Have we ever done a Walk & Talk featuring a late model used car lot? If not, today is your lucky day! All these pictures were taken Sunday, May 5, at the local GM / Toyota dealership.
This is the same dealership that was hit hard by a tornado in 2019. Driving by the morning after, I saw an eight-door Checker Aerobus was parked in a de-roofed and semi-de-walled building on the lot.
Starting off is this 2023 Fisker Ocean One. I had heard of Fisker, but had never seen one.
The color is intriguing. It has a maritime feel with what appears to be a rough texture, but the paint is as smooth as glass.
Apparently somebody didn’t take a shining to their new Fisker, if jettisoned after accumulating a grand total of 479 miles. Such is incomprehensible to me.
However, with Fisker having recently ceased production, combined with the nearly $40k price tag on this example, will the dealer soon have an automotive albatross around its neck? Or will the albatross sell to some unsuspecting buyer who will have no parts and service?
The Fisker, in the sense of seemingly abnormal newness when being traded, wasn’t alone.
Something prompted a person to dump their new 2024 Accord.
Oh, wait. It has a sibling sitting nearby. Typing this up on Wednesday, May 8, only this white one can be found on the dealer’s website. There is no telling what the story is, but this white one has only 4,500 miles.
Perhaps somebody traded it on a new Cadillac Lyriq.
Or not. This used 2024 Lyriq was also awaiting a new owner. Unlike the Honda, it’s been driven thrice as much, advertised as having 15,000 miles. Carfax says it was corporate owned. Perhaps it ferried various GM brass around Detroit?
I’ve seen exactly one Lyriq on the road, just a few days prior to seeing this one. Most of it looks okay, if uninspiring, but the rear has a distinct droopy look, in a soggy diaper kind of way. The designers at Cadillac should have pampered and huggied their newest design better than this.
What I state is just my opinion and it’s as subjective as anyone else’s opinion.
If one wants a used Cadillac, there are choices. If having to choose one, I’d take either of the two Escalades. It best embodies the Cadillac persona.
The Escalade reminds me of the old acronym of FUJIGM. That stands for “screw you, Jack, I got mine.”
I do kinda sorta like this 2020 CT5 (with right at 20,000 miles) but it has about as much presence as a tube of toothpaste. It looks like a Mazda sedan and Subaru Legacy lovechild.
There is a remarkable number of Jeeps. I hadn’t seen this many Jeeps for sale since I drove by the local Chrysler dealer a few days prior. Last I read, the market day supply for new Jeeps, as well as many new Stellantis products, was quite high.
The old phrase “being stacked like cord wood” comes to mind.
It seems pickups aren’t moving off lots as fast as they once were. Of course inventory is up considerably, also. While I have my thoughts about why so many of these are currently available, I shall refrain from biasing anyone’s thought process.
All I will say is there is a lot adjacent to the dealer that is full of new pickups. This particular lot is generally full of fleet grade pickups, but that isn’t the case now as lots of obvious retail units could also be seen. There is even more overflow further north in the parking lot of a bowling alley.
Even the pickups having higher gross weight ratings (ie, 3/4- and one-ton varieties) are taking up lot space.
Two of them had flatbeds, a pricey proposition to add to a chassis. It would seem these are ripe for various business enterprises, but apparently not.
Speaking of being stacked up, how about a row of Cadillac Lyriqs awaiting their first owner?
The variety of colors is so overwhelming.
There was the token red Lyriq to break up the visual monotony. If having to choose, this one would be my pick.
Waiting for that first owner appears to also be the case with these Toyota Tundras awaiting the same outcome. New Toyotas have an enviably short time on the lots, with the make having about a 30 day supply. The Tundra is Toyota’s outlier in that, but the number found pales in comparison to the number of new Chevrolet and GMC pickups found on the lot (and up the street).
Somehow I have evolved into talking about new cars. Weird how that happens. Let’s take a walk on the used side before concluding…
This 2017 Nissan Frontier spoke to me. Not loudly, but it spoke. Perhaps part of the reason it didn’t speak louder is this is identical to all those Nissan Frontiers used as delivery vehicles locally by an automotive parts chain store.
Even the absent paint on the front fender put me in mind of those delivery vehicles.
Perhaps the best (or not) has been saved for (next to) last.
No, I’m not talking about the two Corvette convertibles awaiting new adventures. What you are about to see was parked next to them.
