People put down deposits for every electric truck in development, leaving dealers in the lurch when they eventually cancel all but one

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 118 points – People put down deposits for every electric truck in development, leaving dealers in the lurch when they eventually cancel all but one
businessinsider.com

People put down deposits for every electric truck in development, leaving dealers in the lurch when they eventually cancel all but one::When an electric truck customer doesn't show up to pick up their order, dealer are left with a car that might be hard to sell to someone else.

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Given that dealers don't have stock sitting around and are marking up both new and used right now... boo hoo?

Tell me they're not just turning around and selling that to the next person in the list. Really hard to have any sympathy for car dealers after how they've treated consumers.

Yeah, dealers are the last group that I feel sorry for

You should, I posted a video in my other comment that shows how manufacturers are actually fucking the dealers and they have no way to fight back

Good.

Stealerships have been raping and pillaging for years. The sooner they go the way of buggy whip makers the better.

And before you ask: Direct purchase from manufacturers and licensed service centers is a much better model, if we can't have that then manufacturer direct service.

Amen, burn the stealership model, I bought my tesla without any bs and I'm happier than if I had to go through a dealer for everything, I doubt I'll be willing to go through one again.

They're complaining about when people with preorders don't pick up their order - which means those people basically gave the dealer a free $500~1000 with the only string attached being that the dealer now has one more vehicle on their lot to sell.

I've put down a few preorders and across the board the story I get is the same: once I fully place my order (customize and lock it in), I can't get my deposit back. So the only ones really losing, IMO, are those who assume a preorder means a guaranteed sale. That was never the deal they struck, and it seems they've forgotten the wiggle room they built into the deal to manage the pitfalls of losing that 'guaranteed' sale.

Particularly when it comes to these trucks, both Ford and Chevy promised "$40k" for theirs and that definitely moved massive numbers of deposits. Both jumped to an entry level price of around $70k, and that's if they even let a consumer buy the lower trims. If that keeps happening to other models, like the promised $30k Equinox EV, they really can't get mad when people back out once more details are known, or get cold feet when they realize the market's not in a good spot for them. Personally, I'm not finalizing any purchase or locking in my deposit if I can't get hands-on time first. If that's not workable for dealerships, then good riddance. They have one job, and that's to educate me and let me test drive.

Are down deposits not refundable?

I cannot wrap my head around people who spend 5k just to preorder a car.

Same here where I am from, the deposit is around $1500 but it’s refundable even after the car arrives to the dealership’s lot.

They're refundable if you actually buy it. It's like a down payment. They only lose the money if they decide to cancel the order. That helps reduce the risk that the business will pay for an expensive car only to no longer have a buyer for it.

When these trucks are like $90k new, spending a few thousand to hedge your bets on which one will arrive first is nothing. It's like paying for faster delivery. Electric vehicles are in insane demand and sellers cannot keep up. Though honestly, I'm not sure dealerships are gonna have issues as a result.

Around here (western-ish USA), EVs are mostly $50k+ SUVs and aren't super high in demand, and dealers are dropping pretty big discounts. But it's just starting to put them into affordable territory for me (at least, where I've set my expectations) and upcoming models are promising to compete comfortably within my budget so I'm hoping preorders are a decent means to get lined up for what may end up being some very highly in demand new models in a price tier that's not seen much competition.

I'm hoping it prevents a painfully long wait if these prove to be the go-to new standard everyone's lining up for once they're getting previews/reviews. If not, shouldn't be too painful to get my deposit back if I go another route. I'm hopeful this lets me keep my options open, even if it's keeping some of my money tied up for now. It syncs up well enough with my strategy of waiting and I can keep an eye out on the market to see if something better comes along in the meantime.

Dealer markups the last few years have pushed significant market share to fixed price sales like tesla, polestar, and rivian. I ended up with a polestar after I couldn't find a Ford Mach E, hyundai ioniq5 or VW ID4 without markup. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them when they have inventories building up?

And that it's their fault for gouging and thinking people won't shop around? They've done it to themselves with greed.

Yeah, same. I never dreamed that a Tesla would be the cheaper option (summer 2022 at peak prices) compared to a Mach e, ev6, or ioniq5, but my dealerships all had 15k markups, and each car has features I wanted gated behind higher trims, so they were all like 60k+ after markups (don’t remember specifics since it was over a year ago)

Thankfully I got a ridiculous trade in check from my ID.4, so I was able to afford a huge downpayment on the model 3, although thanks to the price drops, I’m underwater again… good thing gap insurance is only $8 a month through my insurance

What does it mean to be underwater in this instance? And what is Gap insurance?

Underwater means that I owe more on the car than it’s worth. I bought it at $52K with a 15K downpayment, and at this point I owe $33K on it. Carvana estimates it’s worth $30K, so if I totaled it tomorrow, my insurance company would give me $30K, but then I’d be on the hook for the other $3,000. So gap insurance takes care of that. In fact, my gap policy says that if I total a car two years old or newer, they’ll pay it off and get me a brand new one as a replacement, and if it’s older than two years, they’ll get me one a year newer.

So I’m paying $8/month for the peace of mind that I don’t have to worry about out owing money in the case of a crash.

Obviously when I bought the car, I wasn’t expecting Tesla to drop the price so much and crater the used market

Thanks for responding! I'm glad I learned about this!

It's because of how the manufacturers have set up the system. I posted a video above explaining how manufacturers control everything

Yeah, I don’t feel bad for the Automobile Cartel.

Bummer

Won't someone think of the leeches dealer networks?

Give this a watch (it's 9 minutes and super interesting) and see if that changes your perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meHYBhcpdvQ

No matter how many times you post this, you aren't going to counter a century of bad deals and predatory behavior. Car dealers have zero place in the market stream any longer.

What happened to the invisible hand of the market? Make up your mind, capitalists.

Fortnine (I think) did a great video on dealerships. Basically, the manufacturers are fucking the dealers, and also that's why 90% of motorbikes are black.

I'll try find the video. You'll feel for the dealers who are basically stuck doing what the manufacturer wants.