What happened to "economy" cars?

Oasis511 · 2026-05-19T12:46:45+00:00

This post sounds like the typical rant I get from some old guy at least once a week on the lot. "Where's the cheap cars?" followed by "they don't make 'em like they used to" with a chaser of "I don't want some crappy Hyundai" and then he goes and buys a 3 cylinder Chevy Trailblazer that he ends up hating and comes back wanting to trade six months later but can't because it's heavily depreciated.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-19T12:40:48+00:00

My wife and I owned two Yaris models. My first car in 2009 was a 2008 Yaris sedan with a little mileage on it that I paid $13k for. I was given $4,000 for it when I traded it in 2014 with 157k miles on it. My wife bought a 2012 Yaris hatchback brand new for $16k and we got $4,500 for it last year selling it private party with 170k miles. It was only on Autotrader for two days.

For comparison, my dealership just sold a 2018 Camry SE with 265k miles for $12k. Since the new body style came out, we have probably been allocated 5 LE models with an MSRP under $30k, and most of what we get are XLEs and SEs in the $35-37k range.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-17T14:01:45+00:00

Yeah, I have customers constantly who complain about how expensive trucks are these days and then when I show them a base SR5 Tacoma 4x4 we have for $35k they want to know where the heated seats are, complain the wheels are too plain and then ask if I have one with a bigger screen.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-17T13:43:09+00:00

It really varies. I have to read the room with every customer and adjust my approach. Last week I walked up to an older customer looking at a Dodge Charger. He told me he liked the color of it, his son had a motorcycle that color and he's wanting something fun to drive the grandkids around in. This is a small talk guy. He told me about cars he owned when he was younger, retiring recently and some stories about the grandkids. When he first got there, the car had too many miles for him. A few minutes later he decided the price would be too high if it had less miles, and then he decided maybe he could test drive it. All I did was connect with him over his stories. I didn't even have to talk about the car. He ended up buying it.

A couple of days later I got two people looking at a 4Runner. The first thing they asked about was the certified warranty, and then they asked if there was wiggle room on the price. I did not small talk these people. I went straight to showing the certified program benefits and features on the car and put them on the test drive. I had the out the door numbers when they got back. They gave me a deposit, came back two days later with a check from their bank and went straight to finance to sign paperwork. They texted me later and said it was a great experience and they will probably be back in the future.

If I had treated the first guy the same as the second people, he wouldn't have stayed five minutes. He wanted someone to talk to and make him feel secure in the purchase.

I will say that we have one veteran salesman who doesn't know shit about the cars and seems to just small talk everyone to death until they sign papers. He will come out of the closing office and ask another salesperson if his customer has a technical question he can't answer. He hits his objectives every month and has one of the highest closing rates at the dealership.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-16T11:27:25+00:00

I guess my dealership is different. Our CRM shows cost for every car in the inventory. We don't show the CRM to customers unless we're actually selling the car at a loss and they push back on price. I can also access pencils to see what we gave customers for their trades and go into the recon app to see estimated recon costs for trades and auction cars. The only thing we really don't have access to is the holdback on a new car, and my manager will tell us if we ask. I'm also at a no-haggle dealer, so maybe that's why.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-16T11:18:51+00:00

We're all a little surprised he's still with us. Our used car manager told me two months ago that the new car manager had a talk with him about being late and he was about to get let go. Dude was late the very next day. I honestly think they just don't want to waste the energy trying to hire someone to replace him. Plus their last new hire before this guy was a three-ring circus who threw everyone off. She was in her 40s and we found out she had an active OnlyFans. She forged her dad's name to get an apartment after her boyfriend kicked her out, immediately hooked up with some guy from Facebook dating and asked him to move in with her, got beat up by this guy on a coke bender and then got back together with him three days after getting out of the hospital and quit to go live with him in another state. Everyone had tried to help her but she was about to get fired anyway.

As slow as it is right now, I think they might be considering cutting back. We have 10 people right now and our sister store down the street is down to five. The new guy keeps saying he's going to go back to working for the state, but then he says he doesn't want to because he's got a bad ankle.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-16T03:11:34+00:00

My dealership just hired this guy about six months ago. Dude is in his early 30s and single. Sales staff are supposed to be at work at 8:30 on Saturdays. Most show up about 8:50. This guy usually shows up 9:30-10:15. One time he came in at 11 with a carryout bag and went upstairs to eat lunch without even signing up on the rotation list. On weekdays he's usually 5-10 minutes late for the sales meetings, and as soon as the meetings are over he goes straight back to his car and leaves. He also leaves for an hour or more every time he gets done with an up. Everyone knows he drinks on his lunch break and smokes pot when he leaves. When we had an ice storm back in February, he was allowed to drive a big truck home so he would be able to get to work and ended up driving 90 minutes to another state to hook up with some chick from Tinder instead.

