‘Every latest automotive is a luxury purchase’
A part of the issue is that more Americans want expensive SUVs and pickups with all the choices, he added, which might cost as much as 40% greater than the bottom price.
During the last decade, luxury shoppers have proved time and again their willingness to spend more on high-end cars and the financing to associate with them.
Even the smallest upgrades have been met with soaring demand, Drury said, citing the intense enthusiasm over the Honda Odyssey’s built-in vacuum option when it was first introduced in 2014.
Various packages, or trim levels, offer a variety of features meant to appeal to different buyers, reminiscent of improved safety features, greater engines or high-end finishes like leather seats and a greater stereo.
Now everyone wants high-tech touch screens, ambient lighting, 360-degree cameras and heated and cooled seats, Drury said, which cost much more. “Less and fewer people want something basic.”
“Base models, while enticing in theory, rarely hit the road,” Drury said. “Every latest automotive is a luxury purchase at this point.”
“Who do you blame: The patron that is buying up these options, the dealers which are ordering these cars or automakers manufacturing fewer base models?” he said.
As more persons are priced out of the brand new automotive market, automakers may start testing out cheaper alternatives, he said, although if there’s loads of consumer interest, it could drive up the value for those models, as well.
For now, the most effective technique to get a base model vehicle is to order it directly through a dealer, Drury advised.
“There could possibly be a wonderfully good substitute at about half the fee,” he said.