Anecdotal observations, a day of car shopping
08-21-2006, 07:06 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Anecdotal observations, a day of car shopping
This is not intended to start some massive flame war just posting something I saw this weekend. I was kind of shocked at what I saw. Lots of rambling thoughts.
Went out Saturday to do some car shopping with the fiance. We will both be getting new cars before the end of the year and want different things, but were looking to kill a Saturday looking at just about anything that interested us and taking some test drives. This was down a major metro auto strip, just about every brand within a 3 mile stretch.
The first stop was a toyota dealer. We were going to drive a Rav4 6. When we showed up at the dealer it was freaking packed. As packed as I have every seen a dealership except the one I worked at in High School where we gave away a free car one day and you had to be present, every mooch in town showed up. This was different, these were buyers. People everywhere. They had about I am guessing 20 salespeople and everybody had customers. Some where probably working 3 each. Yaris's with deal plates being driven, Camry's, Corrolas, Scions, Siennas. I don't think it was any big sale although Toyota does have some incentives going right now. All of the 15 desks inside had customers dealing with sales people, the waiting room had customers sitting there waiting for busy sales people. Customers all over the lot. Amazing.
We finally drove the Rav after a wait, my second drive but wanted fiance to drive it. Nice. She did not like it. Limited for $28K. I like it but when I stomped on it it did not go like the magzine said it would but the engine had less than 100 miles and there were 3 of us in the car. Liked, did not love, but very solid product. Crawled around the FJ on the showfloor. I must admit cool looking, seems like it would be VERY capable offroad. Also looks like it would be clumsy in traffic because it is very wide, interior very plain, $31K sticker, 21 mpg, no thanks.
Next dealer was Honda. Not nearly as many customers and very little inventory. Looks like Honda has plenty of Pilots for sale. We asked to drive a civic, they only had one demo and my fiance said she would comeback when they had inventory. I tried to explain that they might not have any for a long time because they sell before they get their but there we two folk waiting ahead of us for a test drive so she said "Lets go." No accords in stock either. Plenty of Elements and a couple Ridgelines. Only half the customers of Toyota.
Next came the domestic dealers....
Went out Saturday to do some car shopping with the fiance. We will both be getting new cars before the end of the year and want different things, but were looking to kill a Saturday looking at just about anything that interested us and taking some test drives. This was down a major metro auto strip, just about every brand within a 3 mile stretch.
The first stop was a toyota dealer. We were going to drive a Rav4 6. When we showed up at the dealer it was freaking packed. As packed as I have every seen a dealership except the one I worked at in High School where we gave away a free car one day and you had to be present, every mooch in town showed up. This was different, these were buyers. People everywhere. They had about I am guessing 20 salespeople and everybody had customers. Some where probably working 3 each. Yaris's with deal plates being driven, Camry's, Corrolas, Scions, Siennas. I don't think it was any big sale although Toyota does have some incentives going right now. All of the 15 desks inside had customers dealing with sales people, the waiting room had customers sitting there waiting for busy sales people. Customers all over the lot. Amazing.
We finally drove the Rav after a wait, my second drive but wanted fiance to drive it. Nice. She did not like it. Limited for $28K. I like it but when I stomped on it it did not go like the magzine said it would but the engine had less than 100 miles and there were 3 of us in the car. Liked, did not love, but very solid product. Crawled around the FJ on the showfloor. I must admit cool looking, seems like it would be VERY capable offroad. Also looks like it would be clumsy in traffic because it is very wide, interior very plain, $31K sticker, 21 mpg, no thanks.
Next dealer was Honda. Not nearly as many customers and very little inventory. Looks like Honda has plenty of Pilots for sale. We asked to drive a civic, they only had one demo and my fiance said she would comeback when they had inventory. I tried to explain that they might not have any for a long time because they sell before they get their but there we two folk waiting ahead of us for a test drive so she said "Lets go." No accords in stock either. Plenty of Elements and a couple Ridgelines. Only half the customers of Toyota.
Next came the domestic dealers....
08-21-2006, 07:11 AM
#2
Registered User
Toyota sells by far the most cars per dealership. GM does sell more cars but probably has 4 times as many dealership, and don't forget GM probably sells a few million fleet vehicles so the numbers are inflated. Tho I do see a lot of Sienna as rentals as well as NYC taxi cabs.
I think Honda sells the second most cars per dealership.
I think Honda sells the second most cars per dealership.