When did you last see a Pontiac Solstice with merely 15,000 miles on it?
Well, here she be. I like it, but it’s too small.
Our last entry is anything but small.
My first Hummer sighting…sitting amongst the other used pickups. Somebody dumped it at 8,300 miles. I’m sure with a $99,000 asking price there were a line of prospects early Monday morning. Or not.
Hope you enjoyed this Sunday morning sight-seeing tour.
I would go for the Pontiac Solstice or its stable mate Saturn Sky sans a turbo. I think these will be appreciated by the car collectors as time progresses.
Same with a last generation Ford Thunderbird.
The above share many parts from other GM or Ford engines and platforms. The biggest issue will be body panels and trim pieces.
The Fisker Ocean needs to go to an automotive museum as well as the red Lyriq, and an example of a Lordstown Endurance, Lucid Air, & Rivian R1T. The theme of the show would be the early 21st century North American EV effort. Some made it, some didn’t. I have a feeling many of these will show up at used car lots very soon.
3Speed: If you want a final T-Bird for your collection I saw a red ’05 on my weekend walk though the local Ford lot. No hardtop and 68K miles.
There always seems to be something, maybe just one car, that is somewhat interesting like: Taurus X wagon; SL500; Buick TourX.
If you look on Autotrader, etc., you will see boatloads of “used” cars in most makes and models from MY 2023-4 with exceptionally low mileage. I find it hard to believe that these are trade-ins from retail customers – not at the volume I’m seeing.
I have to believe that this is some sort of racket, probably of the accounting variety. But I’m not knowledgeable enough to figure out exactly what the racket is, or how it works.
The father of a good friend of mine used to work for Ford’s local office. One of the perks was a new car every 6 months. I’m guessing there was some sort of limit of how expensive of a vehicle he could choose but it certainly wasn’t that low since he had a string of Marks before they were discontinued.
Then they introduced the ovoid Taurus. Good news everyone qualified for a new car every 3 months. You could pick any car you wanted as long as it was a Taurus that was already built but not sold to a dealer.
It was done as a way to get them out on the road and shift them from unsold inventory to internal use and then send them out to dealers as program cars at a more affordable price point.
Certainly that doesn’t account for all of the vehicles you’ve seen but it probably does account for some of those you find where the brand on the car matches the brand on the sign.
That Pontiac is really lovely, to me it’s design is ageing very well. But I have a soft spot for the C5.
I consider myself to be a true petrol head and have owned some very interesting and desirable cars in my time, but just looking at these late models I realise I have absolutely no interest in them
It seems to me to be a complete waste of the worlds natural resources to build so many different versions of a mouse trap.
With so many low emission zones in European cities, stringent annual vehicle tests, (for example in the UK, if a tyre pressure light is on it fails) driving and keeping a vehicle legal is becoming excessively tedious and expensive.
Swear by Japanese cars theses days but as I no longer drive thousands of miles for work I am getting a classic car for regular use, free from the the annual MOT (fee around £50 excluding any repairs), no annual road tax (My Honda is £255 per annum but heavy polluting cars are £700pa plus) and exempt from low emission zones in the UK; and so simple to maintain and keep road worthy. Anyone else coming to a similar conclusion, or is it completely different in other parts of the world?
Cant see anything I\d downgrade to nothing there has features Ive gotten used to, People buy used cars here that have zero parts backup every day, usually its not the only one around or from a evaporating maker,
The dealer name is RUSTY Drewing??
You must be asking us since you used not one but two question marks. But no need to ask, it’s right there on the window sticker.
My pick of the bunch would be one of the tornado-damaged Tacomas.
Why?
I haven’t taken a Sunday morning walk around a car lot in ages, so this was fun.
Oddly enough, I saw an identical Fisker earlier this week. Same low-gloss color too. On the rare occasion when I see Fiskers, I wonder “What ever happened to Fisker?” Well, now I know. Even in an area such as mine, where Statement Vehicles like this are common, it seemed that this one never caught on. I admit that I’ve not been interested enough to figure out just what went wrong with Fisker, but it seems that the brand’s end has been a long time coming.
I wonder how the prices of these barely-used vehicles differ from new examples of the same model. Over the past few years, it’s appeared that lightly-used prices are the same (or higher) than new car MSRPs… perhaps a premium because they’re actually available, or because there’s more (costly) financing options? Whatever the reason, used cars aren’t quite the good deal they used to be. Of course, nothing else seems to be, either.
