Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.
Car hopping
There must be a reason why I keep harping on this?
Imagine buying a used car for $26K and then turning around and selling it for almost $30K. That’s what you can do if you can get your hands on a 2006 Prius.
It used to be that when you drove a new car off the lot, the value went down to about half.
A 2005 Prius, 2004 Prius and 2005 Honda Insight have also seen their value go UP!
Let me see if I got this right. Buy a car, drive it for two years and then sell it for a profit!
Yep, that’s the way it is with these Japanese cars.
Is America finally feeling the pinch, getting environmentally friendly, slimming down (their cars at least)?
Are the American car companies listening?
Huh!?
I said, are GM and Ford listening?
I guess not.
Japan knows how to make cars. Japan knows what America needs. American car makers will be playing catch up for a long time.
What do you think?
american car companies seem to be only pretending to get into the hybrid market. they say what they have to so people will think they are trying, but there does not seem to be a valid effort. how long have hybrids been out? ford has the escape, and gm has a full size truck. the japanese car makers have multiple models to choose from and they work. at least ford was smart and borrowed toyota’s hybrid technology to make theirs.
I think gm and ford are lost. its as if they have no clue that the gas prices are high and that honda and toyota are making more sales with fuel efficient cars.
If I were a huge car company like GM and Ford with all of their resources, how hard can it be to figure out what to do?
I don’t think it is just that GM and Ford are lame ducks, but pressure from government and simple economic balances create these stunning depreciation curves.
If a governments makes laws that shift sales towards fuel-economic or alternative-fuel cars hybrids have a real head start.
If the price of fuel rises and rises (you should come visit Europe if you’re in for a shock) the mobilitymix shifts. It may make good sense to buy a fuel-economic or alternative-fuel car from a budget point of view, the cost of running such a car can outweigh the extra buying cost(easily?).
Isn’t the question also: why don’t these Japanese car manufacturers cash in on this and raise prices twofold?
Sicco Jan
Amsterdam
Wow. Where are you finding these overpriced hybrids? Perhaps the values are up in California, but in Ontario, Canada, their values have plummeted.
I believe people are afraid to invest in a used Insight because they don’t know how much longer the batteries will last, and Honda Canada hasn’t even set a replacement price for them yet. They’ve given me an estimated price of around $4,000, however.
A month ago I test drove a 2002 Insight that was listed at $12,950, with only 50K (30,000 miles) on the odometer. And a local dealership has a used 2005 Prius on the lot for $27,800. They’re certainly not making a profit here in Ontario.
p.s. New Insight = $31,000 CDN tax incl.
New Prius = $35,000 CDN tax incl.
Insight-dude,
I recommend you buy a bunch of those cars…Insights and Priuses…but them on the back of a car carrier and haul them here to San Jose, CA.
You will get your money back and then some…no kidding.
Thanks for reading and commenting.