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d1rtyc4r (03-23-2017)
08-21-2006, 07:23 AM
#3
Thread Starter
We pulled into a Pontiac GMC lot, keep in mind this was a Saturday, nobody. I wanted my fiance to crawl around a Torrent because, well, I like em and have a lot of GM dollars in the bank. There could have been a couple customers out on a test drive and I am sure they had to have some traffic during the day, but they had nobody. And only about 8 salespeople. You know that the staff level is an indicator of the traffic they expect. The sales guy was nice and we looked around. The fiance is japanese and only likes Japanese cars but she liked the Torrent too. It has one of the crappiest power trains in its class but the car has some utility, a decent interior layout and with the discounts would be about $6-$7K less than a Toyota. I also like the looks better.
Still nobody at the dealership. I started to feel a little sick. Why? I thought, my god, while I tend to prefer Japanese brands when prices are equal, this can not be good. About a jillion people who work for general motors, ford, chrysler are in big trouble if this is an indicator. This does not bode well for the future of the US auto industry and the economy. At that point I wanted to convince myself I should buy SOME domestic out of some kind of nationalism.
Next was Saturn, they had about five customers. We skipped Chrysler and Ford becauser niether of us liked anything they make. Chrysler looked dead, the Ford dealer had quite a few customers walking around. Not nearly that of Toyota and even less than Honda but this was our states biggest volume Ford dealer.
We then went to Mazda and Nissan. Both were fairly slow, about the same number of customers about as the Saturn dealer. She drove a 3 and likes it, but she has been in love with the looks of the thing since it came out. The Mazda dealer was also a Chevy Dealer in an adjacent building, could not tell for sure but it looked very slow too.
We then stopped at Subie. The had 6 Sti's parked out in front and so they had every Rod Millan wannabe lining up to test drive one, and a few other folks walking around. I decided after my second drive of the Outback Turbo that that would be the car I will buy to tow my boat. Its just too much fun to resist over the other choices that do not offer a stick.
Still nobody at the dealership. I started to feel a little sick. Why? I thought, my god, while I tend to prefer Japanese brands when prices are equal, this can not be good. About a jillion people who work for general motors, ford, chrysler are in big trouble if this is an indicator. This does not bode well for the future of the US auto industry and the economy. At that point I wanted to convince myself I should buy SOME domestic out of some kind of nationalism.
Next was Saturn, they had about five customers. We skipped Chrysler and Ford becauser niether of us liked anything they make. Chrysler looked dead, the Ford dealer had quite a few customers walking around. Not nearly that of Toyota and even less than Honda but this was our states biggest volume Ford dealer.
We then went to Mazda and Nissan. Both were fairly slow, about the same number of customers about as the Saturn dealer. She drove a 3 and likes it, but she has been in love with the looks of the thing since it came out. The Mazda dealer was also a Chevy Dealer in an adjacent building, could not tell for sure but it looked very slow too.
We then stopped at Subie. The had 6 Sti's parked out in front and so they had every Rod Millan wannabe lining up to test drive one, and a few other folks walking around. I decided after my second drive of the Outback Turbo that that would be the car I will buy to tow my boat. Its just too much fun to resist over the other choices that do not offer a stick.
08-21-2006, 07:32 AM
#4
Thread Starter
Last thoughts.......
Though I won't be buying a domestic myself I saw a few products that I liked and will give them consideration in the future. While I still prefer many of the imports, I do like to have a healthy domestic lineup and kind of worry a bit about the jobs picture for some of these people, even if they are members of the hated UAW. I hope that people are open enough to go look at their offering because there were some vehicle I think are pretty competitive. I also hope that GM can rush out some of its newer cars that start to phase in new engines and nicer interiors. They need them quick.
I also noticed, although it could be my imagination, no matter where we went, people seemed to be far more interested in cars than trucks or SUV's. Honda did not have any Fits, and only a demo Accord and Civic to drive, but had lots of Pilots and a few Elements and Ridgelines.
The toyota dealer had two lots, one for trucks and one for cars and the car lot had 80% of the customers.
Just what I saw on saturday, and I know we are enthusiast who tend to say "high gas prices wont change my car choice" but it seems many of the average families are looking at cars and more so to imports. Saturn was the only domestic we went too that had a decent gaggle of customers.
Hate and bash away, just what I noticed. We did not go to the high buck dealers but if they had customers, they would have been Porsche, Audi, Lexus, Acura, Infinity, etc. Mostly imports.
My state is one that has always been pretty open to buying imports, not like michigan or some southern states where all you see is domestics so where you live could be a little different.
