With the chip crunch and the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine, there’s little reason to think that prices on new and used cars will return to normal in the near future. But if you need to get a car today, is there a way to avoid having to pay over the manufacturer’s suggested retail price?
According to our friends at J.D. Power at its recent Auto Summit, in Q1 of 2019 14% of new cars sold were sold over MSRP. That makes sense, because some high desire items like a Mercedes-AMG G63 or a Porsche 911 GT3 typically commands a premium over sticker.
The staggering change comes for Q1 of 2022. Two years later 65% of new vehicles sold are sold over MSRP. That’s a significant change that obviously impacts vehicles across the spectrum.
Digging into the data reveals something that we’ve known for awhile, and something you should definitely keep in mind if you need to buy now, which is markups depend on region.
In an area J.D. Power refers to as “California North,” 79% of all new vehicles sold are sold above MSRP. However, in the “Detroit” region, that number is only 7%.
“But Detroit is all the way across the country,” you say. Well, yes, yes it is. But by casting a wide net you’re more than likely going to be able to find your car at a better price, and what you save by not paying a markup can be used to either cover the cost of shipping the car to you, or cover the hotel and food for an epic road trip to bring the car home.
Yes, finding someone to ship the car is slightly more inconvenient than just showing up at the dealership and taking the car home, but the selling dealership can likely help you with that process and the money you save would be completely worth it.
Cars like Kia’s EV6 are excellent electric vehicles, and being a 50 state car means that dealerships all over the country will have them. Don’t pay a local markup if you don’t have to.
