I suspect the floor plan interest is basically non-existence now as a lot of new vehicles are sold before they are even unload off the truck. Last month we were shopping for a newToyota RAV4 Hybrid. It was almost a comedy show as none of dealers within 30 miles radius has any available unit on the lot and I called over 6 dealers. Some of smaller dealers haven't had one in over 6 months. Any allocations en route are already spoken for. Not only that most dealers were charging over MSRP and some even has out of state surcharge. In the end we got Venza LE which is based upon RAV4 Hybrid platform. It is more upscale and despite it being the base trim it has a ton of standard features. The only reason we got it was someone cancelled the last minutes. We were thrilled dealer charged us at MSRP. It is crazy we were happy to pay that price. When we got the 2014 RAV4 Limited new we got about $2,500 off MSRP. In the end it worked out as we got good money for the trade in so it is more than made up for the difference.

I don't get it - I drive by many dealers on my daily commute and their lots are far from empty. But I guess the hybrids and PHEVs are tough to get now. Glad I'm not shopping for one.

I was reading recently that a lot of the cars on dealers' lots are already spoken for, and at some dealers, some are actually disabled cars with parts missing that are put out there just to create the appearance of inventory.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory. Why would the dealers want to artificially overstock their parking lots giving the false appearance of inventory when that in theory would only decrease their leverage in the sales arena.

Kinda of reminds me of stories about new vehicles sitting in the parking lots near manufacturing facilities while waiting on semi-conductors. For some plants they even parked them in the field basically.
Here is a just one article:
https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...21/7688773002/

Yeah but those aren't sitting in dealer lots:)

They do have something in common and that is waiting on parts. I can see the point LexWannabe was trying to make.

I've been considering selling the ESh and bag $7k cash. Got an offer for $47,600. Thought about the following cars: Camry Hybrid (18+), 2017 Chevy Volt (plug-in), New Civic, New Insight, Accord Hybrid, Maverick Hybrid.

good luck.. everything sold out and/or seriously marked up. Called several Ford Dealers for a base 20k Maverick Hybrid... waiting list.

Saw an ESh like mine, same year, same mileage, base + prem., 5k miles, $57,000.

So yeah I'll just keep my car. If you buy a new car today.. you better have deep pockets and be very patient.

Yeah, it also depends on the models as well. Recently I saw a dealer was marking up Toyota RAV4 Prime for $30K above MSRP.

I read about the Ford Maverick in Car and Driver. Looked pretty good to me and the price was very attractive. Sorry to hear that there's a waiting list. :sad:

There are posts on the Benz forum (mbworld.org) of people who bought new Mercedes last year with some tech features disabled, as the car was delivered without the chip/part. I guess people wanted the cars so bad that they were fine with taking it with some tech features missing. The dealers promised to put in those chips "in a month or two" when the chips come in. Some buyers are still waiting and waiting on their dealer to call them that the chip / parts are in......

I Posted on the RX forum that my local dealer where I get my ES serviced has stopped offering routine test drives. Reason is "in this market". I think they don't want to bother with test drives because they don't need to offer it to sell. Seems like people know what they want and order cars before they are even in. So I guess the sales dept does'nt want to bother with people with little interest doing drives. If you are willing to spend some time and run numbers and a credit check and seem like a serious buyer ready to buy, then they will give you a test drive.

A coworker of mine just bought a GLE Coupe AMG - they're building some with the old style tablet instead of the dual 12" screens - this also due to the chip shortage. But he did get it for msrp.

Easy: Why would you come inside if your eyes told you they had nothing to show you or sell you?

Nonsense. In all my years of shopping and purchasing cars, I've never once took notice of the inventory on the lot. The larger dealers all store cars offsite anyway.

Mike, you just conducted a survey with a sample size of 1. It might seem like goofy buyer behavior, and it might in fact be goofy, but that doesn't mean that nobody does it.