Edmunds View Inventory Feature

gs42

Using the "check inventory" feature that Edmunds provides is an eye-opening experience. Not only are cars not selling, cars are really not selling.

Using a 100 mile radius in NE Indiana, it would appear that Toyota dealers have about three times as much inventory in Camrys than any other car maker's single model. Infiniti still has a ton 2008 G35 to sell. It also appears the Fort Wayne Nissan-Infiniti dealer has sold very few cars this year to date. The same is true of Nissan dealers in Indianapolis. Altimas abound everywhere. I have a 2009 Maxima and have yet to see another one on the road. Hyundai Sonatas are plentiful around here as are Honda Accords.

Ford appears to have been shrewd once again in that excess inventory is small in most cases. Plenty of Impalas around including a few 2008 left-overs. Pontiac G8 is pretty scarce. I didn't bother to check Chrysler...

I would be most interested in seeing if numbers from around the country are similar to this part of Indiana.

oldfarmer50

How do you acess this feature? I don't recall ever seeing it. :confuse:

gagrice

Pick the new car you are wanting. There is a View Inventory (new) icon up close to the top. Works well there are a quite a few X5 diesels on the lots right now.

oldfarmer50

Thanks

stever

The View Inventory feature is pretty new - maybe a month old now?

Gary, are those X5 diesel's showing up closer to home now?

gagrice

It looks like the small dealer closest to me in El Cajon, has 5 in their inventory. That is a nice feature. I did not notice it until the thread was posted. I tried to stop yesterday and my wife was in a hurry. I will have to go by myself. She hates looking at cars. Whatever I decide that does not look like a sports car is fine with her.

gs42

Update and correction. As of last night there were 2300 of the 2008-9 Impalas within 100 miles, 1253 Camrys, 1163 Accords, 505 Sonatas and 563 Buick Lucernes.

Rebates will have to increase and be publicized, imo. I understand that a better deal can be made than the rebates indicate, but what is going to bring buyers out out to make deals if bigger money isn't offered? Word of mouth isn't getting it done.

GM is on its last legs and not learning a thing from the process. From the numbers above, we won't need 2010 GM products even if they somehow survive.

gs42

Jan 31 update

2257 Impalas, 1194 Accords, 1280 Camrys, 554 Lucernes, 489 Sonatas. Within 100 mile radius. Sales look VERY slow. Much worse than predictions.

oldfarmer50

I have tried several times to use this new feature and I always get "Loading Error Please check back in a few minutes."

So what's the problem? Edmunds or my computer?

stever

What's your operating system and what browser are you using?

You may need to upgrade your Java and/or Flash.

Karen_S

Also, if you have an ad-blocker enabled, that may be an issue accessing the view inventory.

gs42

Feb 9th inventory within 100 miles. Accord and Camry inventories are up by about 8% each, so it's hard to tell how many are being sold. Unless there is a fire sale, the Impala inventory is good for another 16 months or so. Better get serious about the incentives. Sonatas have better rebates than GM and they had a sales increase last year! Chapter 11 is coming fast. 14 Lucernes sold in the last 9 days also. Maxima is dead in the water, saleswise. Any other areas of the country want to contribute a running total? Adding Ford Fusion.

Fusion 1563

Impalas 2219
Accords 1277
Camrys 1385
Sonatas 486
Altimas 881
Lucernes 542
Maximas 263

gs42

Feb.15th numbers Camry and Accord inventories still moving up. Fusion did well. Nissan ad blitz with rebates might start moving the Altimas this week.

Fusion 1433
Impalas 2169
Accords 1366
Camrys 1506
Sonatas 495
Altimas 884
Lucernes 538
Maximas 262

stever

It'll be another couple of weeks for any new incentives to come out, assuming that the automakers stick to the usual roll-out of incentives just after the first of the month. With the market like it is, that could be a lousy assumption though.

gs42

What I didn't say successfully is that Nissan has rebates on the Altima and is having an ad blitz about it starting last week.

