On the return leg home from an errand... checked out Bronco inventory

[Heimkehr]

...I stopped to peruse a bit of new inventory.

Welcome to a private showing of three vehicles, displayed here for the first time. Each is valued in its own way, not because of any inherent build quality, but because each captures in the market, illustrated on the window sticker, a frozen moment of an illusory value.

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Our initial offering, a smaller two door in blues and grays. A piece of the past known as the First Edition. Ambitiously priced at ninety nine thousand, inclusive of a forty thousand dollar market adjustment. This one we call simply, A Joke.

Offered to you now, independent front suspension, and all that it implies.

Objet d'vehicle number two. A four door. Its subject, a base configuration. A gloss white example modestly capable of discharging its yeoman duties. An innocuous example of the breed that will soon find its way to the fuel pump, irrespective of the engine's efficiency rating. This is its market adjustment.

And now, the final specimen. The last of our exhibit has to do with one Samsquanch. Another interpretation presented in plain sight. A trim package that aspires to competence off the tarmac.

Guten abend.

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[aldo98229]

I have worked with dealers over the years: they are the embodiment of capitalism. Everything they do focuses on maximizing profits today.

So dealers do things like this, arguing that “this is a free market” blah blah blah, and conveniently ignore the fact that these practices piss off a lot of people.

Thing is, while dealers operate on a weekly or month-to-month horizon, most buyers operate on 3 or 5-year horizon. Which means they will still remember that time the dealer tried to rip them off five years ago, even if all the staff responsible have long left the dealership.

And despite all the talk dealers love to do about caring about its customers, the cycle of mistrust gets perpetuated...

 

[Murphydog]

It really is time to revisit the dealer protection laws. It made some sense 100+ years ago, but they make no sense now…

 

[Shibadog]

Dayum! This nonsense gets my goat. If a person pays “sticker” price on a vehicle they are being taken to the cleaners…if they pay ABOVE sticker, well, a fool and his money. I don’t know whats worse, that a dealer‘ll do this or that some poor benighted soul would actually pay those prices.. PT Barnum I believe one said “a sucker is born every minute”. Guess that still applies That first one, with a 60% “market adjustment” boggles my poor little country brain

 

[RoadiJeff]

The old saying is that a new vehicles loses 20% of its value the minute you drive it off the lot. In the case of these ridiculous markups I'd say the percentage is a lot greater than that.

 

[Heimkehr]

I hadn't intended to take any photos, actually, but every window sticker I looked at had an ever-increasing Market Adjustment written thereon...ending with the comical $40K M.A. for the so-called First Edition. That one floored me, as it's more than I paid for my 2021 JLU.

I just don't see the value proposition. E.g., but for one or two minor aesthetic flourishes, the dashboard looks like something we'd see in any Ford vehicle. The quality of the soft tops isn't doing the Blue Oval any favors, either. The one pictured here wasn't the worst on the lot.

 

[aldo98229]

For a few years now the auto market has been behaving as if it were in a “bubble.”

All the signs are there: prices rising much faster than inflation, insane markups, used vehicles valued higher than new ones, people making money by flipping their own cars, buyers willing to get into 7, 8 or 9-year loans to buy vehicles that will need repairs in 4 years and be worth little after 5 or 6 years; banks willing to make unheard-of loans to individuals, etc.

Sure, the experts first told us that COVID was responsible, then the chip shortage was responsible, now that tattered supply lines are responsible, that inflation is responsible, that record consumer demand is responsible, etc.

The fact is, anyone who has been around the block may have noticed that the “experts” always have ways to explain what is happening, but none dares to utter the “bubble” word.

That is until it all collapses: then the same “experts” will claim that they always saw it coming but no one was listening, and millions of US households will be left holding the bag.

Sounds familiar...?

 

[Laststand]

This is one of my pet peeves (dealer marking up over MSRP, fluff add ons are bad enough a market markup is BS). If I see or know of a dealer who does this they are off my list to buy from forever, another tenet of capitalism (as long as there is not a monopoly).

Back in the day the next nearest dealer may have been a challenge to get to (both time and distance). Now there are usually multiple dealers (same brand) within an easy drive.

 

[2500 hd]

Dealers like that will never get my business...

 

[TX_Ovrlnd]

Dealerships and management like that deserve to go bankrupt.

 

[aldo98229]

The sad part is, someone with more money than brains will pay up.

 

[Dan M.]

Ridiculous dealers can do this, but also ridiculous somebody must pay that premium over sticker or the dealers wouldn't try this BS.

 

[Pinion]

I've seen these type of adjustments here at some dealers in Massachusetts. I've made a note of which ones nearby who are doing it, just so I'm sure I never go there again. There's a Jeep dealer near me that is doing this, and I won't even be going there for warranty service.

 

[Hearhear]

That 98k Bronco costs more than my fully loaded 392 V8 Wrangler. I would really like to meet the person who buys that Bronco, and seriously ask them what the attraction is. If they aren’t suffering mental illness I‘d really like to know what attracted them so much to pay 40k over sticker price. In 5 years he’ll be lucky to get 20k trade in on that thing.

 

[Hearhear]

The finance guy where I bought my Jeep said there’s often an interesting relationship between dealers who charge these market adjustments and how little these dealers pay their employees. If the dealership management is blatantly trying to rip customers off, what does that say about how they treat their own employees.

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