Okay, I did feel bad for the Volvo guy who just quoted me $837/mo for a 2017 demo S90. His house is STILL taking on water due to “controlled flooding” of a nearby reservoir.
I meant the greater Houston area, not The Galleria 
But insane property tax. My parents live in TX - far away from the floods - and when I saw what they pay in property tax, I was shocked. But yeah it’s like $70 to register my mom’s QX80. They take with one hand give back with the other.
Don’t worry. He will be quoting 937 next time he sees you since he will want to build a bigger and better house …
Received email today 
Dear Ursus,
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, and now with Hurricane Irma bearing down on the East Coast a record number of cars are being destroyed by these devastating storms. In an article from CNBC last week, Hurricane Harvey alone is estimated to cause over 500,000 vehicles to be totaled. That is a very sizable segment of cars in our industry being lost to these storms.
What does this mean to us in the DC/Baltimore Metro and Surrounding Areas?
It means that most of the cars that we would purchase at local auctions over the next few months, will now be moved down south to replenish the destroyed vehicles.
It means our inventories will be impacted and we will be in a very short supply of used cars as soon as insurance claims start being settled down south and they are able to start accepting cars into inventories.
It means the value of your car has temporarily risen, because the supply has dropped yet demand in our areas remains the same. It isn’t very often that used car values appreciate, this is one of those rare times.
It means that the price of used cars will begin to rise, so if you are needing to purchase a used car, don’t put off the decision. You have already seen the impact on gas prices in our area, car prices will soon follow. So now is a good time to to buy if you are considering purchasing a vehicle.
Ursus, it also means we are in need of your 2016 S60 for our inventory. Please contact me directly to schedule your appraisal. I want to personally oversee all appraisals for the next 30 days.
Print this email with your unique PIN (XXXXXXXXXX) it will enable me to quickly reference your vehicle.
Brian Marshall
General Manager
Koons Volvo Kia
Write him back and ask…“so if I sell you my car at an inflated price won’t I have to pay an inflated price on the car I buy to replace it?”
As a fiscal conservative, and additionally being in the retail business, I’d love all these.
That said, seeing our failing infrastructure, and a city’s traffic being laid waste by this storm, our government needs the continued proceeds of those tax programs to get things right.
Plus, we don’t pay state income tax. I’ll take that over a small sales tax break.
I leased my wife’s car it was the first time thanks to you guys I figured out it made more sense. I am now looking at my options but do not know what my insurance will pay for my truck. I did a KBB value it seems low at $24K if I look at auto trader, dealers & cars.com I compiled a spreadsheet with about six comparable trucks at around $29.5K these are all within a 200 mile range.
So I have a few options
- Buy back my truck no idea what the totaled value will be
- Buy a used one which will probably be a very competitive frustrating process
- Buy new and be in debt for 60 months
- Find a cheap lease and wait for the market to settle back down and save money up.
As for option 4 I do use allot of miles but I can control that to some extent taking the bus to work. But I need something that has a tow hitch to load my dirtbike on for my weekend adventures. Thoughts?
Many of the flooded “high-line” cars will be sold/shipped outside the US. I was working at Ferrari’s Englewood NJ HQ when Floyd hit years ago and they lost 14 360/456/550 cars that were flooded in the back lower parking lot. These were cleaned up and exported for resale. The poor service manager who was working there at the time was fired for not moving the cars to higher ground.
My brother in law got USAA to pay out very quickly for more than he thought it was worth. Is your agent dragging his feet?
Just about every Manufacturer is giving $1k Harvey rebates for flood victims.
Would you be interested in a Silverado? @Randy_Haddox1 says he has sub $300 leases at Mac Haik.
you shouldnt feel bad for his sales manager… usually the salesperson has no say over what the pencil shows…
Yes, you’re probably right. I never feel bad for management! I also never buy the “we’re not making any money argument.” I don’t pretend to know the ins-and-outs of how a dealership makes money. I just generally know they make a lot of money off the service bays and that they need to move units to ensure they have a good allotment from the manufacturer.
However, I did read a good article on Motrotrend "Car Salesman Confidential" that details how a good salesman can work either the customer or his manager or both. And I have to imagine that a salesman whose house is currently flooding probably doesn’t care as much about working his GM to help a luxury car buyer out on the hunt for a steal!
Also, I was conflicted on signing for my Cadillac ELR three years ago. At signing, the finance manager at Tom Peacock seemed genuinely pissed, like almost to the point of being rude about it. So I don’t know if that’s considered a win or not…
I have State Farm they came out on Thursday and totaled it. Now I need to wait for the claims adjuster to contact me. I didn’t lose my house and my head is spinning over a truck I can’t imagine losing both at once.
I always kept my payments under $400 just a number I use no real basis other than comfort.
My last lease deal for my wife we were under $400 but didn’t put anything other than the first months payment so that was a great feeling.
I was just seeing if you guys had a creative idea. Not a Chevy guy but the numbers might persuade me. I was less than a year from no payments so this kinda sucks.
Yessir. That is correct.
Can you send me an example on a crew cab?
It’s be easier if you found exactly which model you like on their website, then @Randy_Haddox1 can give you an exact quote.
That’s cool is it Mac Haik Chevrolet in Houston?
Yessir. Note that we sold 300 cars last wk, so most of what show in stock might not be. But at least I’ll have an idea of what you’re looking for