I like the Frontier. My neighbor has one – though a black four-door – and I’ve often thought they make good all-around vehicles.
The Lyriq’s soggy diaper analogy is one of those things that I’ll never un-see. Thanks for that.
I continue to dread having to buy a new car, though I suspect when that time eventually comes we’ll be drawn to whatever models happen to have excess inventory at that given time. We live in unpredictable and expensive times.
Thanks for the tour!
“What ever happened to Fisker?”
Just to clarify; this is not the same Fisker company that built the Fisker Karma in 2011-2012. That went belly up then, but the rights to keep building the swoopy 4-door was sold off to a Chinese firm and built as the Karma Revero for a few more years.
Fisker V2 was his second shot, this time having Magna build it in Austria as a contract supplier. Fisker went public via a SPAC, and rode the EV bubble to ridiculous heights before reality set in.
Of course this was all-too obvious and predictable (at least to me), but Henrik Fisker is not easily deterred (and has a bad rep for it).
Thanks – I didn’t know any of that background.
I remember that Bob Lutz bought some or all of the leftover Karma sports cars and put Corvette engines in them. I don’t think it was all that many in the end.
“The Lyriq’s soggy diaper analogy is one of those things that I’ll never un-see. Thanks for that.”
Anytime. Always glad to help! 🙂
LIkewise; I didn’t know Fisker was a thing again.
Love this article! I used to peruse dealer lots on Sundays after my early morning bike ride but the past few years here in the big city there’s private security all over the lots pushing us window shoppers away….
The Accords are a surprise, but if they weren’t service loaners then my guess is someone bought it and just didn’t like it. That happens. In early (pre-Covid shut down) 2020 I was on the hunt for a loaded low mileage Nissan Rogue for my daughter’s first car. (Note: I’m not a fancy dad with a spoiled kid; I just wanted good, proven, safety-equipped transportation for her and her stuff back and forth to college. She didn’t get her license until she was 20 so I knew she’d be semi-responsible….).
I got a notification of one available a few cities over that met all my criteria. It was a year old, pristine with only 3800 miles on it. An elderly gentleman had bought it after a string of RAV-4s and just didn’t like it, trading it in for another RAV-4. Talk about lucky timing – I bought for roughly 60% of msrp; within a year the same dealership was offering to buy it back for $6k more than I paid.
Finally, a neighbor has a Lyriq. Quite intriguing but not my cup of tea. It definitely has presence though….
I see Lucids regularly, though not a lot of them. And even more Lyriqs, including one that moved in recently on the next block … one of only two Cadillacs in the neighborhood. I’ve even seen a handful of Fisker Karmas though not for a few years. But the Ocean is new to me. The two EV’s that are really showing up regularly on our streets are the VW ID4 and the Ford Lightning. I’m seeing several of the Lightnings on the job with local builders.
According to Cadillac, the Lyric selling quite well now, after an extremely slow start due to delays in GM’s Ultium battery production (a fortuitous thing, in hindsight). But I strongly suspect that’s mostly on the coasts and some large urban centers, and not so in Missouri and other central US states, where EV adoption very seriously lags.
The ID4 sold fairly well, but not as well as VW would have liked. And Ford is struggling with the Lightning, having had to reduce prices and curtail production. Ford is losing $100k on each EV sold. Ouch! The losses from their EVs is now equal to the profits from their IC “division”. It’s the Pro “division” that’s generating the big profits. Tough times for Ford; they wanted to be the next tesla, and now they’re regretting it. A pivot to hybrids is the new strategy.
Ford was stupid. However, that has afflicted them every now and then so nothing new.
In December 2013 I bought a used 2014 Ford Fusion. It had about 800 miles, 300 of which had been driven by the salesman. It had the 1.6L Ecoboost and 6-speed manual, a combination that was shortly after discontinued.
I assumed some guy had bought it and his wife told him no way was she going to drive a manual.
There’s a reason I’m finding myself more attracted to motorcycles, it seems like the emotional attraction to automobile’s and the culture I’ve had since I can remember is pretty much evaporated and never to return, and the cars that most appeal to me from the past I’m a combination of priced out of or just bored of.
Cadillac is just embarrassing, they may be dynamically better in every way but all you get that’s cadillacy is the crest and who under 70 cares? There’s no identity in the lot of them, the Lyriq doesn’t look much different from the Accords above besides being a crossover height. The Roger Smith era Cadillacs had more distinguishing traits and that is really saying something!