Regardless of what they tell you on the Solstice or Sky forum, there is no shortage of inventory. People must be waiting for the turbos because the Pontiac and Saturn had 5 a piece. Maybe it is because they are not great in snow. The Honda dealer told me they were only ordering about 5 or so S2000's though because they are selling slower than they have in the past too.
Though I won't be buying a domestic myself I saw a few products that I liked and will give them consideration in the future. While I still prefer many of the imports, I do like to have a healthy domestic lineup and kind of worry a bit about the jobs picture for some of these people, even if they are members of the hated UAW. I hope that people are open enough to go look at their offering because there were some vehicle I think are pretty competitive. I also hope that GM can rush out some of its newer cars that start to phase in new engines and nicer interiors. They need them quick.
I also noticed, although it could be my imagination, no matter where we went, people seemed to be far more interested in cars than trucks or SUV's. Honda did not have any Fits, and only a demo Accord and Civic to drive, but had lots of Pilots and a few Elements and Ridgelines.
The toyota dealer had two lots, one for trucks and one for cars and the car lot had 80% of the customers.
Just what I saw on saturday, and I know we are enthusiast who tend to say "high gas prices wont change my car choice" but it seems many of the average families are looking at cars and more so to imports. Saturn was the only domestic we went too that had a decent gaggle of customers.
Hate and bash away, just what I noticed. We did not go to the high buck dealers but if they had customers, they would have been Porsche, Audi, Lexus, Acura, Infinity, etc. Mostly imports.
My state is one that has always been pretty open to buying imports, not like michigan or some southern states where all you see is domestics so where you live could be a little different.
Regardless of what they tell you on the Solstice or Sky forum, there is no shortage of inventory. People must be waiting for the turbos because the Pontiac and Saturn had 5 a piece. Maybe it is because they are not great in snow. The Honda dealer told me they were only ordering about 5 or so S2000's though because they are selling slower than they have in the past too.
08-21-2006, 07:42 AM
#5
Good write-up. Nothing surprising as far as your observations.
08-21-2006, 08:04 AM
#6
Former Moderator
I don't visit any dealerships other than the ones I work for (all foreign), but I have seen an enormous amount of job applicants coming from the domestic dealerships lately.
Many are people who have spent over 10 and 20 years with a particular domestic brand.
Many are people who have spent over 10 and 20 years with a particular domestic brand.
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d1rtyc4r (03-23-2017)
08-21-2006, 08:09 AM
#7
Registered User
I noticed pretty much the same thing when I went looking at Corvettes two weekends ago. The Chevy dealership was dead on a Saturday afternoon, but the nearby Lexus and Mazda dealerships were packed with people.
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d1rtyc4r (03-23-2017)
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08-21-2006, 08:45 AM
#8
Originally Posted by vader1,Aug 21 2006, 10:32 AM
I also noticed, although it could be my imagination, no matter where we went, people seemed to be far more interested in cars than trucks or SUV's. Honda did not have any Fits, and only a demo Accord and Civic to drive, but had lots of Pilots and a few Elements and Ridgelines.
The toyota dealer had two lots, one for trucks and one for cars and the car lot had 80% of the customers.
The toyota dealer had two lots, one for trucks and one for cars and the car lot had 80% of the customers.
08-21-2006, 09:03 AM
#9
Registered User
don't feel so bad for the US economy. After all Toyota/Honda/Nissan/MB/BMW/Hyaiunda etc.. build millions and millions of cars in the US for sale here (and export).
Also all those ppl who sell and service and finance import cars are part of the US economy.
I think Toyota/Honda etc.. are selling well for some part b/c they build a lot here in the US. Good for PR IMO. Also US labor (non-union) is probably cheaper than in Japan/Germany or about the same. It's the UAW that is sucking lhe life out of the big three (IMO)
Also all those ppl who sell and service and finance import cars are part of the US economy.
I think Toyota/Honda etc.. are selling well for some part b/c they build a lot here in the US. Good for PR IMO. Also US labor (non-union) is probably cheaper than in Japan/Germany or about the same. It's the UAW that is sucking lhe life out of the big three (IMO)
08-21-2006, 09:31 AM
#10
Registered User
Its pretty crazy what cars you see depending on where you are. I took a trip to Utah and at my whole stay there I saw maybe 5 BMWs... where as here in Los Angeles, it seems like almost every 5th car is a BMW
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d1rtyc4r (03-23-2017)