When the number of cars for sale dropped rapidly during the pandemic it gave automakers a chance to reap huge profits by slashing incentives and prioritizing higher trim-level models over more affordable trims. That trick does not work forever.
There’s just a Costco-sized jar of data and info this week I want to get to and, as best as I can, I’m going to try and tie it up into a theme. That theme is: The cars are too damn expensive.
Also, it’s Friday, let’s check in on the strike while we’re here. And maybe Chinese exports of graphite, because I love talking about graphite. Who doesn’t?
The Cars Are Too Damn Expensive
Every month, car buying site CarEdge puts out Market Day Supply (MDS), which attempts to determine how long it would take to sell the current listed inventory by comparing how many cars are for sale and how many sold over 45 days.
This data is extremely raw, and CarEdge, in spite of my complaints, doesn’t always do a good job of explaining why certain cars might have longer selling periods. For example, in the most recent data you’ll see that heavy-duty Ram pickups show a market supply of 460 days, which quite possibly is a result of the stop-sale for those trucks earlier this year.
That caveat aside, the data (culled from public listings) is still pretty fun to look at and allows me to write articles about America having a 750-day supply of Jeep Renegades. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Jeep Grand Wagoneer is near the top of this list with a Market Day Supply of 336 days.
Why? The average transaction price of $104,821 probably has something to do with it. In fact, almost all of the cars on this list transact above the industry-wide average transaction price of around $48,000.
The only car that’s below it is the Dodge Hornet at $37,588 — a vehicle that recently went on sale and doesn’t yet have a high level of awareness. Also, honestly, I can’t see spending almost $38k on a Dodge Hornet when you could literally buy almost any other crossover.
I’m also not surprised to see the EQS at a supply of 212 days and an average transaction price of $123,179. There’s an article worth reading from Automotive News this morning on exactly this issue, and it highlights my point from earlier that automakers are becoming victims of their own high trim levels, though this data shows a more conservative supply estimate:
[…]
As more proof of consumers starting to opt for attainable cars, the relatively affordable Mercedes-Benz GLC SUV shows up on the list of cars with the lowest supply at just 27 days and an ATP of just $57,272. In fact, the whole rest of the list of in-demand cars is roughly at or below the industry average.
Carmakers are usually rational actors so it makes sense they prioritized profits during the pandemic with higher margin vehicles, but now that the pandemic is over it seems foolish to keep the same strategy.
Certified Pre Owned Sales Are Up
Just as consumers are looking for affordable new cars, they’re also looking for nice and affordable used cars. This is where Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) cars shine, offering warrantied vehicles from dealers at sub-new-car prices.
According to Cox Automotive, year-to-date CPO sales have crossed 2 million units, which is a 9% year-over-year increase. Luxury CPO, no shock, is up 12% thanks to brands like Genesis, Acura, and Lexus.
In fact, CPOs are outpacing the overall used car market:
CPO is outperforming the used-vehicle market so far in 2023. For comparison, according to Cox Automotive estimates based on vehicle registration data, total used-vehicle sales in September decreased 3.2% from August to 3.0 million units. The seasonally adjusted annual rate, or SAAR, is estimated to have finished September near 35.8 million, up from last September’s 35.1 million pace, but down from August’s upwardly revised 36.0 million level. Year to date, retail used vehicle sales are down less than 1% through the end of September.
What’s the catch? Well, because of the downturn in leasing during the pandemic, it seems there aren’t enough CPO luxury cars for supply to meet demand.
China Is Cutting Graphite Exports
Batteries need a lot of stuff to work, stuff like lithium, gallium, phosphoric acid, and graphite. Basically, all EV batteries use graphite for their anodes.
Graphite, which is just crystalized carbon, is extremely abundant, but not many countries refine it to the level needed for batteries. Can you guess which country is, in fact, responsible for 90% of the world’s graphite for EV batteries? Yup, China.
