Inflated Car Prices in the PNW Rant

[Sherwood4Runner]

Has anyone else in the PNW notice how inflated car prices are here?? I was looking at car prices today, specifically 3rd Gen 4runners and Subarus, and compaired the prices to Raleigh, NC where the rest of my family lives. WOW is there a big difference!:jaw drop:

I remember it took me weeks of craigslisting and 5 4runner test drives before I was even able to talk someone below 6k for a 4runner with a clean title.

Weekly I see 3rd Gen 4runners listed for 8-9k with clean titles and 150k miles. Seems much higher than other 4runner's I see listed elsewhere.

Don't even get me started on Subarus...prices for similar year/milage Subarus in Raleigh were almost half the price as the ones I found in Oregon (Besides WRX's and STi's)!!:wtf:

I guess this is mostly dealing with supply/demand and cost of living (less need for AWD in North Carolina unless you live in or around Boone)...but still....Wish we could get that pricing in the PNW...

 

[GX4SEVEND]

Gets even worse with real estate here. its ridiculous

 

[Rix]

Higher standard of living breeds higher prices.
And craigslust is hit and miss at best.

 

[Hepar]

It's totally bonkers in the NW. Have you heard of 405 Motors? Check them out online sometime and look at the prices they ask for their 4Runners. Keep in mind that their prices are firm and most of them come from the rusty NE.

 

[Edubsam]

Iv seen multiple 99/00 limiteds with around 130k listed over 11k.

 

[Dezert4Runner]

The PNW isn't the only one with ridiculous prices, but in all fairness there are probably a lot more under 6k her in So Cal because of supply & demand. I commonly see some of the cleaner low mileage (around 100k) listed for 12-14k by dealerships on Craigslist, and I'd imagine some of them actually sell. More often then not they're usually 2WD too

 

[Geolander]

The PNW isn't the only one with ridiculous prices, but in all fairness there are probably a lot more under 6k her in So Cal because of supply & demand. I commonly see some of the cleaner low mileage (around 100k) listed for 12-14k by dealerships on Craigslist, and I'd imagine some of them actually sell. More often then not they're usually 2WD too

Yeah, I ran into this problem when I was looking for my runner. There were tons of 2WD and/or 4-banger models in the $4k-5k range (with quite a few in the $8k-9k range as well lol), but I wanted 4WD. There aren't all that many 4WD 4runners compared to 2WD in So. Cal., and I was only able to find a couple even worth looking at (i.e. not salvaged and VIN checked out fine) for $6k or under. None of those worked out due to flaky sellers or unreported major issues, so I ended up just going with my 2nd gen. Paid $3500 for it, which I thought was a tad high given the 240k miles, but I wanted it over with. Even at that price though, the dealer and my mechanic both said I got a steal - they claimed it would have been a good deal at $4500, which gives you an idea of the market.

 

[midibias]

I paid $12'000 for my '02 SR5 with 95,000 miles at a dealership in Portland. Was it a good deal? Not really... Only reason I even considered it was that it came with all the maintenance records and it was obvious that it had been very well taken care of. By far the cleanest one out of the dozen or so I looked at. It's a flawless machine that I really could not be happier with even though the price was a little higher than I was hoping to pay. Anything I saw for sale here that fell into the "good deal" price range had been wrecked.

 

[Rix]

One theory is because there's a T and an A in the title
LOL

 

[Ripsnort]

Historically the PNW is always higher on used cars than the midwest and SE. One of the reasons is they rarely rust. You back to the midwest and check out some of those cars on winter salt, 5 or 6 years later. They're rusted out.

 

[Sherwood4Runner]

Historically the PNW is always higher on used cars than the midwest and SE. One of the reasons is they rarely rust. You back to the midwest and check out some of those cars on winter salt, 5 or 6 years later. They're rusted out.

Yup that is a good point. I lived in raleigh, north carolina before oregon so I was surprised when I found out we don't salt here (in oregon). Im certainly happy we don't salt though!