Sunday, July 27, 2008

Lease for Less

The local fish wrap is onto a big story and they don't even know it. you see the story is in the classified section for new cars. The Volvo C70 5T is a nice car. How much should a decent car cost? Forget that, how much should it lease for? Try $459/month. With $3,053 due at signing. The MSRP? Starting at $41,235. Freakin' insane. Are people actually doing this?
If I were to drive a Volvo I'd grab the V70-R on cars dot com. $10,495.

The point is what happened to new home sales then home resales and CRE has spread to transportation. The incredible demand destruction for moter fuel had me confused. The 2.4% decline was too much too fast for simple price pressure response. No, the consumer has stopped consuming. Everything.

23 comments:

Casey Serin said...

F I R S T ...

Would you be interested in a used 1998 VW Jetta with wheatgrass stains around the driver's seat, and bits of shredded documents embedded in the carpet fibers? ;-)

Bill in NC said...

Su-weet cashback at closing is once again available!

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/camile-house-mortgage-2104411-fargo-wells

Unknown said...

casey

You left out the best feature, Blue Balls instead of seats.

Anonymous said...

volvo barf
bmw barf
mercedes barf
et al barf

This depression is going to be fun to watch.

Lost Cause said...

Well, Rob, they not only do people pay $450 or more each month for a new car lease, they most likely do it twice, because she cannot have a better car than he does (or vice versa.) Take a drive, and look around on the freeway. A Volvo is a fairly modest car, btw.

Craigslist is going to hurt a lot more than newspapers. I would never buy new after seeing a few of those deals. I certainly don't want to pay a salesman his comission either. Car dealers are scum.

Cash is king. If you want to live like a king, pay cash.

Akubi said...

@Dawg,
I'm with Edgar on the car vomit level, but I do like your new fat dog profile and appreciate your interest in the Cthulhu 2008 campaign, but nonetheless believe Nietzsche 2008 is the way to go.

Akubi said...

Is there a Nietzsche vs. Cthulhu 2008 political commercial available on YouTube?

Akubi said...

Actually, maybe not.

Rob Dawg said...

Volvo, BMW, et aal; there's nothing wrong with them that 50% off won't convince you to overlook. I'm still thinking about that V70-R.

Anyway, I'm with Lost Cause re: craigslist. I've been scoring first rate DVDs for $2-$3 each. Leather couches "paid $1800, must sell $400 obo."

segfault said...

Volvos don't hold their resale value as well as BMW or MBZ. My dear mother has a first-generation S80 (2.9-liter; the T6 eats through transmissions, and the 2.5T sounds like it belongs in a farm implement). I swear, I have gotten more compliments when I'm borrowing it than when I'm driving whatever sporty car I own at the time. For goodness sakes, it's an S80, not an S-class!

As far as the driving experience goes, I've got to say, it doesn't really handle any better or ride any smoother than a Chevy Malibu. The interior is a lot more luxurious, though.

Centipede said...

Cars and the related fuel BS shall be the downfall of the U.S. of F-ed up A - AKA Rome 2.0. I already think it is time for the centipedes to take over.
Enjoy it while it lasts folks!

Pleather Murse said...

Worried banks in U.S. sharply reduce business loans

http://iht.com/articles/2008/07/28/business/28credit.php

spooq said...

What's your kid doing in Gin Gin? I grew up in Gladstone, about 150km from there, FWIW.

Anonymous said...

Stockton leads, the rest of Cali will follow. I must hurry west, I wanna be either a straw buyer, or slum lord, I can't decide which.

Bill in NC said...

Structural deficits, or why "a fireman is getting $10,000 a month in a pension... Another friend says her 92 year old uncle gets $8,500 a month from being a fireman and he retired 45 years ago."

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly08/bankruptcy7-08.html

Zintradi said...

this is a bigger story that even this..
over at 'thetruthaboutcars.com' they are talking about how chrysler and gm are suspending their lease operations because they are taking too big of a hit right now on residuals when people drop the keys at lease end (which is happening in droves now, even with mileage fee's)

Peripheral Visionary said...

Cthulhu voters? Figures. You people have been paying too much attention to all that whispering in dreams at night. I'd certainly vote for Nodens, and I might even be tempted to vote for Nyarlathotep, but no way am I going to vote for that monstrosity Cthulhu.

And the Craigslist tip is a good one; I'm about to dump some extra stuff on eBay (reduction of assets--everyone's doing it these days!) but I am looking to pick up some DVDs. The TV series box sets (X-Files, Simpsons etc.) are ridiculously expensive at store prices, but I'm guessing I can find them much cheaper secondhand.

w said...

It is interesting that now that we have so many flat panel TVs there is a plethora of nice TV cabinets on Craigslist. We have gotten two very nice ones for ~$100 each and they make great storage. One is for kids games and the other is for liquor and cookbooks. Oh, and we got a huge beautiful entertainment center for a fraction of what the owners paid . All of these were solidly built and two we know came from Z Gallery and Costco.

segfault said...

I thought that the leasing companies purchased some sort of residual value insurance... The subsidized leases that Honda and others are fond of (with inflated residuals to get the payment down) have to be a large financial hit when they get returned.

Property Flopper said...

Looking at the CD's on CL here, wanted to find Futurama seasons. Best price on CL is $29 for each season... and they're at Costco for $19.99. Hmmm.

The_Scum said...

$450 per month makes me happy my car is paid for.

That is a huge amount of repair bills.

Curious said...

The C70 is a brand new convertible. The V70 is an 8 year old car with 71K miles on it.

Having said that, I think Volvo has priced the C series at a ridiculous price point since they introduced it.

Base model pricing for the 5 cyl. convertible is $39K, base model pricing for the 5 cyl. S60 is approx. $31K.

As far as resale/settlement with insurance companies goes...it might not be as high as BMW or MB, but I settled a claim for an 12 year old 940 3 1/2 years ago for about 50% of what I'd originally paid for it as a used car (I owned it for 11).

I dunno, I replaced it in Norcal at the same time with a new S60 and was able to work a lower price for the new one than dealers would take for a one year old used one. I have no idea why, but I did haggle on the used 2004's and got nowhere, switched to the new models and came away paying less.

For the record, if you're still searching for a Volvo for your rugrat, I'd go older and and look for low mileage, they are out there. I loved my old 940 and tolerate my newer (completely paid for) S60. The 940 isn't too much car for a new driver, it gets decent mileage, has great safety (yeah, the newer ones have more air bags, the older ones have fewer but they were bigger, heavier, and safer), it has a huge MF'ing trunk and huge passenger cabin for hauling friends and younger siblings and all their crap in the trunk.

The gas mileage is comparable in both (the old got better city, the new gets better freeway). I walked away from a totalled 940 completely unhurt. I'm not confident I would do the same in the S series. The old rear wheel drive is easier to maneuver in parking lots than the new front wheel drive models.

I thought about trading this car in at the same dealer who sold it to me (MB/V only) but balked at the lower gas mileage in the MB C350 model in city driving. Having driven both, I like some features of each better than the other but both have their drawbacks. Plus mine is paid for, so maybe I'll wait for this to come online. It looks like fun. http://www.flytheroad.com/

Curious said...

While I'm logged in to blogger, I posted this link a day or two ago in your Crisp & Cole update.

I just checked and I am surprised Bako hasn't picked this up, maybe it's always been common knowledge in the community but it was another shocker to me in just how skeezy these guys were.
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/506885.html

IE, welcome your ECO and PEDO team real estate representative. I think Casey just found his next broker.