And now China reportedly doesn’t want to share. Per Reuters:
China’s commerce ministry said the move on graphite was “conducive to ensuring the security and stability of the global supply chain and industrial chain, and conducive to better safeguarding national security and interests”.
It added that it was not targeting any specific country. Top buyers of graphite from China include Japan, the United States, India and South Korea, according to Chinese customs data.
Under the new restrictions, China will require as of Dec. 1 that exporters apply for permits to ship two types of graphite, including high-purity, high-hardness and high intensity synthetic graphite material, and natural flake graphite and its products.
This is happening against the backdrop of a world at the brink of war and, currently, some governments trying to keep China from exporting their EVs en masse to Western markets.
No End In Sight For Strike, Layoffs Continue
Today is Day 36 of the United Auto Workers strike and it’s not clear how, when, or why it’s going to end. Though the UAW has said it wasn’t going to make Friday its big strike announcement day, it does seem like the UAW might announce more strikes today.
While this is going on, automakers are beginning to expand layoffs in response, as reported by The Detroit News:
Stellantis on Friday said it was laying off an additional 100 employees at its Toledo Machining Plant in Ohio effective Monday, increasing the total laid off there to 170, because of the strike at its nearby Toledo Assembly Complex, which makes the Jeep Wrangler off-road SUV and Gladiator truck. The machining plant, which employs more than 400 hourly workers, has reached its maximum inventory level for components supplied to the assembly complex.
Stellantis now has 1,530 employees on temporary layoff stemming from downtime at its assembly plant that is on strike.
Ford Motor Co. also said it had laid off another 150 workers at its axle plant in Sterling Heights as a result of production impacts of the strike.
Sterling Heights makes axles for the Kentucky Truck Plant that the UAW decided to strike.
The Big Question
These questions have been a little one-note lately, so let’s have a fun Friday hypothetical: Let’s say you developed an incredibly addictive word-based game and sold it to The Washington Post for $20 million. You want to go racing. Do you:
- Join a rich-person racing program like Ferrari Challenge or Porsche Carrera Cup?
- Get a TCR car and try your hand at IMSA’s lower class?
- Fund a NASCAR truck team?
- Buy a vintage Mini Cooper and be one of those people at vintage races that’s 10/10ths all the time?
- Buy a $500 LeMons car?
- Other?
As noted by others after tax the $20 million is more like $10 million, which is not enough to do much in any racing league that is televised. So, after setting aside enough so I do not have to work anymore (~$3 million) you have enough to do some fun things- I think I would hire Mercedes as a consultant to get me going in Gambler events, then find a team or two to sponsor on the Rebelle Rally, and buy a rig to meet them at the checkpoints, and maybe get a go cart for some racing. Then with what is leftover maybe buy an airplane – maybe a Mooney or let the money earn interest for a while and move up to a turboprop of some kind (or get a few partners on the plane) hire a pilot to manage the plane and let me take the controls if the mood suits me.
Build a small tire drag car out of something a bit odd… maybe import a holden torana and go no prep drag racing… sounds odd but weekends off could be spent in more exotic metal
$20 million? I’m entering some Gamblers. The rest will fund my early semi-retirement.
As for car prices, they are absolutely out of hand, but the part that shocks me is year-over-year increases on some of them. I purchased a new vehicle for the family in 2021, but the vehicle was a 2022 model. It was fully loaded, and since it was about to be refreshed it was selling slow and had no markups (though I still paid MSRP). Now the refreshed version is out, and to get an equivalent model with the same options is nearly $13k more! Insane!
20 million and I’m “racing” my new yacht to the Mediterranean.
I can’t be the only one who read that list of average prices and went “what the fuck is a Dodge Hornet?” I had no idea they revived that name.
It’s an Alfa Romeo Tonale but with Dodge styling. It’s a crossover, that’s all you need to know really.
I do find it interesting that the Ram 3500 was overall cheaper than the 2500 in average buying price. I’m guessing the 2500 has more 4×4 variants than the 3500.
