[zroger73]

Indeed. I remember my father boasting several years ago that he won $18,000 at a casino and bought a new motorcycle with it. What he didn't reveal is that he lost an order of magnitude more than that oven the years. I took $20 to a casino on my 21st birthday, left with $75, and never went back.

 

[zroger73]

I cannot find this anywhere. 😭

I'm not seeing this for my ZIP code, either. I see $500 loyalty on the RTL-E and 2.9-3.9% financing.

Honda Lease Deals and Current Finance Offers | Honda

Find the best car lease deals and current finance offers from Honda. Use our car offers to help you decide whether to lease vs finance your vehicle.

automobiles.honda.com

 

[stevem5215]

haha yeah, we got to the casino with $20. If we win we leave immediately. Last time we won $40 (and the $20 investment as well) and left immediately. Otherwise it's easy to say. I won this lets spend it and then you lose both amounts.

Personally, I believe real estate is a better investment. lol But it's long term not the 10 minutes you spend in a Casino.

 

[CountryCruiser]

I cannot find this anywhere. 😭

https://www.hughwhitehonda.net/

Central Ohio. Other dealer websites around me say they are currently updating their new monthly specials. I will post if I find more.

 

[zroger73]

That might be a dealer-specific promotion because Honda's website doesn't match for that dealer's ZIP code.

 

[Jchaase]

That might be a dealer-specific promotion because Honda's website doesn't match for that dealer's ZIP code.

Maybe they need to be a particularly high-volume dealer or something

 

[zroger73]

I haven't seen a "high-volume" dealer in nearly two years.

 

[14v6]

This is depressing cars are not worth it. For reference local Honda dealer here has no lease specials but shows prices to finance for 60 months.

HRV LX front wheel drive $424
Ridgeline BE $806.

The BE is listed at 47k which is in the ball park of the average price of a new car today. Then there's tax insurance, gas and maintenance.

I don't understand how folks can qualify to finance these amounts. The BE looks like a mortgage P&I from 25 years ago. At least you have a house that has a chance of increasing in value. Sad, different world now.

 

[CountryCruiser]

Yeah most people are going to have to have longer terms just to buy new or used. Pretty insane a household would have to divert 100% of their income for 41 weeks to afford a vehicle. And this was published in June '22. Probably worse now.

 

[14v6]

Yeah, talk about digging a deeper hole that some folks will never get out of.

 

[zroger73]

I'm no economist and I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am, but is the automotive industry destined to crash and pull the rest of the economy down with it?

MSRP or higher + high interest rates + 10-year loans means to me that most buyers are going to have to keep their vehicles a lot longer. Buyers won't be able to afford their next vehicle until much further into the future which means automakers will end up with a glut of inventory which means deep discounts. Am I totally off my rocker for thinking this way?

 

[longboat]

I'm no economist and I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am, but is the automotive industry destined to crash and pull the rest of the economy down with it?

MSRP or higher + high interest rates + 10-year loans means to me that most buyers are going to have to keep their vehicles a lot longer. Buyers won't be able to afford their next vehicle until much further into the future which means automakers will end up with a glut of inventory which means deep discounts. Am I totally off my rocker for thinking this way?

I don't think so.

I think there is a faction of buyers out there who can afford these high prices, and they have fueled a demand since well before the pandemic started (hence the RTL-E outselling all other G2 trims, probably since its inception). Automakers have been prioritizing building and selling higher-trim vehicles to meet that small target market demand.

Then there's another faction made up of those who are trying to keep up with, or out-do, their neighbors, even though they can borderline afford it, or probably not afford it at all. They are hedging their bets that they have solid employment and income in future years that will support their current wants. It is extremely easy to justify buying more than one can realistically afford.

And then there is the vast majority who absolutely cannot afford a new vehicle. They will be forced to utilize older vehicles and keep the used vehicle market strong. Those folks are now driving those reliable cars from the late 90s and early 2000s.... times will be getting tougher as newer vehicles that enter the used market may be more difficult to repair, and independent knowledgeable mechanics become harder to find.

If I were someone who could not afford a reliable vehicle, I would be comsidering no vehicle at all. I'd be looking for work close to home where I could walk or bicycle to work, or somewhere in a city where mass transit was available.

 

[14v6]

I'm no economist and I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am, but is the automotive industry destined to crash and pull the rest of the economy down with it?

MSRP or higher + high interest rates + 10-year loans means to me that most buyers are going to have to keep their vehicles a lot longer. Buyers won't be able to afford their next vehicle until much further into the future which means automakers will end up with a glut of inventory which means deep discounts. Am I totally off my rocker for thinking this way?

Eventually folks won't buy because they can't afford it when the remaining 3 years on their 8 year loan is rolled into their next car loan. It's going to take some more time for this to hit home. It's not like cars last any longer here in rust land than they did 20 years ago. We don't get that option here in rust lane. I have doubts about how long hybrids and EV's can last or what their trade in value will be relative to a 10 year old ice. To me, it's all pie in the sky type of stuff but it seems like every move auto makers make comes with you paying more for something that is slightly more safe and efficient but doesn't last as long. For me, the horizon used to be 10 years before you would contemplate what the next Honda would be but now cars are like phones. Maybe if working remotely becomes the norm it will offset some of this trend to help with keeping car longer. The trade in home runs from Covid were once in a lifetime gifts but now we are left with higher retail prices and falling trade in values plus inflation that we all have to pay for. This is mirroring the housing crash. These financing terms are a recipe for disaster and the bubbles will only get bigger.

 

[Jchaase]

If someone is financing 100% of a vehicle, they are setting themselves up for trouble. Yes, the situation is bad right now, but I also believe you need to look at your personal situation and not buy more vehicle than you can afford. I would hope that 99% of buyers are not committing to the payments cited above. Hope.

We are financing part of our new Ridgeline - more of it than we’d like, but that is where we are. We didn’t anticipate the broken frame/corrosion recall on our ‘06 back in June when we bought a brand new car. We looked into used trucks, anywhere from a beater to get us through for a couple of years, to a certified pre-owned newer one. You just don’t get much for your money on a used vehicle right now, unless you get lucky - prices are still too high for it to make sense, for us. We are both retired, and didn’t want to take the money out of our retirement funds with the stock market the way it is right now. Next fall the I-bonds we bought recently will have matured, and we’ll be able to pay off the RL then. And the plan is to keep it forever, so theoretically we will be all set for vehicles for a long time.

If we COULD get 0% on it, we’d be ecstatic.

 

[KentuckyJon]

Regarding 0% offers, which is pretty wild considering the times, I'm wondering if dealers have the ability to work with Honda Financial to select the rates they want to offer. So if they standard rate from HFS is say 2.9% for well qualified buyers can the dealer say, "We want to keep our 'Market Adjustments' and offer 0% so we'll pony up $x,xxx to buy the rate down."

I also noticed that these 0% deals require 80% of the deal to be financed which I don't remember being a stipulation when i got 0.9% on mine in 2020.

 

[KentuckyJon]

I'm no economist and I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am, but is the automotive industry destined to crash and pull the rest of the economy down with it?

MSRP or higher + high interest rates + 10-year loans means to me that most buyers are going to have to keep their vehicles a lot longer. Buyers won't be able to afford their next vehicle until much further into the future which means automakers will end up with a glut of inventory which means deep discounts. Am I totally off my rocker for thinking this way?

No but the automakers are also content with keeping production lower, which makes managing labor and supply chain issues easier, so long as they are able to get premium prices for their vehicles. It will really depend on when the demand for new vehicles actually falls off the cliff. Then they will have to make decisions about whether to sell cheap at volume or try to keep their premium.