Local dealership shares tips about this year’s car market

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - Getting a new set of wheels is always exciting, and with a new year, comes a few things you should be on the lookout for.

Dealerships are starting to see more inventory return to the sales lot after things hit a wall thanks to COVID-19. The halt in production caused used car prices to skyrocket, but the supply is on the mend. Even with new cars returning, used cars are still expected to grow in sales.

“In 2022 the new car market was down eight percent, to about 13.9 million units off of the previous year, 2021, and way off of its high in 2016,” said Adam Primm, General Sales Manager at Hastings Ford Lincoln. “So when new cars aren’t available used cars become that much more desirable.”

Primm said people will pay a little bit more for used cars these days. Cars under four years old are still the most popular because they have warranty value. Another type of vehicle looking to make a resurgence is electric vehicles.

“They’ve come a long way, as far as electric vehicles go,” said Primm. “The range is a lot better. The technology is a lot better. Charging stations are a lot more frequent. Actually, we’re putting a larger investment into our facility for charging stations.”

He said the range of an electric vehicle has increased from 70 miles in 2013, to its current capacity of 320 miles. New models like Ford’s stable truck, the F-150, has NASA like technology, according to Primm.

“Every manufacture has come a long way in the technology,” said Primm. “In the new F-150, there’s more lines of code than there are in the last spaceship that went into space.”

Primm said features like start and stop, adaptive curse, and blind-spot monitors are things people have clamored to have with their vehicle. Some who desire them, are willing to wait up to a year for a new vehicle with all the bells and whistles.

He added the advancement of online car shopping has enhanced customer knowledge about the vehicle they desire.

“Now more than not, customers will be able to tell us more about a certain specific vehicle than we know, because they spent hours and hours of research on that one vehicle,” said Primm. “Were as we’re trying to learn you know as much as we can about every vehicle.”

According to Primm, having more educated shoppers reduces the chances of customers being taken advantage of and leaving the dealership with something they didn’t want.

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