3500 probably does more fleet volume- think cab/chassis versions- while more of the the 2500 gets tarted up for suburban truck buyers who want luxury.
That’s a good point.
I’m buying that overpriced piece of scrap metal and entering the Mille Miglia!
Big question: I’d move to Greece and get a vintage rally car. Something 1980s RWD, as I don’t think $20 million is enough to operate a Delta S4. Perhaps an Opel Ascona 400?
Liked for moving to Greece…
Better rallying, better cars, better food,
bettermore challenging alphabet.I found it relatively easy to figure out what was going on once I mastered the alphabet. After all, so many of our words are Greek derived.
When I hit the jackpot I’ll get my $20 million, say goodbuye to the $10 million in taxes, take the remaining $10 million, put $3 million aside and use the remaining $7 million to help Nikola Tsolov make it in F3 (where he started last season as the youngest racer) all the way through F1.
He didn’t have the most exciting of seasons in 2023 but he was maybe the only guy who was constantly in the top half, with no DNFs nor crashes (at least none self-inflicted), and in his last two races he really woke up (if said two races were not that lucky). He simply comes from a country too small, with too small of a market, to raise any sponsor strong enough to carry him through.
Once he gets through, I’ll use half of the remaining $3 million to find him the correct PR or whatever company that would land him an F1 sponsorship (because my $1.5 million might or might not get him a few dozen F1 wheel nuts if I spend them directly 🙂
If I sell anything for $20 million, the money goes to my corporation, not to me. And my corporation starts an IndyCar team because having a car in the Indy 500 would fulfill a dream. It would also employ people, have the potential for ongoing earnings and initially save a boatload in taxes. All of which would allow me to see myself a a capitalist instead of a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. (Thank you W. Steinbeck.)
You see my dream has never been to race the car, but to be the car owner from the 1968 Paul Newman movie, Winning. In the movie, Leo Crawford the car owner stands on his pit box and shakes his fist at Lou Erding, the driver played by Robert Wagner, when he blows up his engine. Crawford’s engine, not Wagner’s!
He shakes his fist and yells, “I told him to breathe that machine!”
That was so cool.
You can see I’ve given this a lot of thought.
Cars too expensive? Indeed they are. The Fed returning benchmark rates to historic levels after an aberrant era of dirt cheap money ripped the rug out from under the pricing strategy. What was affordable at 3% isn’t at 6%. These products came from that era with its assumptions and hope that money remained cheap forever. Unfortunately nobody could predict the Spanish Inqui…, er, COVID.
I bought a house last year (our first) and refinancing at some point was always the expectation. Real estate people were all blathering about rates going back down in 2023… Thank goodness refinancing is not an absolute requirement; 5.99% might have to remain our rate until November 2052.
Yeah, with current interest rates buying the same home I bought in 2019 for same price in 2023 adds $300/month to mortgage in interest.
And just to complete refinance will cost few thousands dollars too.
Sounds like a good mortgage – I just did the math last week, and buying now (at the same price, which is unlikely) would add $1,960 per month to our mortgage… refi here in NY would cost close to $25K, so it would require significant savings before that makes sense.
I paid $4500 to lower interest of rate mortgage. Somehow that is a thing
I wish and hope that you’re right, but with the top three selling vehicles in the USA being full-size trucks, and the rapid disappearance of subcompact and compact cars, it kind of seems like consumers rather take 72-96 month car loans rather than live within their means.
Full-size trucks have been the top sellers for decades though. Sub/compact cars disappearing or the type of vehicle doesn’t really have so much to do with it, the ones that are out there have climbed so much in price, their base models start where say, a midlevel midsize sedan from the same brand did just a few years ago. At a minimum, paying more and getting less – and still may have to stretch.
