Is The Number One Reason For Low Vehicle Sales The Fact That They Are REALLY Overpriced?

Yes...

No... with inflation they just seem more expensive as time goes on.

1. Are cars and trucks way overpriced for what you get and for the times?

2. What cars and trucks in particular to find are the WORST offenders with their price points?

3. What brand/brands have to take SERIOUS action regarding their pricing?

001

You meant "ZDX" in your article not "RDX", correct?

Yes, most cars are way overpriced for what you get. A Prius for $22,000? Its a tin can powered by a lawn mower engine and a blender motor. Should be more like $14,000. Same can be said for just about every car.

1) I would say yes, I realize cost of manufacturing has increased, but the cost of cars vs. the increase in salaries, wages, cost of living has not increased in unison so it is hard to make due with your next choice of vehicle. Forget luxury cars because I refuse to have a 600-800 a month payment on something that is not a house, and putting 3k down is retarded. At least for most mainstreamers. Could I afford these ludicrous payments, sure. But why, I guess they just don't seem reasonable to me. I pay $346 for my Matrix right now on a 60 month finance. I would be comfortable with $500 or less on my next car, but unless there are promotional rates or 0% even I am not interested, even with my good credit. Secondly, they don't offer much help when trading in, so many people are upside down because the value of the used car vs. what they will give you for it is insane. The numbers never come close to Edmunds or KBB so why even bother looking at them. Even if your car is in great shape they give you money based on it being fair.

2) This is kind of a mute question because pricing of models seems pretty similar across the band. Most small cars like Civic and Corollas fall into the high teens to mid 20's. My eyes pop out of my head though when I see that small SUVs can reach really high 20's or low 30's even when you want some features like AWD, the larger engine, leather, etc. The price rockets up, and typically you end up paying at least another 2k over the base model msrp for some standard stuff.

3) If anyone should work on pricing it would be VW. They are priced above what most of their competition is. Take the main lineup of Passat, Jetta, Golf/GTI. They all fall in line and similarly equipped can run you a few thousand more than any Nissan, Toyota, Ford competitor. You can German me this and German me that, they are overpriced for what they are. But that can also fall right for Subaru, even thoughthe AWD is a premium to pay for, jump up one level in a model and you suddenly see crazy price increases. Not to mention their website absolutely sucks to navigate.

Subaru does have a bad website but there cars are priced right in line with crappier front wheel drive competitors from VW and Toyota and honda.So they are not so bad! You can get a WRX can be yours for 27 grand with 265HP, all wheel drive, 0-60 in 5.4 seconds, great handling and a bad assed amount of room for even a 50 inch tv!

YES they are overpriced.
Have you seen what BMW is asking for their cars lately? AUDI and Benz are not far behind them.
American cars are high thank you UAW..

Also waiting a year later has a significant discount.

Definitely way overpriced. A midsize sedan fully loaded (non luxury brands) should not be more than 20k. Luxury cars are totally different animals. I don't know how people buy all these new cars and how they can afford to live a relaxed normal life and not being in debt for the rest of their lives.

Yep - luxury cars are overpriced along with the high-end models of the regular car lines. That's why Hyundai/Kia have a lot room to grow their market share.

I find the electronic gizmos like GPS & DVD entertainment system to be a waste. I do think BT and rear back-up camera and stability control to be good safety features.

It will all come to screeching halt for us in the USA once the IMF takes the dollar and devalues it by 50%. We'll be looking at Geely and Tata and looking at rich countries driving Hyundai's.

What does overpriced mean? I understand what you're trying to ask 001, but it's an impossible question to answer since what you are really asking is whether there is "value" today in the consumers eyes. Since so much of that "value" is wrapped up in personal priorities and emotion, I don't think it's a question that can be asked broadly. Obviously, you seem to think the Cadi may be "overpriced". But for someone who sees value in buying American brands, or really loves the sharp edge design of their cars, or values the image they think it protrays, they will pay it more easily than dropping $56k on the new Acura ZDX. The next person may pick the ZDX for those exact same reasons. Still yet, someone who really values the performance of a well connected-to-the-road and torquey car, will be willing to pay the premium for some German brands.

If you are middle aged person MOSTLY looking at reliability and price-to-features, I think the Japanese brands still will give you the best "value" in 2009. If you are 60+ years old OR work for a union with a blue collar life, then American is the only way to go. If you are a 25-35 male who likes watching Top Gear, then I suspect a German car probably seems like a bargin and you're happy to pay the price.

