Is there any indication the super high gas prices are making a dent in used or new vehicle values esp for these gas guzzlers? I am not necessarily thinking the demographics here call it quits on their rigs anytime soon but the average family of 4 out there must be hurting filling their V8 SUVs with $120 worth of gas multiple times a month. Are you guys seeing an uptick in more gas heavy SUVs in the used car marketplace?
Any indication high gas price is bringing the GX values down? (1 Viewer)
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Not paying that much attention honestly, no plans to sell. I am looking at a $1,000 Prius tomorrow that had it's cats stolen though!
MrTorgue
Grizzly Clint
No. Most of the people buying use GX’s are doing so as a secondary or hobby vehicle. I’d LIKE to think no one in their right mind would buy one if they have a commute longer than 10 miles one way. Probably would be more economical to buy an older Prius/Civic Hybrid for commuting then buy an older GX for fun.
In any event people are still buying them up pretty quickly.
Not sure these are the vehicle for an average family of 4. Like MrTorgue said, for me it's a second vehicle for road trips and off-road. I've also been getting better mpg than I expected when I bought my 2015 a few months ago. I'm regularly getting 20mpg, not much worse than my old Subaru Forester. It got 24mpg, had half the power and was much smaller. Maintenance costs were also high with the Subaru. Fuel is only one cost of ownership, granted it's pretty substantial right now. Last weekend I drove 345 miles, mostly hwy, some through town and about 10 miles of washed out dirt roads with the tires aired down. When I got home the dash said I averaged 20.2 mpg. I filled up with 16.9 gal that calcs to 20.4. There's some error there, but when I do the math, I'm usually getting around 20.
I drive a VW e-Golf around town and to work. It's been awesome, especially with current fuel prices. Costs $2 to charge at home for 150-170 miles of range. After almost 3 years of ownership and 2 tire rotations, maintenance costs total $35.
I drive a VW e-Golf around town and to work. It's been awesome, especially with current fuel prices. Costs $2 to charge at home for 150-170 miles of range. After almost 3 years of ownership and 2 tire rotations, maintenance costs total $35.
r2m
Richard
It was just discussed here: GX 460 Sales - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/gx-460-sales.1238435/page-8#post-14482779
starting at post #143
starting at post #143
Sorry I got off topic on that subject. I'm used to having vehicles that get in the 12mpg -19mpg for truck and 16mpg - 25mpg for sedans. There is always a tradeoff. I used to use my Ninja 650R for commuting. That was an amazing way to save fuel costs for commuting and have enough left over for trips to the desert with my truck and trailer full of bikes and quads for weekend riding.
Now both my bikes are for pleasure and my gas hogs are my daily drivers. Go figure...
MrTorgue
Grizzly Clint
As a RAV4 Prime owner these 40~50 miles of EV only driving has saved a **** ton of monies driving this around town and on short trips under 100 miles. Since early February we’ve saved about ~$1,000 just in fuel savings over driving either of our GXs beforehand.
I really wish I had this Prime PHEV system on my 460 because I’d drive it everywhere forever.
re_guderian
SILVER Star
As a former (regretfully) Ford PHEV owner, they are cool, and it's great to drive for a penny per mile. But still, the gas savings alone makes for an extremely long payback on a $50K+ initial investment, plus higher tax/ins costs.
MrTorgue
Grizzly Clint
The people that are focused on the overall payback I think might be doing it wrong. It does take a while to “pay for itself”.
I look at it like this, the fuel savings per month pay for the other vehicles monthly payment and then some. Plus it’s a nicer driving experience versus the GX470 I replaced it with, plus we do thousands of miles every year in road trips so the double or near triple MPG that will also save a ton. We just passed over 10,000 miles last weekend since we picked it up January 29th. I’d say the fuel savings already are pretty significant and we haven’t even done our annual 3,000-5,000 mile road trip yet. LOL
Gassers are going the way of the dinosaur, but it will still be a while.
I got that Prius today for $800. A little rough but clean carfax. Cats were stolen, hence the price. Parts alone are more than I paid for the car but I'll have less than $2k in it all said and done.
I got that Prius today for $800. A little rough but clean carfax. Cats were stolen, hence the price. Parts alone are more than I paid for the car but I'll have less than $2k in it all said and done.
I just replaced my LS400 commuter car with a Honda Civic for exactly this reason. The GX was always relegated to picking up the kiddo from Kindergarten and local errands during the week. We took it to Santa Barbara for the weekend a little while back and discussed the prudence of using the truck for those type trips going forward. My new rule of thumb is that if all the roads are paved, we should consider taking the Honda unless we need the cargo space. It'll save us some dough and keep the miles down on the truck.
That Rav4 Prime is looking really really good. Unfortunately a bit too small in capacity and after renting a Lexus Hybrid, the CVT is a no go for mountain driving. I only had a few days and less than 500 miles behind the wheel though.