I was being a little flippant – I’d attribute the disappearance of sub/compact cars more to the stagnation of wages over 30 years for the groups that buy those cars – 20 somethings. But I don’t think we can discount the effect of really long car loans on enticing consumers into larger vehicles. Having purchased two vehicles in the last two years, it’s clear that sales people really work to have the consumer focus on the short term monthly payment that they can afford rather than the actual total cost of purchasing the vehicle.
Yeah, in the 1990s someone just out of college was a likely buyer of a brand-new Tercel or something – for the same person to buy a Hyundai Venue now would be a Very Bad financial move.
Couldn’t agree more. My goal as I get older is to not forget how tough it was to make a living just out of college in the 2000s, and that it’s only gotten more difficult for the kids coming out now.
With the inflation in required credentials, it is hard to even contemplate starting a career. Every time anything goes wrong, regulatory authorities typically respond by adding 12 months required experience before licensure, adding an additional test, or some other creative obstacle.
Do you have an example of this?
Nurses, Electricians, Architects, Librarians, and Teachers just from my or friends’ experiences.
For instance, when a piece of falling terra cotta killed a person (an Architect!) a few years ago, the requirements for becoming an Exterior Wall Inspector were ratcheted up. All of a sudden, people needed more credentials and longer experience (7 years!).
Every time some nurse kills a patient (whether overworked or careless), the state responds by adding ten more questions to the Regent’s Exam or some other meaningless addition so that the politicians can say that they did something. Nursing school is verrrryy expensive.
To become an Architect you have to do five years of undergraduate education. To even get into the program you have to have a creative portfolio and a website and a resume and write letters and get supporting letters. You have to be familiar with graphics software and better also be able to make videos and so on. Then there is a series of background checks with the state, after which you will be allowed to spend a few thousand on a set of six 3-4 hour exams (written and scored by the same people who administer them and also sell practice classes; an insane scam. Most people end up failing a couple and have to pay more). Then you need to find a job and acquire three years of practice, all the while paying down $100K in student loans. I am trying to help some young people get started and I am so happy not to be their age.
Honestly, it sounds like a lot of hearsay. It’s always been 5 year BA program, plus 3,740 hours experience to become a licensed architect, and the nursing shortage during Covid has actually made it easier to become a nurse. I don’t think regulatory authorities are as eager to make life difficult as folks would like to think.
We still have subcompact vehicles. They’re jacked up hatchbacks with gray cladding is all. The Chevy Sonic never sold well. But the Trax sure did. Honda killed the Fit for the HR-V. Again because the jacked up version sold 10:1 better. It doesn’t make any sense. But nobody ever lost money betting the average American vehicle buyer was illogical.
It’s true that the HR-V sold better but I’d quibble with the idea that the 160″ Fit is in the same size class as the 170″ HR-V. Those those 10″ might not be significant (ehem) for the average suburbanite, but it’s the world for us City Slickers who need to parallel park. The Fit also did quite a bit better the fuel economy department – 40mpg highway vs 30mpg for the HR-V.
Our old 2009 Fit auto didn’t get much better than 34-35 highway unless I was trying to hypermile it. I did manage 40+ when trying.
For interior volume they’re similar since the Fit is a marvel of packaging. I’d argue the Fit is much more useful because of its packaging. But AWD obsessed people killed the Fit.
I think a lot of things killed cars like the Fit. We definitely shouldn’t overlook the stagnation of wages, especially for people who were most likely to buy a Fit. 20-30 somethings.
If I hit the jackpot, I’m funding a team to run in the Baja 1000.
When the “cheaper” cars have 90%+ the same content and toys, the need to spend more diminishes. The “want” is slowly giving into the “need” and as long as you can get what used to be reserved for true luxury cars years ago in a loaded Elantra, you have to have deep pockets or a really shallow ego to think you need more. Nothing against it, I like cars so I get it but for the general public, a loaded Camry, Rav 4, Santa Fe, Q5, X3, etc does the trick.
I call my Mazda3 Grand Touring my luxury economy car. I went for the GT trim because the 3rd gen only offered things like adaptive cruise as a package for the GT. I think the current generation has all of that stuff standard now, so if I bought a new one today I’d stick with cloth seats and a Malt-o-Meal sound system.
