Bought a New Car Lately?

To show his appreciation, a very generous Nobody's Business reader bought me a new SUV the other day. (Even if you're not swimming in cash, you can still get me a little something from my Amazon wish list.)

OK, I didn't really receive an SUV. I did buy one last week, however. It's my first new vehicle in more than ten years. What's interesting, I think, is that (taking inflation into account) I paid about the same as I did for the truck I bought in 1996. And yet this time around, I got a vastly better deal, including six airbags, ABS brakes, electronic stability control, a tire-pressure monitoring system, fog lamps, an engine immobilizer, a lot more horsepower, way better mileage (the two aren't mutually exclusive), a tow package, heated leather seats, an electric moon roof, a built-in Bluetooth hands-free phone system, an in-dash CD changer that also reads MP3 discs, a built-in JBL subwoofer — the list of goodies is as long as my arm.

I'm not boasting. The point of mentioning all this is to underline how efficient free-market capitalism is. A lot of these things, such as electronic stability control and side-curtain airbags, weren't even available in the mid-nineties. They were pricey options when they were launched, and gradually made it into even some entry-level vehicles, as standard equipment.

And it doesn't really seem to be costing us 'late adopters' a penny. The auto industry is an example of trickle-down economics if there ever was one. There may not be such a thing as a free lunch, but there is such a thing as free airbags and free leather seats.

I guess I could be talking about an exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime era here. The Internet has transformed the car-buying experience by making mincemeat out of traditional dealers' pricing hocus pocus. These days, it's easy to find out what dealers paid for their cars and what factory incentives they've received. Armed with that knowledge, negotiating a fair selling price is no longer an exercise in frustration. I remember checking edmunds.com ten years ago, too; the site was very useful and ended up saving me money.

But this time around, the information I gathered from all nooks and crannies of the Internet was much more extensive. Thanks to a couple of automotive Internet forums, I even found an honest, no-bullshit, cards-on-the-table, low-pressure dealership — check out Fitzgerald Auto Malls next time you need a car. Fitzgerald had the exact model, color, and options I wanted, at an unbeatable price, and we took care of business mostly by e-mail — efficient, and it created an instant paper trail, which helps avoid misunderstandings. Placing my order with my local dealer could have taken months until delivery, and would have cost considerably more. So what if Fitzgerald is 800 miles away? Luckily for me, I had to be in the area anyway, but for a tolerable fee, they could have shipped me the car, too. (And when I bought my beautiful used Saab convertible back in 2000 — on eBay — I flew to Atlanta to get it. For all intents and purposes, local markets no longer matter.)

So, exceptional period or not, markets mean competition. Bigger markets mean more competition. More competition means (a) relentless innovation and (b) lower prices. What's not to like?

Heaven knows what obscene taxes and tariffs Europeans must pay on their cars. A few weeks ago, in the Netherlands, I sat in pretty much the exact SUV I ended up buying for less than $30,000, except that the engine in the Dutch vehicle was much less powerful. The price tag? I kid you not: $54,000.

Socialism sucks; long live the United States.

Comments

[K. Dale Boley]

And if it wasn't for Government fingers in every aspect of the auto industry, that same car might be more like 15-20k. But I do love my heated seats in my Charger. :-)

[Dave]

Nice aren't they? Just remember though that it has a black box that may be used against you should you get in an accident. I bought a new truck a while back and now I'm trying to find out how to clear the black box. May not ever need to but I would be pissed if a piece of equipment I paid for testified against me.

[GreginOz]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cars-to-put-brakes-on-drinkdriving/
2007/01/04/1167777218879.html

Does it come with THIS accessory?

[Kevin]

And yet buying an SUV is not the libertarian thing to do. Anthropogenic global warming is undoubtably a problem, and if libertarians don't want government to enforce all kinds of regulations they're going to have to curtail their own fossil fuel use. Buying an SUV instead of a hybrid flies in the face of that, and merely encourages government to regulate, regulate, regulate. It's a shame you couldn't overcome your basic desires.