I tried everything but the transmission seems to have a mind of it's own unless in manual mode. The constant whine and fluctuating RPM was driving both my wife and I crazy. It's just us though. My neighbor swears by his RAV4 Hybrid.
re_guderian
SILVER Star
Yeah, I replaced my C-Max Energi PHEV with a V8 Hyundai Genesis sedan. It's insanely fun to drive compared to the C-Max, but I do miss the 80 MPG local driving I averaged. But we took it on an AZ-TX 2500 mi trip, and got high 20's for an average MPG. Can't complain about that, given the car cost less that $7K, and I sold the C-Max for over $9K.
MrTorgue
Grizzly Clint
After driving this 10k miles I got zero complaints about the trans. Plenty of people drive these out west in and around high elevations and such and tend to not have any complaints.
I have zero issue with the trans “hunting” or what you describe This though is probably because I have 302hp and 453 torque versus the much lower power rating of the standard RAV4 Hybrid. Acceleration is so smoooth and effortless and goes like a stabbed rat when you stomp on it. My best 0-60 with these dumb eco tires is 5.4s.
re_guderian
SILVER Star
Back to the point of this thread, there is NO WAY in hell that 10%+ inflation, 20%+ increases in housing prices, and $5-$7 gas WON'T hurt sales of used GX's, and other large SUV's in general. Now the new, off-the-lot crowd for Lexus GX's is probably less impacted by this, simply because of economic security, (e.g. "budgeting for $10 gas") but the lower end of the income bracket will be negatively impacted by this. Sales of used SUV's/cars are already slowing. Plenty of evidence and reporting on this. We've seen this all before, folks. Prices aren't necessarily dropping, but inflationary and supply issues are propping them up. But the low end of the economic demographic for used cars cannot escape this, since wages definintely aren't keeping pace. A shockingly large percentage of people, even up into higher income brackets live paycheck-to-paycheck. It is starting to have an impact, and it will get worse. The supply chain abberation is just that. It won't make the simple economic realities go away (for very much longer).
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MrTorgue
Grizzly Clint
1/4 mile is in 14s flat at around 100mph for my Prime with factory eco tires. Would be a fun race. My ~4,300lbs is a handicap the torque overcomes. LOL One day I’d have to have some fat summer sport tires to see what this thing will actually do off the line.
Anyway back on topic!
No offense but inflation, housing prices and gas prices have a very low impact on vehicle sales. There is always going to be those that live beyond their means and purchase more vehicle than they can afford.
All one needs to do is look at the new car sales figures on the large gas guzzlers. There are waiting lists and sales are through the roof with supplies that are on hand. Go to any dealer lot and they are begging buyers to purchase the flood of economy vehicles that are on the lots just setting. Low inventory of trucks and SUV's almost anywhere you go.
I look at the numbers and dealerships at least a few times a week and see the trend of pickup trucks and large SUV sales not leveling off. Granite Toyota Tacoma's are lined up at the lots. Toyota Tundra not so much. Ram TRX, Bronco, Jeep 392 and other performance gas hogs have a waiting list. Chevy Tahoes/Sierras with the 6.2 and Ford 7.3 Godzillas are almost impossible to find.
I will agree somewhat with you on the used market. The price bubble is starting to burst and used car sales are going to take a dive with huge losses.
re_guderian
SILVER Star
I've lived through enough recessions to pretty solidly disagree. Sure, there are always people with enough money to plunk down on a new car. Not disputing that. But that's not going to change the fact that even more people AREN'T going to be doing that. They will stop paying over MSRP, and wait it out. Or they'll stop buying new and shift down to a used one that's a few years old. In 2008, Hummers and the like plummetted in value, and everyone was rushing out to get a Prius. Did you miss that? Similar events in the early '70's ushered in foreign compact cars in place of land-barges.
Demand for used cars drops from a year ago but high prices aren't budging
In March, sales of used cars under 10 years old were down 27% compared with a year earlier, while the average price during that time rose 40% to $33,653.
There is a funky supply issue that makes the lot numbers not comparable to previous situations, but this isn't economic uncharted territory in terms of inflationary pressures on basic food and other staples for normal people, and outrageous housing increases for those that are renting. That's simply money that's not going to a large SUV "for the vast majority of people". Again, willing to stipulate that this forum is full of rich people who will buy and drive 12 MPG rigs throughout the duration of the next Great Recession, but "generally", it's gonna catch up...
I fall into the high-income category, but have reduced driving my GX by around 50% this year. Pretty much all normal highway driving is now being made in our Outback (27-32 mpg). My GX is reserved for short trips around town, pulling our camper, off-roading, and hauling bikes (although I might move the bike racks to the Outback as the GX is kind of overkill for hauling a single bike). I love my GX, but it would be awful hard to buy one now at $5/gallon. Gas was around $2/gallon in 2020 when I purchased it....using it for longer highway trips (it's nicer to drive than our Outback) and filling it with premium was no big deal then. Not anymore.
