RON430

Today's WSJ had an article about Nissan's lackluster performance. It pointed to the fact that the new savior of GM, Ghosn, had rushed a lot of new Nissan and Infiniti models out last year and was paying the price this year. The most recent trend seems to support that generations of models are in constant sales decline that takes a mild bump at the mid life refresh that all models go through. So it brings up the question as to whether where a generation is in its life cycle does matter that much to people. Hence the attached poll. Might be interesting if people would post in the comments what decade they are ( twenty something, fifty something, social security recipient, etc.) to see what the correlation of age is to gotta have quotient.

PS. For those of you voting, I feel somewhat guilty. I really don't know how I feel about this, I am still thinking about it but I guess I lean towards the mid life update or don't really care.

RON430

OK, I voted for the mid life update timeframe because that seems to be when I have bought my last several cars but I could have gone to the "don't really care" side as well. I don't mind buying the last year of a generation as it is usually well sorted out and you can get a good price but you have to because of the hit you take in depreciation.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

If I was going for a new car every two or three years, definately the first model year.

If I was going to keep it for life, I'd get it when the kinks are gone.

But because of certain privilages, I go buck wild with brand new cars every year or so. That doesn't mean I don't keep them for life...

RON430

I've looked at car purchases about every way you can and I had a difficult time figuring out how to poll. But if you look at sales figures, it is surprisingly clear that only very rarely do models ever do better over time. In the good old days, there was much anticipation for the new model year. Now maybe it was just bumpers, grills, and taillights that might have changed, but it was very easy to tell a 67 Camaro from a 68 and the 69 was different again. The costs associated with changing models is really outrageous but it would seem that if you really want to get car sales, as a mfr, start working on speeding up new model introductions.

Gojirra99

The second model year for me for Lexus & most other Japanese cars.
For some (probably most) German/European brands, even the last year or two may not be good enough

rominl

iTrader: (4)

if possible usually i tend to go to mid cycle

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

I voted for mid life update, but that seems to go against what I;ve bought Half my cars were first model years or 2nd year. Honestly, I've regreted most decisions I made when it came to first model years and ended up selling before too long. My first Legend was a 91 and I ended up with the refreshed 93 and 95 with more HP. My RX330 is an 04 and I'm selling it and wished I had gotten at least and 05 and am envious of the RX350 Anyway, I really wanted to choose 2nd model year, but your poll had 1st model year combined with it so I choose mid life.

RON430

Man, I am no genius. I had a hard time picking some categories but I probably could have added more options. As the voting started, it was defnitely biased towards the early model generation purchase. Now the people who don't care have caught up. But no one yet has voted for waiting till the last year. Obviously this is for new car purchase and I think that a lot of people at CL buy cars used so that may be having something to do with it. If you combine the results here with the monthly sales thread it is still evident that the people who shop for a new car are most interested in the early years of any generation. The longer they are around, the less the number of people that are potential customers. I am not sure I have seen sales numbers for any model increase over time within a generation. Overall, a mfr may have sales increases but it comes from staggering the updates and new models. I just find it interesting. If that article in WSJ is correct, it doesn't present a good picture for Nissan as evidently Ghosn rushed everything they had in the pipeline out last year.

Thanks to everyone who has voted.

LexFather

I never buy new cars and since its always a Lexus I really dont' care what year it is, early, mid or late but I will say I would try to go for the mid-cyle refreshning from now on.

As for Nissan, Ghosn is all about bragging how he turned things around and they are profitable. Its easier to climb the mountain than to stay there and Nissan sales have pretty much been down a year and a 1/2 now with Infiniti suffering badly again.

To me that has less to do with their mid cylce freshinings and more to do with **** poor managment decisions.

RON430

You know, to tell you the truth, the WSJ article pointed out that Nissan had made a great push with new models last year and the pipeline is dry. I guess I am not much of a gearhead anymore, I didn't notice any big splurge of new Nissans last year. As for Ghosn, I don't know why, but I sure don't view him as worthy of all the admiration he is getting. I would be shocked if he is GMs saviour.

I never really thought about it but the mid cycle update seems to be the one that I go for, if I am truthful. I didn't really make the decision but it sure seems to be the way I am buying lately. But I really doubt I will wait for the LS refresh after it comes out. I might not want first year but unless something very un Lexus like happens, that may be one for me a couple of years after it debuts.