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As if anyone needed a reminder of how tough things are right now.
The past few years have been one of the worst times to try and purchase a new vehicle in recent memory. Continued supply chain issues have hampered new vehicle production, with dealer stock remaining tight across the country. This has unfortunately created a scenario where once obscenely high prices are a new form of normal, as you can see from this video out of Larry H. Miller Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Surprise, Arizona.
Thanks to a TikTok uploaded by an account associated with the dealership, later shared on Twitter, we get to watch as a strange bragging contest takes place. More specifically, the dealership employees go around flexing their monthly payments as a way to discount complaints about the recent pricing spike. The first large payment we hear about is for a 2022 Ford Raptor, which the dealer employee pays $1325 a month to own. While that payment initially seems rather large for a pickup, the Raptor’s MSRP of $72,350 including destination commands a fairly high payment. If you were to put no money down on a current model year Raptor, Ford estimates that you will be able to finance that truck for 60 months at 5% APR for $1336 a month. Put together the recommended $7,235 down payment, and that price falls back down to $1229. Those prices are naturally dependent on your individual credit, which could see healthy price adjustments in either direction. The same employee also pays $1000 a month for an Expedition. While neither of these prices are particularly egregious, they only serve to warm us up for what is to come.
Does this dealership realize this makes them all look really bad???? pic.twitter.com/RGhOoMznXt
Another dealer employee then shares the monthly payment on their 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Series III, which totals $1386 per month. As bad as this one sounds, it is important to remember that the range-topping Grand Wagoneer carries a starting price of $109,995. Things don’t get any better as we move to the truck owners, as one employee currently pays $1445 a month for the pleasure of driving a 2022 GMC Sierra 2500 Denali, which carried a base price of just over $72,000 when new. That’s significantly less than the Jeep, but GMC’s current finance options still state that any customer is looking to spend around $1100 a month on one of these trucks, even at just 3.85% APR. The Denali owner also owns a Cadillac CTS-V with a widebody kit installed, which they currently pay $1100 a month to keep in their possession. It is worth noting that the CTS-V was discontinued back in 2019.
The highest payment of the bunch comes from our video narrator, who currently drives a 2021 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody. The Hellcat was actually one of the cheaper cars on this list when it was new, carrying an original MSRP of $75,820. The employee appears to dismiss the lower payments we’ve heard prior for not being quite as ridiculous as his. Of course we’d also like to have a 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 at our disposal if we were spending that sort of money every month.
Certainly, it’s not hard to single out this dealership in particular, but it’s not entirely justified. After all, these are all relatively expensive vehicles in question. Really, it’s the car market as a whole that’s out of control, not just this one place.
That said, touting these sorts of monthly payments feels odd coming from a dealership’s own social media page. We shouldn’t be normalizing the pain people have been feeling as a result of the current inventory issue plaguing the United States, even if automakers aren’t helping curb the pricing surge. At the end of the day, dealers make commissions through the finance reserve attached to your purchase agreement. This video serves as a distinct reminder why people aren’t happy with dealers in general. Perhaps that is why the dealership removed the series of videos from their TikTok page as of the time of writing this article.