The lease is ending on my dad’s Hyundai Tucson, so we’re in the process of finding a new vehicle to (once again) lease. If you didn’t know, the automotive market is absolutely crazy right now. Due to the semiconductor chip shortage, the inventory of new cars is really low. In turn that pushes used car prices up sky high. This is a great situation if you’re looking to sell, but those looking to buy are in a world of hurt.
Those Labor Day deals you see advertised on TV? Yeah, they don’t actually exist on the ground. Markups are the norm, and you’d be lucky to find a vehicle for MSRP. We contacted the local Hyundai dealership hoping for an easy return and pickup transaction. Sadly, literally every car on their lot have additional makeup on top. The salesperson would not budge from the prices, even though we are turning in an end-of-lease car.
Which ought to be a nice profit maker for the dealership, because of the aforementioned high used car prices. CarMax is offering several thousand dollars above our lease buyout for the Tucson. We were completely willing to let the Hyundai dealer have this profit if they would simply give us a good lease deal on the next one. Shame. Instead, we're planning to sell the Tucson to CarMax, and pocketing the nice difference.
As for the replacement car, thanks to my brother’s contacts at a Toyota dealership, we are able to lease a poverty-spec Toyota Corolla at MSRP. Monthly payments will actually be slightly lower, which is nice. A compact sedan is indeed a step-down from the reasonably nice Tucson SUV, but that’s the best we can do in this crazy market. The goal was to not spend more on the monthly bill, and to that end, job done.
Once my dad retires, we’ll actually buy him the Lexus that will last him for the rest of his life.
Hollywood sunset.