Originally Posted by Oil Man
Values are completely out of whack at the moment. Inflation, coupled with artificially short supply have brought us here.
I was run off the road on 10/2, and totalled my 2018 ZL1 A10, which was in outstanding condition, with 138,000 miles, of which probably 80% were highway miles.
I knew the car would be totaled, but I was in suspense for a week or two as to what my insurance company would value the car at when they paid off. Then I got my answer: $57,900. For a car that I had paid $64k for 3.5 years and almost 140k miles earlier. In good shape, but definitely well used.
Of course, I was stoked.
Until I started looking in earnest for a replacement. I have been casually watching the local market for the last 4-5 weeks, but I have only really been ready to act for a week or two. And I have had some rude awakenings. Some highlights:
I spoke with the sales manager of the dealership where I bought my ZL1 in 2018. I knew they had a car that was a PDR away from being exactly what I was looking for, and I made it clear to him that I was VERY interested and motivated, and PLEASE contact me when they truck the car the last 30 miles from the railyard to you... because I will probably buy it. Added bonus: This dealer was NOT adding price adjustments. Just selling cars at MSRP.
Yesterday, I noticed that the car no longer showed on the Chevy inventory page as being "In transit, arrival date 12/2" In fact, it no longer showed AT ALL. So I called.
"Oh, yeah. That one sold."
"It did?" "I was under the impression it wasn't even arriving for a couple more days, at least"
"Well, it didn't actually get here yet, but someone bought it..."
"Great. Thanks. If you'd had told me it worked that way, I might have considered it when we talked about this last week.... in person..."
Another car is scheduled to arrive at another dealer within a day or two, and my call to them went like this:
"Hi, I see you have a black ZL1 arriving soon, and I was wondering when its supposed to physically arrive, and if you are doing market adjustments?"
"Yeah, its supposed to get here this week, and yes we are doing market adjustments. If you want to come down here tonight, we can talk about putting something together on the car..."
"Well, maybe,... how much are you asking over MSRP?"
"I don't know exactly... can you come down here?"
"Look man... if you can't even tell me what the check needs to say... then no...I am probably not coming down there..."
"Oh....well... I'll talk to my sales manager and call you back...."
And so it goes.. I don't want to commit to something I can't even inspect in person... but this is nuts.. I have been sliding the "search radius" out farther and farther from my home zip code, looking for suitable cars, and assessing the feasibility of driving a new ZL1 half way across the country in December.
|