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The dealers know amnesiac Americans all too well, the price of gas suddenly falls 50 cents tomorrow and they'll be selling like hot cakes. And what will the average, short-sighted American be thinking?
It'll never happen again! Prices will never get this high again! And they're back looking at houses 40 miles from their work place!
The only time I have ever seen a dealer speak of fuel prices is when they want to sell economy cars at premium prices, list or above, during times of higher fuel prices. It's a marketing ploy, and I can honestly say I have never discussed fuel prices, driving habits, or economy with any dealer from whom I have purchased a vehicle.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
If you are one of the people who absolutely need a large truck or SUV now is the time to buy it. The local Chevy dealer here has a hundred or more of the large trucks and SUV's on the lot but if you're looking for a small car or suv forget it. Nothing to be found. My buddy is the sales Mgr at said dealer and he mentioned they are taking a loss on every large truck they sell but the have to move them off the lot.
You won't see any kind of advertised blowout sale until early fall. If the lots are still full of large truck and SUV products, the manufacturers are going to be dropping piles of cash on the hood to get them moved.
Remember, just because large trucks and SUV's are profitable for manufacturers, doesn't mean that dealers really have all that much wiggle room on them relative to what the manufacturers have. I'm sure you can snag yourself a good deal right now, but if you want a great deal, you need to wait until the manufacturers start putting cash on the hood, plus 0% financing and the dealer is willing to let it go for zero profit. If gas prices stay high, that's exactly what they'll do.
FWIW, I think a lot of them learned their lesson in 2008. They started to blow out their truck and SUV inventory making up the losses by marking up small cars only to watch gas drop in the fall and people come flocking back to trucks and SUV's. I think they're smart enough now to realize they can rake in the profits on the small cars and just sit on the trucks and SUV's and see what gas does. If it stays high, they'll be looking for manufacturer support to move them.
I guess they don't want to talk about the war in Afghanistan, tornadoes in the south, flooding along the Mississippi, missing children, stock market drops, ongoing housing market or any of another ten thousand negative things going on that might psyche someone out of buying a car.
Do you know how sales work? Surely you've sold something in your life. Do you bring things up to lower the value of what you are trying to sell or do you only talk about the positive. Maybe they'll have to hang on to some of the trucks a little longer until gas prices settle, maybe the factory comes in with bigger incentives. Or maybe you just have to deal with the fact that they aren't dropping their drawers to take whatever low ball offer you made on that expedition or armada or whatever it is you want so bad but couldn't get and are so bitter about.
Better off folks don't care if gas is 5 to 7 bucks a gallon, a bit. The other day I saw a Ford V 10 hauling a bigger speed boat. The trucks gas will be nothing compared to that boat.
I'ld bet that boat has 2 tanks over 100 gallons each, if the boat doesn't have 3 tanks.
To some that fuel is nothing.
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