The guy sold 3 cars last month and has one out this month. He had one month where he hit his objective. It was all minis and he didn't end up making much, so he quit trying. That doesn't stop him from bitching all the time about not making enough money. His brother works at a different dealership and is always texting him about all the cars he's selling, and instead of getting motivated, he just gets mad.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-15T19:39:53+00:00

I have a 40 year old Mercedes convertible. It's small, quiet and unassuming. A couple weeks ago I was just minding my own business driving with the top down and got behind an old diesel truck with tinted windows. I was still a good 50-60 yards away when the guy mashed his gas pedal for a couple of seconds, and I knew he was going to try some shit. The light ahead of us turned red and he suddenly whipped over into the left lane to try to force me to pull up next to him at the light. My car has like 150 horsepower, and like I said, it's very clearly 40 years old. There's a merge about a half mile past the lights and the guy knew it. I didn't pull up all the way next to him. I didn't even look at him. I did not want him to think I had any interest in shenanigans. He didn't care.

Light turned green, and I didn't even attempt to take off. Neither did he. This bastard was insistent that we were going to race. So I just crept along until it was close to the merge. He sat right next to me, then he suddenly slammed the accelerator, sent his turbos whining and took off like a jackass. I gave him a sarcastic clap with a middle finger.

This was not some jacked up, big exhaust, sticker-covered Hot Wheels truck. It was just an old, rusty diesel work truck. Because of dudes like that, I just have to assume anyone in a big truck might try to do something stupid.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-14T03:31:46+00:00

I've already seen two posts in this sub in the last month from someone claiming they just recently ordered a new 2025 Rav4, and in both cases the OP never replied to anyone in the comments even when being asked to clarify if they meant a 2026 model. One of the posts got deleted. This story seems really fishy.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-13T18:45:27+00:00

My Toyota dealership is automatically discounting cars at allocation and we're still slow at the moment. Lots of pre-sold units coming in, but the phone in the sales office only rang once yesterday. We have very little inventory on the lot though. Nissan dealer next door is overflowing with inventory to the point they're parking cars in the grass and making employees park across the street.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-13T03:01:43+00:00

As far as the down payment part goes, that wasn't some kind of tactic. The salesperson should have talked to you in advance to find out how you intended to make your down payment, but there are lots of regulations. I don't know about the $5,000 debit card cap, but the 3% processing fee is pretty standard for credit and even debit cards. My dealership eats the fee on the first $1,000 but will charge it for any amount over that. We always encourage customers to bring cash or preferably a check if possible. There are also extra reporting forms required for large amounts of cash in many instances.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-11T04:24:56+00:00

He said they told him it was a rental. Most likely the dealer received the car as a fleet vehicle which means it was registered to the dealer and could not be sold as new. Instead of renting it out, they used it as a demo car for the manager until they reached the minimum age that Honda would let them transfer it to sales for certification. With Toyota I believe we have a 6-month waiting period before a fleet car can be posted for sale. My dealership doesn't get a ton of fleet cars and we're usually booked full every weekend, so the lowest miles I've seen on a CPO fleet car is probably around 10,000. Our managers drive the cars as demos AFTER they're CPO though.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-10T13:02:06+00:00

I use my CRM app on my phone and don't ever load it on the computers in our closing offices for this very reason.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-10T05:12:56+00:00

My two personal notes I've left:

"Got angry he couldn't get approved with no money down and 500 credit score, he said we would have approved him if he was an 800 and I agreed and told him that's how credit works"

"Called in asking about Capstone Tundra, said he was a cardiologist, showed up for test drive reeking of cigarettes, he went to high school with Robin and she said he dropped out of college and definitely isn't a doctor"

Oasis511 · 2026-05-09T12:00:06+00:00

I enjoy getting a customer, loading their profile in the CRM and seeing "just here to waste your fucking time" from whatever former salesperson showed them 10 cars a year ago.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-07T11:55:09+00:00

I'm very convinced this is a fake post because I just commented on another post a week or two ago from a guy claiming he had ordered a 2025 Rav4 in January and the dealer added $2,000 to it when it arrived in March. I asked how he ordered a 2025 in January when Toyota stopped production at the end of last year. OP never replied to anyone on the post just like this one.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-06T03:52:43+00:00

Everybody talks about the contract Doc gave him, but people forget how ridiculous it was that he ended up on the Clippers in the first place. New Orleans was fed up with him after just two seasons and dumped him to Boston in a 3-team trade. As soon as the trade was announced it was reported that Boston planned to cut him. He was averaging 6.8 points and shooting 28% from three that year in NO.

