In the market for a new vehicle?
 New and used vehicle prices on Japanese vehicles will continue to see price increases through the rest of 2011 and into 2012. The production and delivery of new vehicles and used vehicle auto parts will be severely limited due to the Japanese earthquake and nuclear disaster in March. There will be shortages of vehicles for the 2012 model year. This will result in prices creeping higher for the few that will be available. The used market is not as clear cut. There will be some shortages of used vehicles to choose from which would normally increase the prices of these vehicles but the lack of auto parts for used vehicles may also bring the prices down due to a slowdown in demand in used Japanese vehicles. The automakers feel that they will be able to return to full production for the 2013 model year. It is expected that when the automakers return to full production, there will be discounts offered to stimulate sales. That may have an impact on the value of your used Japanese auto in 2012 and 2013. If you were considering trading in your Japanese auto within that time frame you may want to consider moving up that decision to this summer or hold out until 2014. Unfortunately if you hold out until 2014, interest rates on autos will most likely have increased. With all this in mind, maybe now is the time to consider that purchase. Finally, you may say that you drive a domestic vehicle and this should not effect you. But keep in mind that if Honda, Toyota and Nissan drop the prices of their 2013 model year, Ford, Chrysler and GM will have to do the same to keep pace.
|
Selling Your Car Yourself
While we are on the subject of vehicles...many people choose to sell their vehicles outright instead of taking them to the dealer and trading them in. Conventional wisdom is that we can all sell our cars and trucks for more money than what the dealer is giving us for a trade in. What many of us fail to realize is that when it comes to paying sales tax on your new car purchase, the amount that the dealer is giving us for our trade in is de ducted from the sales price of the new vehicle and we end up paying sales tax on the difference. An example, we want to purchase a new car for $30,000. If we decide to sell our old vehicle ourselves, we will have to pay sales tax on the $30,000. If we trade in our vehicle, and lets say the dealer is giving us $15,000 for our vehicle, then we will only be paying sales tax on the difference ($30,000-15,000). In this example we would be saving $900 assuming a sales tax of 6%. If after this you still think you want to sell your vehicle yourself, you need to make sure that when you sell your vehicle, that the buyer transfers the title immediately. I have known about horror stories where the buyer never transferred the title into their name. The new owner ends up getting into an accident and the old seller ends up potentially being liable to the person that is injured in the accident. Even worse, if the vehicle is used to commit a crime, you could end up arrested at a routine traffic stop when the officer checks the police files and sees a warrant for your arrest. Whenever you finalize the sale of your vehicle you should insist that you and the buyer go to the tag office immediately and transfer ownership. |
