What happens to new cars that don't sell?

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Anybody know what happens to new cars on dealer lots that can't sell? There are so many new models produced that I'm sure not every single one of them can be sold. What happens when the dealer just can't sell a car? Do they return it to the manufacturer for recycling? Disassemble it for parts?
 
Originally Posted By: toneydoc
They sell all of them, eventually.


Even the Pink ones?
laugh.gif
 
My guess is that some of them become fleet vehicles.

Sold in a mass quality at a value price to rental car companies. Of course they WILL NEVER tell you about this.
 
When I worked selling KiA and Suzuki back in 2001 we had quite a few left overs. They were deeply discounted and sold at a loss, hoping the Finance Manager could make some money in the back end of the deal. We had a few for close to 1 year after the 2002s rolled out. Needless to say the manager responsible for ordering too much inventory, and not cleaning house got the boot.
 
My 2006 B2300 was still on the lot Memorial Day of 2007. I didn't even know Mazda sold pickups @ the time. Needless to say it was the only pickup on the lot. It was about $5000 off list price with all the factory to dealer stuff. I definitely would not have bought it if it were not for the discount.
 
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Every new car gets sold.
It's just a matter of whether the dealer can make any money on it at the price they have to accept.
If anyone is looking for a real deal on a new car, just look for prior model year cars on any dealer lot.
Check online first.
Discontinued or last year of an old design vehicles should be especially cheap
They're anxious to get rid of these cars, and will likely take a low-ball offer, particularly if you start walking out once you've made it.
 
Originally Posted By: toneydoc
They sell all of them, eventually.


Correct. What happens is that the Manufacturer will have programs that provide incentives to the dealer. At some point, when most of that model are sold the Manufacturer will end the incentives. The dealer then is stuck with that car if it doesn't sell with no incentives from the Mfgr. Usually the dealer will push the car hard before the incentives end. When I bought my Grand Am new in 2002, it was a left over 2001. Dealer had it on at $4,000 below his cost. When I asked why he said "all incentive on these end on Monday". GM also had incentives, and I paid $13,000 for the car and list price was $23,000. I also used $3400 in GM visa dollars.
 
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Had a local Ford dealer that ordered 4 or 5 Crown Vics for a local Taxi cab service and the deal went bad . Dealer had those all white cars for about 3 years but eventually sold them .
 
A few years back i was at the local toyota dealer. I asked why the two year old cars were more than the new ones. He said they had two years of interest to pay.
 
John_K is right. They eventually mark them down to the point that they do sell. Some cars sit for well over a year before they finally sell. I spent a couple of years selling new Chevy's and Cadillacs. It was always frustrating to see them "give away" the car at the end of the year that you were a couple hundred bucks away from selling at one time but the sales manager wouldn't budge. I don't miss working in that business at all!
 
They sell them cheap.

My first diesel truck was one that was built for a city electric company that only bought 3 out of the 5 they ordered.

Lucky me.
 
Originally Posted By: widman
A few years back i was at the local toyota dealer. I asked why the two year old cars were more than the new ones. He said they had two years of interest to pay.


When I was shopping for my Cruze the 2012 I ended up purchasing came in less than the 2011's I had been looking at.

The cars do sell eventually.
 
In 2007 I was looking at the Saturn Relay vans, and wandered into the chevy dealer, the salesman asks what I'm interested in and first thing I said was, I'm just looking at the Chevy Uplanders, do you have any? He said not any new ones, but they had a purple 2005 model that was forgotten about. so he has a porter drive it up, only had 12 miles on it, smelled new, looked new, and next thing I know the guy's washing it!
I told the salesguy, I'm only looking. He said it needed a good wash anyway.
So my wife looks and loves the color. great. We're now inside, the guy said he's a manager and can definetely make this our van today! So I said, well a van 2 years old should have one [censored] of a price on it. He said, well it does! Sticker price.
Not that I wanted that model, knowing the 2005's had issues, but he wouldn't deal. said it has full factory warranty blah blah blah and it's NEW so there's no reason to discount it. But he'd give $1000 off. I said, well.. NO.
Went to Saturn found an 2006 Relay we really liked and left with it the same day. That van's been solid and gets awesome gas mileage!
But it was a year old, and the salesguy said, they had them in the back because the Vue's were selling off the lot at the time.
But when that slowed down they brought 7 Relay's out for display. Had them idling in the lot to charge the battery. Well we found ours, still original battery .. sliding door doesn't always latch correctly, worn out cinching guide. Someday I'll fix it. But no deals for us.. and the Saturn.. no deals. they gave us a little extra for the trade-in.
 
Originally Posted By: Hermann
Dealer auctions most likely


+1, for new and used. Cars can go as loaners (tax writeoff), etc. Plenty of options.
 
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