Hot wheels: Economy cars in vogue
Laura J. Gardner
The Journal Gazette - October 7, 2007
The following story was posted on www.leasetrader.com.
Tony Shear sits in a Pontiac Sunfire, a “Gas Saver,” at Value Car Credit, where he works.
Tony Shear is standing in the front-row display of his center-city Fort Wayne used car lot, contemplating what, in his business, pass for cream puffs.
All the cars get at least 24 miles to a gallon of gas in town and about 30 on the highway.
And none was manufactured later than 1999.
With high gas prices, Shear says, the kind of older Escorts, Neons, Accords, Saturns, Sunfires, Cavaliers and Camrys he buys and sells are among the hottest things on wheels.
“My most frequent customers now are looking for fuel-economy cars,” he says. “When gas hit three bucks, people started really thinking about mileage.”
Call it a second wind, or even a resurrection of sorts, for the economy cars of yesterday.
They might not be much to look at, and they might not have the zoom-zoom factor of something younger at three or four times the price, but around Fort Wayne, dealers are finding that cars of a certain age have suddenly become imminently sellable.
“You know, what they’re looking at now are the older Hondas, or maybe a Saturn or a Camry,” says Dale Jackson, sales associate at Larry’s Auto Sales at 3625 N. Clinton St. Jackson calls the older vehicles “add-on” cars that people use to keep their gas and other costs down.
“They may keep the big Expedition, but only for going to the lake,” he says. “And they’ll buy an older Honda Accord with better gas mileage for running kids around or going back and forth to work.”
Mai-lin Bishop, of Rick’s Auto Sales at Spring Street and St. Marys Avenue, where the motto is “More Car for Your Money,” knows just where her older-economy-car customers come from.
A single mother of three and a college student who’s studying when she’s not helping her dad, Rick Martin, at the lot, she’s been one of them.
Bishop bought a budget-stretching 2000 Chevy Impala.
“It has 130,000 miles on it, but it runs great,” she says, adding that one misconception people have about older cars is that high mileage means the car is past its prime.
She points to a 1998 beige Ford Escort wagon and a 1995 blue one out on the corner lot – priced at $2,300 and $2,200, respectively. The former has 130,000 miles and the latter 118,000.
When her dad first starting bringing old Escorts onto the lot, she says, she thought he was nuts.
“I said, ‘C’mon, Dad, who’s going to buy those?’ ” she says, adding she now knows she was wrong.
“Those little cars will run about forever,” she says. “People love them.”
Bishop says she now appreciates her father’s knowledge about the longevity of certain makes, models and engines.
“A lot of cars are made with motors that last a lot longer than people give them credit for,” she says. “If you take care of them and change the oil and don’t beat the crap out of them, they’ll last.”
Dealers say many of the older-model economy cars go to high-schoolers or college students as first vehicles. Some lots stock up on the economy models near the start of the school year.
At Larry’s, for example, there were about a dozen cars in the $2,000 to $3,000 price range, brought in especially to meet the demand. All but four or five had sold by the end of the month, Jackson says.
Parents tend to like the older models for their driving-age kids because insurance tends to cost less, and if the car gets cracked up, well, the investment lost isn’t huge.
“And, getting good gas mileage – that’s the No. 1 thing parents are looking for,” he says.
With the cost of gas up and the market for next-generation, alternative-fuel vehicles in flux – ethanol? hybrid? electric? – some also see the older gas sippers as a way of making do until fuel technologies sort themselves out, dealers say.
There are trade-offs, however.
According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s Web site (www.nicb.org), the top 10 most stolen cars in Indiana are all pre-2000 models and include two common economy models: the 1997 Ford Taurus, and the 1996 Chevrolet Cavalier.
Indiana’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles also recommends getting a vehicle history report – before buying a car – at www.dmv.org/stolen-vehicles.php#tz_IN.
And buyers of older models need to know a little about the maintenance schedule for vehicles with mileage past the 100,000-mile mark to anticipate the expense of repairs that might need to be done soon, or, conversely, to know whether mileage-sensitive maintenance likely has already been taken care of, making the car a better buy.
And, Bishop says, when you buy an older model, “You’re not getting your pick of what your dream car will be.”
Scratches and dents and odd colors and somewhat worn interiors are par for the course, she says.
Some people looking for an older vehicle still don’t seem to care much about mileage, Bishop says. Jeep models still tend to sell quickly at the business, she says, despite mileage in the lower end of double digits.
But math often counts, Shear says.
Some of his recent customers, he says, were trading in minivans for economy cars.
He explains: a Ford Windstar minivan is rated to get 17 mpg to 23 mpg. If you trade for a 2000 Neon, it’s rated to get 28 mpg to 35 mpg, about a 35 percent increase.
“That gets people’s attention right in the pocketbook,” he says.
Shear, who buys used economy vehicles at auction, says they’ve become harder to find lately as more dealers compete to serve demand.
“There’s a shortage of all used cars because of the way the economy is now. There’s a lack of trade-ins because people aren’t buying new cars and they’re hanging on to their cars longer,” he says.
So instead of buying lots of vans, trucks and SUVs, he continues to tilt his lot’s balance in the direction of cars whose windows he can boldly label as “Gas Saver.”
“Of course,” he adds, “that could change next week.”
Like the price of gas.
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This story posted by LeaseTrader.com, the automotive service company that lets people transfer out of their Car Leases early. If you're looking to swap a lease or transfer out of your car lease, please visit www.leasetrader.com.
Print | posted on Sunday, October 07, 2007 11:04 AM