1. Buy Subaru with no money down, 72-month, $1000/month loan

I’ll agree that newer used cars are better equipped, but I’m not completely sold on “better quality”.

I recall that too! My ex-wife REALLY wanted one, and after driving it were shown the sticker plus $10K (or $5K - it was a long time ago!) - and I said “yeah, we don’t need that car THAT badly” - and the sales guy acted offended, like I was insulting HIM. The still gouge didn’t tick me off (after all, no one is forcing…

Yeah, and the dealers want retail price of a new car for them.  The cheap end of the market is gone altogether.  I used to be able to find decent cars for under $1500 (cars about 10 years old with between 100-150k miles)  Those cars are going for 4-7k now.

Missing from this commentary:

Not indicated: What (if any) was the impact of Cash for Clunkers? I know the program was designed to take “oldish” cars off of the market in 2009, but I’m unclear as to how it would impact this study. Those cars that were traded in during that time would have also been well under 10k. 

People are also keeping their vehicles longer, because the cost of the new ones have gotten so freaking high. I'm still driving my 13 year old truck, because a new one is going to cost me literally double what this one cost me when it was new.

Best used car for a non-enthusiast? I’d suggest a Hyundai/Kia over Toyota, more depreciation, same quality in the last few years.

I’m gonna say the worst markup I’ve seen is NOT some crazy “market adjustment” for a hot new vehicle.

There had been a questionable Subaru dealer on route 9 in Ocean County NJ that charged over list, he priced himself right out of business.

Found the dealer.  You’re right, they can and they should. In turn we can tell them to fuck off and buy elsewhere. I appreciate places with ADM stickers, it makes it easy to know who the shitty dealers are. 

Tried to get on a waiting list for the Audi RS6 Avant, dealers are charging $5000 just for a spot.  I have no idea how much they will then add in dealer mark ups, but it is sure to be insane. 

The S2000 was being marked up 25k-30k in the San Diego market when it debuted. Scumbag salesman at Pacific Honda was trying to claim that Honda was only going to produce 1 year of the car, and we were “ lucky” it was only 60k price

Back in 2001/2002 Mazda dealers put $2500 “Market Adjustments” on Tributes. Crazy times!

A new Mitsubishi Mirage G4 sedan for MSRP, just bonkers.

90% of car dealers don’t know anything about cars so... kinda makes sense. “This is a V6 model! we have V4s too!” and etc etc. I really wonder what the hiring process was like.

Dealerships definitely mislead people, they tried to pull that con on me.

I personally am not bothered by this level of efficiency, both on a relative basis and in the total dollar amount wasted. If you are bothered by either of those, well, a real look into waste in defense spending is going to be hair-raising for you.

I suppose I would’ve looked into it more in depth were I to buy an EV, but the only thing I knew is the credit is drastically reduced on Toyotas and others that have passed the volume threshold. The idea that you didn’t get credit for a lease, or it changed based on battery size didn’t occur to me (though it makes…

The only way to stop behavior like that is to make it unprofitable. Limited time or not, you should have walked out, with a stop in the General Sales Manager’s office to explain exactly why they lost your business. Then follow up with a letter to corporate.