I can agree with SpicyMikey, for me back up cameras, DVD entertainment, navi all are nice features but not necessary for myself. So if the package I want to get heated seats requires these additives then I am waisting the additional money.

And yes cars are getting pricier, most brands are offering smaller than compact cars to compete with prices people can afford while moving the small cars up and over their main segment. BMW kept raising the 3 series and now they had to introduce a 1 series to fill in the blank spot for entry level.

Nissan is the biggest example, the original Altima was the size of a Civic and kept in line while the Sentra was the compact. Altima kept growing and by the time you hit the late 90's and early 2000's the Altima suddenly jumped ship and competed with the Accord, Camry, etc. The Maxima at that time had also grown too expensive to compete with those models so they upped it in size, power, etc. as well. Kinda crazy.

wow why insult american car buyers? Though I dont own one, there are nowadays plenty of good american cars. You dont have be old, disgruntled, or "skilled" worker to buy one, how ignorrant to say.

Not being ignorant. I think those descriptions fit the profile of the three buyer groups pretty well. Doesn't mean there aren't exceptions. It also wasn't meant to be an insult. You just chose to take it that way.

Overpriced? Well, let's take a look at 001's perennial fav- BMW.
Now, most people would agree the new 5er is shaping up to be a hot entry-especially the new 550i TTV8. But odds are this model will end up being over 80k fully loaded....Ouch! But that's not the really bad news. If one looks back to oh say, 2004 (decades ago I know)a very well loaded 745Li (not 745i) was also around 82-83K! So now just a mere 6-7 years later a 5er is the same price as the last 7?!?! Another case in point- a 2001 M5 loaded was @73-74K. Now just one gen later and the car is close to 95K!!!! A 20k increase for one gen of car? I've driven both and beleive me there was not 20k of betterness there. However, let me digress and just add that I'm thankful to live here because in other parts of the planet like say, Australia- a new M3 is well over 100K!

Well 001 has a point it is a Cadillac

In November the avg BMW franchise sold 47 vehicles
The avg Cadillac franchise sold 7

Cadillac dealerships aren't stand alone franchises, so they can have more of them thus diluting the sales.

I have to agree. Being on owner of an 07 CTS looking to lease new 2010. I went to my caddy guy, someone who I know very well. and he gave me a price 10,000 more then what my car cost in 06 for a similary equipped one. Even though I am making a substantial more amount of money then I was three years ago, I just don't see the value in expensive cars anymore. I guess my prioites are changing as i get older, even at 23.

At the height of the recession my mother bought a 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, with a sticker price of 42000. We drove away with it for 25000. Now that is a value. Luckily she hates it because the Hemi has a gas addiction problem. (we get about 13 mpg on average) So I am buying her a car of her choice and she wil hand me the keys to the Hemi.

Cars are definitely over priced, especially American cars, where you buy garbage and pay either the same or even more than their competitors.

If you think cars are "expensive" in the States, check out what Canucks pay for the same vehicle! The same BMW, Audi, or MB that sells in the US, takes on a 30% premium when sold in the Great White North. And that's with a Canadian dollar that's only about 5% different than the US greenback.

It's *always* about "what the market will bear" :-(

Which goes back to the issue of "value" I guess. Why has BMW raised their prices so much in the last 5 years, or charge so much more in Canada? Answer; Because they can. Obviously, someone doesn't think they're overpriced, so who are we to judge.

At first it's easy to say yes but when you start think about the safety, technology, driveablity, power per liter, and fuel economy,improvments, the prices are about where they should be.

So true. However, if you go on a factory tour and see what it takes to build one of these, you will never complain about how much they cost.

I wonder how many BMW's end up in repo after the people who sign for them struggle to make those $1000 car payments.

When you buy a new Ferrari or Lamborghini you are giving 30-35 grand to the dealer, If you are lucky enough to "just" pay MSRP, if not you might give them 50-80 grand for their markup...then you are giving Ferrari SpA or VW Group another 30-35k on top of that. It only costs about 115-125 grand to actually make a Gallardo that needs a little over 100 hours of labor to put together.

Yea, but those dealers sell so few of them per year. Their margins must be higher to cover fixed costs.