I bought a GM car in 2003 and got over 5k in incentives with GM loyalty rebates. Right now it appears the Impala will not need to be produced in 2010.

I have a Maxima now and have seen only two others since late November. Nissan is going to have to form a strategy also..they are not selling at all around here.

stever

What I didn't say successfully is that Nissan has rebates on the Altima and is having an ad blitz about it starting last week.

Yeah, I caught that, but the incentives started on 2/2. The ad blitz was delayed a week for some reason eh?

I wasn't too clear on what I was trying to say though - the current Nissan incentive expires (in my zip code at least) on 3/2. I'm still assuming that it'll be extended or sweetened. But it's only an assumption. (link)

gs42

Feb 22 update. Impalas were down to 2164 on Friday so there may be a glitch in the 100 mile radius numbers. It would appear that 3 Maximas have been sold in the last month. It is impossible to know how many dealers are taking into inventory, but I would hope GM isn't making any more Buicks and Impalas at this point.

Fusion 1303
Impala 2214
Accord 1378
Camry 1549
Sonata 491
Altima 849
Lucerne 520
Maxima 260

gs42

March 2, 2009 It's a disaster beyond the worst expectations. I will be surprised if sales reach more than 8.7 million this year. It appears some inventory has been shifted out of the area. Nissan cars look like that happened. No way they sold 25 Maximas after selling 3 in two months. Accord and Camry inventory has grown steadily since Jan. 1.

Fusion 1292
Impala 2106
Accord 1389
Camry 1563
Sonata 434
Altima 742
Lucerne 525
Maxima 234

gs42

Updates discontinued due to lack of replies and/or interest. The industry is in far more trouble than we realize just as the economies of many countries are worse than we know.

stever

I think people have been reading your posts. Not many of us have the energy to do all the search work that you've been doing, so thanks!.

And I guess there's other metrics out there that agree with your assessment that the industry is in a world of hurt, and people are discussing those reports in several other topics here.

gs42

Searching is easy once you establish the radius, just change the car and search again. The whole process didn't take 5 minutes! I had hoped some other parts of the country would speak up..didn't happen so what you saw was a big mid-west bias. Most of the unsold big 3 must be within 200 miles of here. I feel terrible for the dealers who are stuck in this old inventory.

My daughter leased a 2009 Accord last week and the Honda dealership is overflowing with unsold new cars. I got a 2009 Maxima at an Indianapolis dealership and if I can read it right, they have sold 2 since late November when I got mine. My guess is that 2010 models of most makes will be released much later as far as actual inventory goes. Some may not be released at all.

dtownfb

I know my local Enterprise received a bunch of new Altimas over the past month.

gs42

Altimas are selling pretty well considering the economy. So if there are some fleet sales that would explain it. I'm pretty sure that is what happened with about 22 Maximas last week. They were not selling and suddenly a bunch are gone..now, not selling again .I heard on the Maxima forums that Avis and Enterprise bought some.

gs42

Over a 1000 Impalas and Accords are unsold and it's almost September. Toyota has moved Camrys and has less than a 100 in a 100 mile radius. 300 Buick Lucernes remain..who will buy those? Nissan doesn't need many 2010 Maximas or Altimas for a while either. Ford has few Fusions but plenty of the Focus left over and VW has over 300 Jettas to sell yet.

With the clunker deal ending, the new car market will hit new lows this fall in my opinion, anyway.

dtownfb

Not too sure about that. I think you'll see manufacturer rebates later this year that will help move some cars. It won't be like the past month and a half but not as bad as folks think.

euphonium

Perhaps the non econ models will sell because of heavy discounting, but I don't have much confidence in future sales as the C4C has "borrowed" future sales made to the econ owners.

