Peter DeLorenzo is back from a break in writing his column . . . and is in a foul mood. He is particularly critical of dealers being “insanely” optimistic in the wake of the Trump administration’s regulatory “rollback” of electric vehicles:
“Leave it to the dealers to ignore even a shred of reality while pretending that car prices aren’t ridiculously high, that the cost of financing and insurance still isn’t crushing, and that the entire industry hasn’t priced half of eligible buyers completely out of the new car market. Not to mention the still too-common standard operating procedure of extracting as much cash out of their customers as they possibly can, whether they can realistically afford it, or not.”
— Peter DeLorenzo (2025)
RE:SOURCES
- DeLorenzo, Peter; 2025. “Same as it ever was.” Auto Extremist. Posted Feb. 2.
I wondered what Ed Anger was doing since Weekly World News folded.
How about engaging the substance of what he said rather than trafficking in empty snark?
New Auto sales totaled nearly 16million in 2024 per Yahoo Finance. I hold to my statement. Okay, what are you going to remove from a car to bring the price down? Infotainment? Air conditioning? Multi speed wipers? Bring back three on the tree transmission? Say goodbye to consoles, courtesy lights everywhere, tinted glass, comfortable bucket seats? Foam padding optional of course. Bid adieu to four wheel independent suspension, no AWD. I’m not sure what other stuff could be scrapped due to safety/mileage regulations. However good wearing upholstery can go, bring out the beach ball grade vinyl. Have the car start rusting in 3 years along with the paint fading. Do a little thought experiment. Imagine a 1957 Chevy 210, a mid level trim. Now, take that car and do updates only to the extent mandated by Federal law. How many people do you think would buy it? Anyone? Bueller? Dealers are short sighted and greedy. Wow. The old meme “if you bought the car, you got screwed” was around since I was a kid in the 50s. No negotiation the price you see is the price you pay has been tried occasionally. It never caught on, for what I guess are several reasons. Trade in value and financing could still be negotiable, and I’m also sure some dealer will knock a few bucks off a comparable vehicle.
Welp, you sound like your mind is firmly made up, so I’m not writing this to you so much as I am to others. There are a lot of ways to cut costs if one is so inclined. The problem is that Detroit is not — and never has been (except for brief periods where economic or energy crises forced them to).
During the postwar era imported cars offered a clear alternative to the bigger, glitzier, more powerful cars that US automakers built. But not anymore. As a case in point, you can’t buy a truly subcompact pickup. Look at how few entry-level economy cars are left on the market — and how they tend to be roughly the same size as compacts of yore.
One reason why the average transaction price of a new car is approaching $50,000 is that the industry has been emphasizing larger SUVs and pickups. Yet as the public becomes increasingly cash strapped, it has been gravitating to smaller vehicles — which mostly cost quite a bit less than bigger ones.
Even with all of the upsizing, you can still buy a reasonably sized, well-equipped passenger car or CUV for under $30,000 — and it will likely have a whole lot more bells and whistles than the fancier cars of the postwar era.
You’ve also sidestepped one of the US auto industry’s biggest fears — that the Chinese enter the market in a big way. Somehow they have figured out how to produce low-priced EVs. I don’t think Detroit would be so freaked out if the Chinese were building cars so substandard that they aren’t likely to gain more traction than a Subaru 360 back in the day.
You have a point about China. It’s hard to predict what could happen with what I feel is going to be an on=and=off trade war. I gather the Chinese are enamored of American brands, although most “American” cars sold there are Chinese built for the Chinese market. I know GM imported some Chinese Buicks and Cadillacs a few years ago and don’t now. They were fairly obscure cars and not enoughto built up a data base. You have a point how much horsepower, multi level climate control and speakers do we need? However, you’ll take my GPS when you can pry it from my cold dead hands.
I just read the linked article. He’s mad as hell. He’s not wrong. Depressing really.
I used to read Peter’s column weekly, but I only have so much personal screen time I want to spend in a week, so it fell off from my list. I don’t disagree with anything we wrote, though.
I’ve heard so much crap in the last 18 months about the bottom of the market falling out and car prices getting cheaper, but not really seeing any demonstrable evidence of this. I think Stellantis’ changes are a real show of desperation. It seems they will continue to add to Elon Musk’s fortunes if they continue to peddle Hemis unless there’s a rapid, massive change in energy policy. I don’t want to be the one to tell Stellantis that the party is over. But I think they’ve alienated as much of their customer base as possible. Can Tim Kuniskis fix this? In my estimation, no.
Like the other two (mostly) domestic sellers of vehicles, they’ve hollowed out their offerings to only sell SUV/CUVs. Very little for the folks who need a relatively inexpensive car and there are only so many people who will throw down for a $50 or more SUV and replace it every 2-3 years.
I also applaud GM’s sticking with the EVs, but with the changing winds, I don’t know if its a good strategy. The upside is, if I wait a couple of years, I should be able to pick up a BEV Equinox pretty inexpensively. FWIW, Farley’s Ford just confuses me and I no longer care to try to pay attention to it. Again, the upside is, if I wait a couple of years, I should be able to pick up a BEV Mach-E pretty inexpensively
I still believe the Chinese are on their way and our domestic producers will REALLY be in jeopardy. I’m thinking the EU’s reaction to the Chinese EVs will give us an idea of how to or not to react to the situation. All of the domestic manufacturers’ and especially the dealers’ cavalier attitudes toward regular consumers will be negatively rewarded. Or maybe the 200% tariffs will be enough of a bulwark to stem the Red tide. But where there’s money to be made, there’s a way…
As the Chinese curse goes: May you live in interesting times.
I think we’ve arrived in them.
That’s a reasonable analysis. This strikes me as a particularly difficult time to make firm predictions given the uncertainties around tariffs, the scale of deportations and their impacts on auto prices and interest rates. I would imagine that EVs won’t do very well because Trump unplugs subsidies, but hybrids might continue to grow unless Trump manages to bring down gas prices. That could plausibly happen . . . except for his talk about the US taking over Gaza, which could elicit a backlash from some major oil producers. Interesting times.
Sales of expensive rides seem to have stalled. There’s a dealer nearby who has over 200 identically painted grey Cadillac SUVs just sitting at his bodyshop lot. I stopped a year ago and asked if they were for sale (should be discounted if they’re more than a year old, right? I wouldn’t pay full price for something with a year or two’s depreciation) and was told no. I looked at it on Google Maps just now and the whole lot is full now compared to the google maps pic. Google Maps marker: 35.331671774119485, -94.42244109739214 or https://www.google.com/maps/@35.3312626,-94.4212985,262m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDIwNS4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Some sort of fleet sale that fell through? Maybe in litigation?