Market Adjustment Gone Wild

The exact same state that rav4 is listed in. Colorado. Which that states disaster declaration is still ongoing. Most states are under the same disasters/ emergencies. All I’m saying is that it is up to each state to decide. Obviously in Texas they aren’t marking them up. When the question was asked to a dealer about a mark up and it being legal with a disaster they didn’t answer the question. It was simply a comment about contacting the Texas AG and then they kind of left the conversation and didn’t respond. Other dealers said they didn’t want to get fined. So obviously their attorneys or legal team probably mentioned that if they did mark them up they could be put in that part of price gouging. Once again it would be up to the state to determine that. Not google. If whatever State declares a vehicle a necessity it doesn’t matter the make the model or anything in between.

This is for Texas so if they consider a vehicle a necessity than it could be reported and they would look into it. Unfortunately it’s in Colorado and I would 100% send that to a State AG and at least inquire so people arent getting ripped off.

I assume you are a salesman of some kind if you are that defensive of price gouging?

 

You sure Colorado is under a state of emergency? According to this article that ended in July:

https://www.cpr.org/2021/07/08/gov-...id-19-health-emergency-heres-what-that-means/

Perhaps it’s been reinstated since but I can’t find any info to that effect.

As for whether an automobile can be considered a necessity, your theory that any state’s AG’s office would apply a price gouging law to new autos is just absurd. I’ll repeat myself: dealers who apply markups do so to popular vehicles only. They aren’t jacking up the price across the board, are they, with $30K market adjustments? I’ll use the word absurd again to describe the argument that anyone has a right during an emergency declaration to buy a specific, popular vehicle, when there are plenty on the lot available at MSRP. Or below. It’s not price gouging, it’s capturing the market of idiot consumers with cash (or credit) to burn who get caught up in what’s popular.

You asked why I’m defending price gouging. No, I’m not a salesman, not in the car industry, have no skin in the game. I’m not defending price gouging. I just think it’s ridiculous to complain about the price of a RAV4 Prime that no one “needs” and say, dammit, I should be able to get that RAV4 Prime at the price I want!! This is America! It’s really silly when you think about it. To get “gouged” someone has to be able to say, this RAV 4 Prime is a necessity that I need to survive. Come on now.

Save your indignity for gas stations that double their prices right after a hurricane, or in general the sort of thing that actually constitutes price gouging. Because THOSE people are assholes.

So, to summarize:
-Colorado appears not to be in a state of emergency
-RAV4 Prime is not a necessity
-Vehicle market adjustments are not price gouging.

Questions?

 

It's about a 5k markup for new cars and trucks in Portland. But they still try to low-ball the shit out of you on your trade.

 

MSRP is a "Suggested" number so wonder how anyone could determine gouging.

 

Yep Colorado is still in a Disaster which classifies that as any good or service. They recently joined to make it 34 states that it is illegal to rise prices on what they would consider necessity.

Like I mentioned multiple times in my post that would be up to the State to determine if that classifies in there as a necessity. Not you or I. Obviously some dealers are worried around here to even mention a mark up or even come close to saying they have one. I just assume they were warned or have a legal department to keep them out of that conversation.

I understand and have been here when they were price gouging for gas, water, and even electricity during the freeze last year and the “media covered gas shortage” of 2017 that never would have been if millions of idiots didn’t go fill up all in the same day and dry the tanks. I’m quite sure they made it a high priority that if any business wanted to rise their prices for any reason they would be investigating and fined if deemed to be in fact price gouging.

So really a State can classify anything they want as a necessity.

 

You’re absolutely right, I think, that there’s some type of disaster declaration in effect, or at least a disaster recovery order in effect, for CO. Their law is worded differently than many, disaster declaration vice state of emergency. The interesting thing is, if you read the text of the law, it applies for another 180 days beyond the disaster declaration regardless of when it expires. And it also applies to a federal state of emergency. So there’s that, it’s definitely in effect.

Going back to the heart of the matter, you made this statement earlier:

“When the question was asked to a dealer about a mark up and it being legal with a disasterthey didn’t answer the question. It was simply a comment about contacting the Texas AG and then they kind of left the conversation and didn’t respond. Other dealers said they didn’t want to get fined. So obviously their attorneys or legal team probably mentioned that if they did mark them up they could be put in that part of price gouging.”

Can you be more specific, as in, in what circumstances were these questions asked, by whom, and how was the info reported.

Anyway, I’m going to point out *again* how silly it is to say that any state AG’s office would hypothetically consider an electric vehicle as an essential or necessity. A necessity means the good or service is required for survival. Clearly an electric vehicle isn’t required for survival, there aren’t even enough of them for everyone to have one. C’mon. A huge segment of the population appears to be surviving ok without EVs. The demand isn’t due to necessity, but rather due to high popularity of a scarce item with limited manufacturing. A borderline luxury item.

You’ve made a lot of assumptions about why a car dealer might be afraid of a price gouging accusation. It’s pretty simple, a dealer doesn’t want bad press. Could hurt the dealer down the road when supply is higher and there are more choices. Unless you’re sitting in on meetings between dealership GMs, owners, and their legal counsel, you have no idea what’s happening.

I’d be curious to know if a new car dealer has EVER been fined for price gouging in the US. I tried and failed to find an example. Oh wait: here’s a car dealer in NJ that was fined for price gouging in March of last year…for trying to sell N95 masks at a 500% markup