The leather in my current Mazda is definitely not premium as it is. I don’t *think* it’s various roadkill skins disguised as a single piece with heavy stitching, but it’s a few notches below Rich Cornithian Leather.
I’m with you on this. I’ve been driving a ’22 Mazda CX5 simply because I couldn’t find anything else at the time for MSRP and in stock. It’s the midlevel premium trim, and it feels as nice and well built as the MB GLC300 that came before it. Service experience at the dealership has been good. It’s quiet, handles well, seats are comfortable, has every conceivable doo-dad I’d want. It’s odd looking from some angles, but it does the job with some personality. After this experience I just don’t see a situation in which I’d pay a premium again for a “luxury” brand because as far as I can tell, there’s very little difference.
Most modern luxury cars offer…
Increased purchase price
Increased TCO
Decreased Reliability
Not exactly a compelling sales pitch
They come with ugly and angry front ends also
I loathe CUVs, but the looks of the Mazda ones do erode my stance.
If Chinese manufacturers are allowed into the US market, they are going to decimate US manufacturers due to just this. Legacy car makers have grown fat by dropping all lower margin vehicles. If customers are given the choice of a decent chinese import at 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of a comparable GMC, GM will be in a world of trouble.
Much like the japanese and the koreans in the past, the chinese will enter the market at the lower end, prove their worth, and move upwards.
Question is, in the long run are we better or worse off letting that happen?
Just as long as we account for their massive state subsidies and slave-wage labor with the corresponding tariffs, I have absolutely no problem with them trying to break into the US car market.
How much tarrifs does Apple pay on your imported from salve labor iTelephone and iTablet?
What about your Walmart black friday TV?
Ford (sorry, ChanganFord) is paying $500 per month for their machine operators in China
That’s a dumb comparison/strawman, since we don’t really have a domestic phone/consumer electronics manufacturing sector, which tarrifs are supposed to protect. OTOH we DO have a carmaking industry.
Yes, we would!
Ford only makes farm equipment now (no Focus, Fiesta or Fusion), GMs are ugly and have 0 excitement, Stellantis really just sells Jeeps. VW only sells GTIs and Gold Rs in USA and even those are losing manuals.
When WRX and WRX STI and Evos came we got Neon SRT4s, Cobalt SSes, Saturn Redlines.
Others (except Toyota and Honda, they don’t have reliability problems) started to make better cars to match Hyundais 10 year bumper to bumper warranties (this is why when rear axle blew up in my Wrangler at 49,700 miles power train warranty covered it!) other wise it would cost me $5000 to fix that POS
More colors!
More choices! (there was only 1 new GTI that I bought in stock when I was shopping for hot hatches, 0 2022 SIs, WRXs, Mazda3 Turbos)
WTF are you talking about?? GTI’s and Golf Rs are absolutely negligible in VW’s sales in the US, they overwhelmingly sell Tiguans and Atlases here.
If you weren’t aware, SUV/CUV is the name of the game now, and if the chinese start selling here, they’ll also be mostly CUVs.
‘BRAWNDO, it’s what the plants crave!!’ 🙂
If you’re waiting for a sporty manual car from China, it’s right up there with flying pigs.
They are negligible since FOrd stopped making Focus and Fiesta. As soon as those left, we lost Golfs too.
Nope.
VW stopped selling the regular Golf here years after Ford stopped making hatchbacks, and the reason they did it was their own sales numbers. CUVs were printing them money in comparison.
If anything, Ford removing themselves from the competition should’ve incentivize VW from keeping the Golf, but the demand just wasn’t there.
They’re allowed in right now, as long as they pass FMVSS and EPA regulations, Geely already sells here right now under one of their own brands, and SAIC is already supplying some models to GM
It’s already happening with European consumers increasingly gravitating towards less expensive Chinese EVs which is becoming a major worry for the EU.
