Cars, Domestic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat
I’m a big advocate for helping people get the most out of their money.
Even at the grocery store I’ll stop a woman with Prego spaghetti sauce in her cart and tell her to go exchange it for Ragu, because it’s 50 cents cheaper. People might think I’m nuts, but I don’t care. Money is scarce, and we should get the most value we possibly can, right?
A few cents at the grocery store probably isn’t that big of a deal, but when it comes to larger purchases, like cars, we need to know our hard-earned cash will buy us the most car it possibly can.
Let’s say, for example, that we have a friend who wants to buy a new Honda Accord for about $27K. He isn’t too stoked to get an Accord, because it’s so darned ordinary, but he likes the features he’s getting for the money. Do we let this friend plunk down the cash on a car he’ll struggle to find in any mall parking lot? Yes, we do… but not without first offering some truly exceptional alternatives.
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Car Minded, Car Shopping, CarGurus Features and Updates, Foreign Cars, General Chat
Sell everything for a car?! When we started talking about the idea, my writing buddy tgriffith sent along a story about a guy who really did that—sold his belongings, bought a Lamborghini Gallardo, and drove it all over the U.S.
For the truly afflicted CarGuru, it could make some kind of weird sense to indulge in this ultimate act of consumerism, as long as you reserved enough cash to enjoy your supercar—which Mr. Lambo didn’t quite do.
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Car Minded, CarGurus Features and Updates, Classic & Vintage Cars, Domestic Cars, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat
Get rid of this car...
Loving cars as much as I do, it’s hard to imagine living with just one of them.
My lovely wife, though, brought up an interesting point the other day: We could save a considerable amount of money by cutting back from two cars to one.
My initial response to the idea was a firm “not in a million years.” The more I think about it, though, the more I’m seeing that in our current situation, it just might work.
Should I do it? Have any of you CarGurus readers done anything similar? If so, which car do I sell? Here’s my situation:
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Car Minded, CarGurus Features and Updates, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Trucks & SUVs
What makes people crazier—negotiating a new-car purchase with a dealer, or selling their present car and negotiating with strangers? I think it’s a toss-up, though women tend to hate the latter more than men.
It’s fairly common knowledge that you will get a lot better price if you sell your car privately rather than trading it in, so let’s lay out the steps for doing that and, maybe, remove some of the anxiety.
The most important thing you can do is, first, determine a fair market value for your car. Second, once you have that, try to get yourself in what we’ll call the seller’s frame of mind.
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Car Minded, Car Shopping, CarGurus Features and Updates, General Chat
To trade-in or not trade-in?
I am not a huge proponent of trading in cars at the dealer. Customers can usually make more money by selling the car themselves.
Of course, selling a car on your own means you’ll need to advertise, field phone calls, schedule appointments, let strangers take your car on test drives, and probably deal with negotiations. Then, once your car is sold and gone, there’s the gap in time when you don’t have a replacement….
I’d say unless you’re making at least an extra thousand dollars over trade-in value, it’s not worth the trouble. So there is a time and place for trading in. If you go that route, here are some things you need to know:
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Car Minded, CarGurus Features and Updates, General Chat
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