Bechtold

Congrats, what part of the Austin area? I'm in Round Rock myself.

RSColeman

Round Rock

MYIS500

Just glanced at the spreadsheet. Love seeing the Atomic Silver percentage drop. Not to optimistic it will catch up with USB, but Infrared is real possibility. I am bummed to see the production numbers for this year to be lagging last years though.

604GSE21

maybe slowly starting to wind down production and prepare for new IS

arentz07

My theory is that most of the buyers who wanted to buy one brand-new have already done so. It was much easier to find cars with discounts this year compared to last - likely because demand was lower. So, in response, Lexus scales back production. This is typical of just about any car model.

ILikeBlue

I don't think the discounts are the lack of interest, since pre pandemic you could still get discounted cars, discounts are from the interest rates. People are getting 6% APR on new cars which really hurts over the life of the loan.

The IS500 is coming back for 2025, we'll see how many more 2024s they make until they change over

arentz07

I am not sure about all the mechanics of interest or discounts. I am just referring to the general trend of more availability of discounts, or at the very least, cars that sell for sticker or less.

The interest rates are just worse in general now. Everything is worse, even housing.

Bechtold

Agreed. I have a house locked with a low rate in 2021. There is no way in heck I'm moving without one heck of a good reason. Rates of 7.5% or whatever the heck they are at versus mine at 2.5%, fugeddaboutit! Car rates at 6-7% for new cars, yeah, also fugeddaboutit!

ILikeBlue

Generally speaking when interest rates are higher, prices come down with discounts to combat that extra money you will pay in interest on the higher rate.

Auto manufacturers tend to discount cars when rates are higher since it brings down overall payments and gets more people in the door.

Housing prices are just insane since rates are high and people are still buying 😅

DLPTony

100% this! We refinanced both condos (home & rental) in the same year. I know today’s rates were the norm prior to the 2000s, but nuh uh…we aren’t going anywhere or buying anything else! 😂

95bat

Our credit union just dropped to 4.5% for cars and we just talked to a lender that will do 2.99% on new construction! It would drop our small future mortgage by $500 a month.