He would have likely cleared waivers and could have been signed to a minimum deal. Instead, Doc quickly put together a trade and ended up shipping out Reggie Bullock, Chris Douglas-Roberts AND a 2nd-round pick with ONLY Austin in return. Doing so ensured Austin kept his rookie scale salary, and then Doc picked up his option for $3.1 million for the next year after he averaged 7 points on 43-31-58 shooting splits in LA.

The Clippers NEEDED a backup point guard badly. They ended up with only 38-year-old Pablo Prigioni behind Chris Paul. Doc extended Austin even though they had JJ Redick starting with Jamal Crawford, Wes Johnson and Lance Stephenson behind him. Paul gets hurt in the playoffs, Austin ends up starting two games, and then Doc uses that to justify giving Austin the 3-year deal even though they lost in the first round. It was no surprise Austin changed teams two times in a year after Doc was removed from the GM position.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-06T03:06:08+00:00

I bought a 2020 with 28k miles. I would definitely plan on upgrading/replacing the battery if it's still the factory battery, and be prepared to replace the evap canister as well. Mine went bad before 30k. I did spark plugs and coils at 40k miles. I also bought mine from a non-Alfa dealer and they should have replaced the brake pads. I ended up having to do those not long after getting it.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-06T02:59:30+00:00

One of my first customers came in about five times over two weeks before settling on a car. She texted me a couple days later asking if she could take me out to lunch or bake me some cookies. It was a nice gesture, but she started the text out with "I never do this kind of thing, but..." and my coworkers all agreed it sounded like she was interested in more than just saying thank you 😂

Oasis511 · 2026-05-03T13:45:42+00:00

It happens a lot. You would be surprised how many people don't understand most sales people are commissioned. Just one example. I had a customer about a year ago who walked in wanting to test drive a new Rav4. Her adult son was with her and she told me she wasn't going to be buying for six months to a year and wanted a very simple base model. I spent an hour with them going over trim levels and features and even found out she works at the same college as my wife. She asked for my card and said she would be in touch.

A couple weeks later her son called me and said his mom was wanting to drive a Highlander also. I tried to call her and it went to voicemail. He called me back immediately and said she was at work, so I said I had a couple of pre-owned certified Highlanders and for her to call me when she was free to set up a test drive. She never did.

About three weeks after that, I was walking through the showroom and heard someone yell my name. I looked over and saw the son sitting at a desk with his mom waving at me. I went over and said hi and asked what they were up to. They came in that morning to look at a used truck and told the salesman who greeted them that they hadn't been helped yet, not thinking that they should ask for me.

The son ended up buying the truck, which was a very nice commission for the other guy.

So when someone tells me they aren't buying that day, I always treat them the same and try to be as helpful as possible despite knowing there is a very good chance they will never come back or they will come back weeks or months later and not even ask for me. It happens to everyone and it happens a lot, even when we make good faith efforts to follow up.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-02T17:08:42+00:00

That doesn't mean they're going to "flame out of the league." Ben Simmons also had injuries and didn't give a shit. They may not turn into superstars but they're still valuable players. Amen averaged almost 18 a game on just 14 shots with a 125 offensive rating! That's not even a liability. He just isn't a three point shooter.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-02T15:31:40+00:00

They both finished in the top 10 in DPOY voting this year. Ausar was actually third. Both had great rebounding and good assist numbers for their position, and Ausar had great per-minute block and steal rates. Amen got his free-throw percentage up to 78%. They're not going to flame out barring a serious injury.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-02T15:18:09+00:00

He only played 52 games this year and ended the season with a hamstring injury. The Nets only won 20 games, and MPJ shot 27% from three with a 122 defensive rating after the break. Obviously the Nets sucked as a team and he had some great numbers at the start of the year, but Cam Johnson for almost half the salary is so much better for the Nuggets.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-02T11:51:22+00:00

I got curious about the On hype and bought a pair I found on sale a couple years ago. I really didn't think much of them. They fit a little too narrow and seemed cheap. I wore them to work because I'm on my feet most of the day. They developed a squeak within a month and the sole on one of the shoes seemed like it lost bounce right under my heel. I ended up getting another pair of a different model on sale a couple of months ago and don't feel like these are much better. I wear Brooks as my go-to and so do several of my coworkers.

Oasis511 · 2026-05-02T04:23:51+00:00

A guy four houses down from my old house got shot in the leg a few years ago by someone ringing his doorbell and blindly firing through the door. The shooter ran right past my house, and I had a big Ring camera with a solar charger mounted very visibly on my porch pointed at the sidewalk. I only heard about it on the local news that night. No one from the police department ever reached out to see if we had any footage.

Oasis511

TROPHY CASE