I think that is probably true for hybrids, in general.

With gas prices seemingly stabilized at levels around 60% of where they were a few years ago, I think that demand for hybrid vehicles, both new and used, is significantly down.

A couple of days ago, I was checking the used car inventories at a couple of Lexus dealers. I was finding, for example, that a 2014 ES 300h, even though it had a MSRP of nearly $3000 higher than that of an ES 350, was likely to be selling as a CPO vehicle for less than a similarly equipped 2014 CPO ES 350.

I suspect that many buyers are doing the calculations and figuring out that, with current fuel prices, it would take a long time to recover the premium prices for the hybrid versions of vehicles. Similarly, the upward spike in SUV sales is likely related to the fact that, with low gas prices, fuel efficiency becomes a smaller factor in car buying decisions.

 

It's interesting as dealers in my area (DMV) DC, dealers are crazy asking what i think is high prices for the GS350s. They have a couple of 2015 Certified F Sport for over 41k with over 15k miles on the ODO, I think that's too much for an essentially 2 years old car, specially when brand new 2016s can be found for around 45k. I will stay on the fence until the summer then as I refuse to pay that much for a 2015 car.

 

I'm not sure how much stock you can put into the asking prices that dealers ask for used and CPO vehicles.

While I know that the practices of dealers with regard to how they set their asking prices can vary from one dealership to the next, I know that a good number of dealers advertise highly inflated asking prices, both to leave themselves room for negotiations and in the hope that some fool will come along and pay the inflated prices. And that practice is especially true when a used car first is put onto their lots.

For example, I saw a 2016 GS that was put on the dealer's lot as a CPO vehicle about 6 or 8 weeks ago. The initial asking price was higher than the price for which you could have bought a new GS. That car is still on the dealers lot, and every 10 days or so, they have been gradually lowering the asking price. Right now, the asking price for that car is $6000 lower than it was when it first hit their lot, and I'm sure that they have still left themselves some room for negotiations.

The bottom line is that advertised asking prices mean very little. It is the actual sales prices that are meaningful, and there can be large differences between the advertised asking prices and what those cars actually end up selling for.

 

I guess i forgot to mention, I offered it 36k for that 2015 cpo that they were asking 41k fo and the guy wouldn't budge, stating the car had a msrp of 59k. I said ok, that I'm not in a rush.

 

I've been through that as well. Some dealers either pay too much for the car on trade/auction or just initially over estimate the market demand. After it sits for months they eventually bring the price down, but dealers have to be smarter with their pricing.

A lot of dealers around here are doing the no haggle pricing now. Definitely makes for an easy buying experience, especially since there's not too much markup on CPOs.