. https://apnews.com/article/electric-vehicles-china-subsidies-europe-investigation-4f00df1c7588ca375efebb89a2b83783
$20 million? Huh.
I would do whatever lets me race the most, safely, for the least possible money. The issue with racing is when you need help that isn’t just friends. People aren’t free. So it might just be doing hillclimbs, SCCA Solo, etc. because I can do those by myself.
Then I can pocket the remaining $19.8 million!
If you want hillclimbing, GB, France, and Italy all have thriving scenes. I don’ imagine anyone with $20 million would want to live in the UK, but that still leaves two.
Manufacturers prioritized high ticket models literally for years now, post-COVID, to prop up their profit margins. The reasons don’t matter to their customers, whether it’s EV development, chip allocation, etc. In the end it’s intended to enhance their profit margins. Now, because they’ve failed to read the room and are overproduced those high-falutin’ models, they either have to discount them, thus reducing profits, or let them become lot poison. That degree of hubris is laughable, so I will take this opportunity to laugh.
Ha.
https://media.tenor.com/_-h5m1TrpkoAAAAd/ready-laughing-hysterically.gif
Easy – MX-5 cup. Trading paint and having a ball!!!!!
I feel like we’re getting to the point where there’s really no difference between a normal brand and a “luxury” brand (IMO the luxury brands are Bently, Rolls Royce, etc. but I’d consider a 7 Series or S class luxury) and just buying a new car is a luxury.
This. Even a new Camry is pretty refined! Compare a new loaded up Camry to a 20 year old mid-sized German luxury sedan, then come back and tell me you’d want to deal with the running costs of the Mercedes, Audi or BMW. NVH will be close. Comfort will be close. Ergonomics will be on par. Feature set in the Toyota will be superior. That’s also the current Camry where its replacement is imminent and will be even better unless they drop the 2GR.
Luxury car feature set kind of peaked about 15-20 years ago. Now it’s just improving infotainment, occasional nice new features like cooled seats being standardized, etc. A lot of it is throwing features at the wall to see what sticks, or gaudy attempts at, “style.”
Current luxury is silicon luxury. That is to say, techno minimalism. As such “luxury” features these days are extensive touchscreens that cover the entire dash, smart traffic features (that aren’t so smart), and reducing the vehicle’s components down to integrated device level. In essence it’s a return to late era modernism filtered through the lense of startup culture.
Luxury? I’m looking for Soviet Era brutalism in my next ride. Just sayin…
Buy a 2023 Lada. Some Russian car makers when back to deigns from 80s since they cannot import parts because of sanctions
Yes, in 2023 luxury cars have more area with TVs and screens.
In 90s they had more buttons. BMW even had whole numeric keypad next to the radio for some reason.
Maybe their headlights are better
The Big Question:
Okay, let’s look at this a bit more realistically. Taxes will reduce the take home to $10million. I can’t forget I have a family. So, $1million for college education. $1million for housing. $1million for cars. $1million for a garage with a full machine shop. I’m left with $6million. Whoops, now I’m divorced. Down to $1million (she gets half of my $10mil 🙁 ).
So…. $1 million.
My dream is to build a Karting track that standardizes the Karts for everyone. This removes as many variables from the Karts out of the competition formula.
When you are strapped into the kart, you pull into a weighing station. The weighing station fills a small container at each corner of the kart with water. This brings the CG of each kart to with an inch of one another.
Obviously we are electric. The output of each motor will have a torque sensor to limit the amount of power that can be laid down.
I’m 150lbs, and win nearly every kart race I enter. I’m not the best driver, but I’m also no slouch. I get so frustrated when people say I won just cause I’m skinny. I want a karting track that eliminates that, and proves that I really am skinny and just suck at driving.
As long as you have both a paved track and a dirt track, I’m in.
Bonus points if you race on ice or simulated ice, too.
GREAT suggestions. Added to the list.
