SUV Prices
I bought a Toyota RAV4 in December, and after living with the RAV4 for the last 7 months, we decided we wanted to go back to a minivan. So I started looking around.
I found a particular used Chrysler Town & Country I wanted. It's about the equivalent of the 2001 Grand Caravan ES but without All-Wheel drive, and the one I was looking at has some nice features like a nav system and sunroof.
The asking price for the Town & Country was $6500 less than I paid for the RAV4, and since I've only had the RAV4 for a few months, I figured I'd get some money back on the deal, or at least break even. But what I didn't take into account was what happened to demand for SUVs over the last 7 months.
Two things happened since I bought the RAV4. Gasoline increased in price by about 40%, and the impact of the change in value of the Canadian dollar versus the US dollar started to show up in the price of new vehicles in Canada.
When the price of a new vehicle drops, the price of used vehicles drops more. That's just the way it goes. Add to that the general plummet in demand for SUVs - even though the RAV4 is a particularly fuel-efficient one - and, well, things don't look good.
Basically the dealer offered me 60% of the what I paid for the vehicle that I bought only 7 months ago. Ouch.
So we'll be sticking with the RAV4 for a while.