These days, car buyers have the upper hand when they walk into the showroom. They have access to dealer
invoice prices and day supply data on the Internet--not to mention a recession that has spurred lowest-ever
financing deals and unprecedented cash-back incentives.
But that doesn't mean every vehicle is a bargain; plenty are still overpriced. Right now, according to
Vincentric, a firm that tracks vehicle ownership costs for the auto industry, several cars on sale now have
market values far below their manufacturer's suggested retail price.
The
Jeep Liberty, for example, has a true market value 20.9% lower than its MSRP; the
Dodge Ram 2500 is
worth 26% less; and the
Chevrolet Trailblazer is worth 16.4% less than its MSRP.
Those three models, in particular, tell the story of the most overpriced autos currently on the market:
Our entire list is comprised of vehicles manufactured by Detroit's Big Three. No foreign brands make the
list, as those automakers' cars tend to be priced fairly when considering supply and demand as well as their
high rankings on consumer-satisfaction surveys.
Behind the Numbers
To find America's most overpriced vehicles, we first looked at market price figures supplied by
Vincentric. These are updated each month to reflect marketplace inventory, demand, rebates and incentives,
and to represent the price that a buyer typically pays. We ruled out any vehicles where the gap between
market price and MSRP was less than 10%--a natural breaking point in the data that left a list of about 150
overpriced vehicles to pare down.
We then used two pieces of customer-satisfaction information to better determine whether certain vehicles
meet the expectations their brands promise--essentially, whether they justify their sticker price.
We used J.D. Power's 2008 Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) survey results, and ruled
out vehicles that won their segments or scored better than two-and-a-half stars out of five: Any vehicle
that scores less than 50% is likely not delivering on the thousands a consumer must shell out to buy
it.
The list was further shortened by Consumer Reports' Owner Satisfaction results, data from a survey that
asks owners--considering a wide range of factors, including price--whether they would buy a particular car
again. Vehicles that scored less than 50 (on a scale of 100) made our list. We then ranked the remaining 15
vehicles by the amount overpriced (the difference between market price and MSRP)...
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