Told my friend to just wait because the supply/demand factor is still crazy

[theking]

..Plus if he waits another year, he could be looking at the 2024 Gen 4 Tacoma. Hopefully this craziness dies down by then.

That's why my wife is not in a hurry to buy her electric vehicle as she's not going to play this game.

However, if you choose to play in this supply/demand mess game, you the buyer are also responsible for your buyer's remorse cause no one force you to buy in the first place...  :

Car buyers paying more than MSRP feel lasting resentment

Many pledge to never shop the dealer or brand again

Last month, Cox Automotive research uncovered a brace of unpleasant findings for car buyers. The average transaction price for a new car hit $48,043. That figure was a ridiculous $895 more than the month before, and an even more ridiculous 12.7% more than in June 2021. And buyers were, on average, paying $1,000 over MSRP for the first half of this year. Research firm GfK Automotive has put numbers to the results of these market distortions — numbers that could help make sense about why OEMs continue to push various tactics to tamp down dealer markups. The short of it is that through May and June, GfK says 80% of car buyers paid MSRP or above, including 34% who "paid fees they had never heard of before." Afterward, data from roughly 40,000 shoppers showed that "Paying above MSRP leaves car buyers with strong negative feelings toward auto brands, dealerships."

The initial burn is quick, but the pain can stay with the customer a long time. Word-of-mouth marketing took the worst turn, with 31% of respondents who paid more than the manufacturer's suggested retail price saying they'd warn others to avoid the dealership they used, compared to 14% of those who paid MSRP saying they'd do the same. Brands aren't safe from the resentment, either, 27% of buyers who paid more than MSRP saying they "would never buy the same brand again." Only 10% of those who paid MSRP shared that sentiment.

What could be worse for dealers is that 23% of those who paid over MSRP in May said they wouldn't take their car in for service to the dealer they bought from, the figure rising to 32% in June. In the good old days — 2019, if any of us can remember that far back — dealers might take a haircut on the sale to get the service goodwill, because that's where profit and repeat business lived. Word-of-mouth took a beating here, too, 35% of buyers who shoveled cash into dealer coffers saying they'd tell others to avoid a particular service department.

Maybe the worst sting in all of this is that many customers are paying more for the car they didn't want most. Thirty-one percent of respondents didn't buy their first choice of car, 30% bought from a dealer that wasn't their first choice, and 30% compromised on features. Nothing causes heartburn like getting bent over a barrel to buy something you didn't really want.

Said Julie Kenar, SVP at GfK AutoMobility, "Manufacturers and dealers need to think beyond today’s troubles to protect their brands for the long term. While paying above MSRP may not seem terribly different than simply paying the list price, our research shows that the negative feelings generated are much stronger – and more threatening to future business."

Of course, it would be unjust to dealers and manufacturers not to turn the hot light of investigation the other direction. Plenty of readers read the first paragraph and thought, "The market's not distorted — that's how the market works." Which is to say, customers are the ones voluntarily paying over MSRP and so are directly responsible for last month's Cox Automotive findings. Sure, there must be buyers that need a vehicle right this moment, but they must also represent a tiny fraction of those consenting to MSRP plus $15,000 "market adjustments" plus bizarre fees like $1,000 for locking lug nuts on a Ford Mustang Mach-E. Customers might not care about that, livid over the perceived injustice, and they might get the chance to enact their comeuppance one day. However, as any behavioral therapist can tell you, it's real hard to change behaviors that pay dividends to the actor.   

[theking]

YUP, simple basic supply/demand factor here:

Ford hikes price on all-electric F-150 Lightning due to shortages, inflation — here’s how much the pickup truck will cost

Ford Motor Co. this week will reopen its order banks exclusive to reservation holders for the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck. With this round comes a slightly longer battery range and a higher sticker price for model year 2023.

Citing “significant material cost increases and other factors,” the automaker said in a release it would increase the manufacturer’s suggested retail price on the Lightning starting with this wave of orders. The base model of the truck will go up by $7,000, or 17.5%, to just under $47,000. Customers with an order already on the books will not be impacted.

Ford F, -3.74% isn’t alone. Faced with rising raw materials prices PL00, -0.61% and chip shortages as the world rebounds from the worst of the COVID-19 shutdown, many electric-vehicle makers have increased prices on some models.

Ford in April reported first-quarter results within Wall Street expectations, saying that strong demand for its vehicles was tempered by “persistent” supply-chain challenges that crimped the auto maker’s ability to fulfill its orders.

[Hung_Low]

love the concept of going green with electric vehicles (It's just an illusion) - they use electricity generated by coal and natural gas (fossil fuel) plus cobalt mining (for the lithium ion) in batteries. These mining operation have high human cost and environmental cost...

But it's all good because it's green (no gas in car) 

[theking]

Overall, EV is still cleaner than ICE vehicles and also saves the consumers more resources in the long run due to it's low ownership cost.

[Hung_Low]

Overall, EV is still cleaner than ICE vehicles and also saves the consumers more resources in the long run due to it's low ownership cost.

Yes, cleaner and less energy wasted since about 60% of energy is lost in ICE vehicle. However, still not economically viable for regular joes and no more reliable than ICE vehicle.

[theking]

However, still not economically viable for regular joes ...

Read somewhere that the average new car price is $50k now so if that's the average then there are several EV options that cost below that mark even before government tax rebates and such from Nissan, Ford, Kia, etc., so yes some "regular joes" can still afford it. Otherwise, they won't be able to afford ICE cars either going by that average.

[DuMa]

You got to put that deposit when it comes time for the reservation and make sure to get it in writing as well just to make sure.  This is the only way to get your latest vehicle build to spec without having the dealership charging you them mark up prices.  You will pay msrp though. 

Ford folks already told their customers to report cheating dealership so they will be put on a ban list.  No more ford sending to that stealership. 

Now if they want a vehicle just to put a mark up pricing on it, they will try to get you, the buyer to cancel your reservation by lying to you during transit.  So now your ordered vehicle will get ship to the stealersihp for a markup and there will be someone out there with money will pay for it. 

Still falls back to supply and demand.  Blame on the rich folks who has the money and who doesn't play the the waiting game or discount game when it comes to car buying. 

[theking]

 

Still falls back to supply and demand.

Yep, that basic simple concept can apply to a lot of consumer goods and services like gasoline, food, and yes, autos too...