Having two 15 year old cars, each with over 120,000 miles, it would be nice to have a later model, but the way the government is putting the country into record debt, one or two things will have to happen to deal with the debt. (1) print money which will cause high inflation or (2) increase taxes or both. Either way, what savings and investments people still have are being held in reserve for worse times to come.
Retired Risktakers are holding on to what they have in fear of the financial future. :mad:

dtownfb

And the Retired Risktakers should be afraid. I know of too many people who were hurt and/or deceived during the stock market plunge. Too many "financial planners" who trying to make a buck off someone else. Sad when people do the right thing and now are forced to go back to work or move in with their children.

Unfortunately higher taxes are a given. this along with the high unemployment were inevitable considering what has gone on the last 2 years...heck the past decade (can't leave Clinton out of this). The next few years, each American has to work on reducing their personal debt and saving more so we can get our economy working the way it is suppose to work. the last decade has been nothing but greed and corruption and we are paying for it.

stever

The next few years, each American has to work on reducing their personal debt and saving more so we can get our economy working the way it is suppose to work.

The US household savings rate is now double that of Japan, which historically was sky high. Some economists say that the (former) high rate of personal savings hurt the Japanese economy. (link)

Sitting on a wad of cash that's being devalued in your savings account isn't going to keep those car inventories low, so go spend your money.

euphonium

Converting Investment to Car accelerates Value Depreciation. Cars don't pay interest.

Financing the car buying is really stupid. High interest on buying the money to purchase the car while it depreciates adds up to very poor business sense. :lemon:

stever

Cars don't pay interest.

Neither do the banks. :P

Meanwhile your cash depreciates about as fast as your car value.

british_rover

What is high interest though? With good credit you can get a new car loan under 4.9% from most commercial banks right now and at a credit union they might even be lower. I have seen credit union rates at 3.9% and plenty of manufactures are offering rates under 2.9%.

Sure pay off the "bad" debt high interest non-secured credit cars or personal loans. Super low interest on a car loan? No don't pay that off conserve your cash.

My student loans are 2% locked in why would I ever pay them off early? Even if the interest wasn't tax deductible I wouldn't pay them off early. I would rather keep my cash.

fintail

I checked my last loan statement. 2.8%. I think even my dopey investment strategies can beat that, no incentive to pay it off early.

Financing a car is not a valid evil, especially when in these days of declining real incomes, it's a simple necessity for most.

british_rover

In the play money account that I run to kind of test out things if I had a $100,000 to play with I am up 12.64% since Feb of 2008 when I started. I was up .85% today so I beat the market pretty good as the DOW was only up .39%. When things were really bad last Dec/Jan I was down as much as 15% but have done very well the past few months. I just wish I really did have 100,000 real dollars to work with.

My self managed account isn't up that high but I don't have as much money to play with and I am not as aggressive with it either.

Their are high yield money market accounts that can get you close to 2% if you just want to park some money their. There are way too many people out there who get riled up about any kind of debt. Yes, there is bad debt out there but financing a new car with a long warranty when you put down 20% or more and have a low interest rate is not bad debt.

fintail

I made some self-guided investments last year as everything was spiraling down. I am up about 15% now...not huge, but better than putting that money into paying a 2.8% loan off early.

I put my 401K into something conservative at the end of the year...I might need to modify it now.

Debt is a necessary evil in this world. As long as it is less than your income and you have some self discipline, it's not anything to worry about.

british_rover

Up 15% is good for how the market has been. If you are making a ton of money just hand over fist then you are probably making too much and are about to get burned.

I wish I had my 100,000 of play money as real money over the past 18 months. The S&P is down almost 23% over that same time period.

explorerx4

is only as accurate as the dealer updating their inventory?

fintail

So long as I am not losing money, I'm happy :shades:

stever

From the FAQ:

"Please note that the number of listings you find may vary from area to area; however, dealers are continually adding new listings and content, so if you don't find what you're looking for right away, we encourage you to check back again in a week or two."

explorerx4

not sure if that answers my question. i didn't mean a newly listed dealer. more one who has 'signed up' already.

stever

I think some dealers are better at this than others.