I have no interest in racing against anyone, so I’ll take my millions and buy a piece of land big enough to build a little race track of my own. Something where you’re lucky if you can hit 100 mph on the longest straight, but has 20 turns or something. Then I’d buy a bunch of cheap slow cars, and spend my days getting to know every inch of my new playground. If you’re nice, I might let you play, too.
I have 5 acres and while it isn’t a ton of land, it is enough that I was able to mow out a little track for Torch’s old Scion. This is definitely the way to go.
I’ve always wanted to do something like that! Only I would make it a dirt track, and keep a handful of beater cars around for some fun days with friends.
This is exactly what I would do. 50-100 acres with a dirt track built on it.
Even cheaper, just get the land and a few SxS’s. Pavement is not cheap to keep up. I have a fairly large asphalt driveway and the freaking grass and weeds invade every little crack in the pavement, eventually breaking out chunks of asphalt.
I agree with most of your points on the highest inventory list, but I don’t think the lowest supply list is necessarily indicative of a shift toward affordable cars. Several of them are new/redesigned in the last year or two. The Hondas are two of their most popular products and the most popular cars in the country, the GLC is the 2nd-best selling Mercedes and redesigned this year, the Corolla Cross is a new product in a hot segment, and Toyota is throwing more weight behind the Corolla Hybrid after the facelift and one of the cheapest hybrids you can get/most mpg for the money.
If anything I think it suggests people are still getting the upper trims of some models, mostly the Toyotas. Those ATPs are in the upper half or third of the price ranges for those models. By contrast the Hondas look about midpack – which actually supports the return of base LX trims as they did to several models earlier this year.
Classic Mini racing at 10/10ths is the best kind of racing there is. If you haven’t watched Nick Swift absolutely terrorize the track at Goodwood, you owe it to yourself to take a couple minutes out of your day to do so. There are so many great clips, it is hard to pick just one.
https://youtu.be/XpU8-jA7bf8?si=u20M71Z_f9tQX2aQ
Well-funded first racing venture? MX-5 Cup with all the goodies. Show that you have a modicum of talent and skill and then start thinking about Porsches.
I’m much more interested in building cool cars than racing them so first I would build myself a full shop and buy up a fun bunch of future projects.
But if I’m going racing, I think I would use the money to start a grassroots series of races, where each track is half dirt and half tarmac. The variety of ways to try to tune a vehicle for racing advantage would keep it lively I think. Some going all dirt, some going all tarmac, some trying to build a compromise. And then make it side by side racing.
TBQ: Check out Watkins Glen and see what’s available. Buy after that if there’s anything interesting to race in, if not just open track days.
Also: I’d spend $38,000 dollars for a Hornet with the track package, cold weather group, ventilated seats, and paddle shifters only. But nooooooooooo, in order to get then ventilated seats, you have to go to the GT Plus with includes a mandatory sunroof, and you can’t get the paddles with the normal gasser, you have to get the R/T hybrid.
To get everything is about $50,000. Which is all levels of nope, and you’ll be stuck with the hybrid. Despite having the 9 speed (and really, by this point, it’s gonna be better with this 4 cylinder then it ever was with the 2.4), I’d rather have the 2.0T.
In poverty spec, the Hornet seems like a decent choice. Buy a GT and just add the cold weather package (heated seats, heated steering wheel, and remote start) and it’s just $32,325 with destination, or $500 more if you want a color other than black. I thought the interior switchgear and materials were at near luxury car levels when I checked it out at the auto show (and it should be, since it’s basically an Alfa with Dodge badging).
If dealers would ever stock a GT with just the cold-weather package in NY, I bet they’d sell like hotcakes.
But I sit here typing this with the closest ones near me going for $43-48,000. Blows my mind they thought that was a smart choice.
I like the idea of the PHEV, but it’s a tough sell regardless. And the track pack gives you non-vented seats, so you still wouldn’t get what you want, even in the $50k spec.
That just makes it worse…. ugh.