Great article! I too am always intrigued by super low mile used cars of the current model year, or maybe just one year old. I have heard several explanations for this over the years which all seem to have merit.
1. Sometimes people do simply change their mind about make/model/color, and take a bath on the trade in.
2. Dealers take title to new cars to boost their sales numbers at the end of a month, quarter, or year. Use it as a demo or parts runner, let the employees take them home for a few weeks, etc., and then sell it as a used unit.
3. Many makes and dealers heavily subsidize short, 6 or 12 month leases for their employees, so the employees are always driving a new model of whatever they sell. They can book this as an advertising expense/deduction.
4. Service loaners are often retired and sold as a used car after just a few months/few thousand miles.
Only this 2017 Nissan Frontier speaks to me a little too . It is the last of the trucks offered which had not yet undergone the ”higher hood concept” adopted on all ‘modern’ pick-ups.
Solstice please. Not sure why, but it’s the best fit to my UK life I suspect.
I’ll pass on the Escalades and Hummer
Solstice here too. It’s the only vehicle on the lot to at least attempt prettiness.
Oh dear. At 55, can’t pretend some oldness is not settling in. These damn moderns.
(I shall now retreat to a close watch on my lawn lest anybody appears upon it).
The red C6 is talking to me, but I think Id rather have a coupe Corvette. The Solstice is as well, beautiful car but a major let down once you drive one.
I really want to like the Lyric, but still havent seen one in person to make up my mind. Do like the Escalade, it actually has that traditional Cadillac swagger, espscially compared to that anonmous grey blob CT5. Its just too much vehicle for me. I dont have a family of 6 to haul around and that black one would constantly remind me of my days driving a black yukon denali for a livery company to the airport
No wonder so many younger folk seem to have no interest in cars. I mean, just look at them! About as appealling as a visit to the cemetery.
I have to wonder whether a sunny day would bring out some hitherto-unseeable appeal in those monochromes. Black, grey, white, silver…. bo-ring! Who could find anything to get enthused about here? Apart from the Vettes and the Solstice, they all just appear to be boxes with variously-crinkled corners, and seemingly random patches of black or chromium applique. Designers need to redicover the curve. Look at Mazda. And colour. It’s just as bad here though. I couldn’t find anything worth adding to the cohort today.
Yep, Solstice is the star, but it’s a pretty low bar….
Ah, but you see Mr Wilding, younger folk aren’t nearly as familiar with the cemetery as those of us who are closer to becoming its residents….
Fisker Ocean One an ugly car. Lyriq another ugly car. Of course not quite as ugly as the two Tesla Cyber Trucks driving around Danville. All the rest are meh…
All those dreary colors. And of course a predominance of grey over horrible black wheels
Oh dear. It’s as if the grey skies fell upon them all, painted them, and then somehow transmogrified their stylistic mood as well. Rusty’s Post-Apocalypse Motors. Come to Us for the Latest in Glum.
I am very sure that my opinion matters, too.
Glum indeed. But when they try for Glam, they seem to miss that too.
And of course your opinion matters.
Your opinion is just as valid as anybody else’s. Whether those in a position of authority acknowledge this is, unfortunately, another matter. But that’s their bad, not yours. 🙂
I agree that the Cadillac CT5 has become quite generic looking, the earlier 2017-18 models had much sharper dramatic lines. Those are now on my short list. I’ve seen quite a few Lyrics on the road. Mostly blue ones, and I think that they look pretty good. Lots of Lucids, I think the price dropped below 100K. The Car of the Future look is likely to get old after awhile. I’m seeing more Cyber trucks, oh my gosh! Ugly as Hell, and doesn’t look to be very practical. In these parts, Teslas are like the VW beetles of the old days. Even my son has one, and a VW EV for his wife. Teslas are handsome cars, I’ll give Elon, that, but how does anyone know that you’ve bought a new one? They all look the same.
I can’t see myself as a new car buyer, there’s nothing that makes me want to go into long term debt for. I’m usually shopping at the used car middle ground, not a new car dealer, but not a lot with a trailer as a sales office.
Here’s a pic of the Cadillac, reminds me a lot of my old Seville.
Wait a minnit ~ you cannot mention Checker Aerobus and not show it…..
Most of these are -FUGLY- . If I had to choose one I’d take that old Nissan Frontier with the bad paint .
-Nate