Wanna know what vehicles not to buy because they are overpriced?  Well, I think I have some valuable information to help you.  I found an article on Yahooautos.com that gives some vehicles that have a market value well below the MSRP (manufactured suggested retail price.)  A company called Vincentric tracks vehicle ownership costs for the auto industry. Vincentric says that many cars on sale currently are not bargains as you think all vehicles would be during these economic times, especially for the desperately hurting auto industry.  Here’s the worst part. Are you ready for this?  All of the vehicles that are considered overpriced are part of the Detroit Big Three (Ford, GM, and Chrysler.)  That’s really depressing. No foreign brands made the list. Yikes!  Not good for the American brands.  So, here’s a few of the most overpriced vehicles on the market right now.

1. Dodge Ram 2500 - Market Value ($28,788) vs MSRP ($38880) = -26%

2. Mercury Grand Marquis - Market Value ($22,793) vs MSRP ($28,985) = -21.4%

3.  Jeep Liberty - Market Value ($19,466) vs MSRP ($24,610) = -20.9%

4.  Dodge Nitro - Market Value ($17,653) vs. MSRP ($22,240) = -20.6%

5.  Dodge Durango - Market Value ($22,649) vs MSRP (28,130) = -19.5%

So, I guess the moral of the story is that you really need to do all of your homework before you go buy a vehicle, especially one of the Detroit Big Three, and the MSRP is not the end all be all.  Happy Shopping!  Sometimes I think all I deliver on this blog is more bad news, but you could think of it as me assisting you in your buying!  I’ll go with that theory instead!     

For those of you that read this blog religiously (if there are any!), we are back with not more disturbances this summer. Sometimes vacations have to happen!  Anyways, there was an article on Yahooautos.com that gave some advice on quality vehicles.  “According to the annual Initial Quality Study by J.D. Power and Associates, cars made by Chrysler, Ford Motor, or General Motors improved their quality by an average of 10% over the last year.” That’s pretty good, and above the average of 8%, but if you want a really want a quality vehicle, you should probably just buy a Toyota.  According to J.D. Power, Toyota customers reported on average 101 problems per 100 vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership.  That’s lower than the average of 108.  Toyota’s Lexus brand was the big winner. They have won this honor for the 12th time in 20 years. That’s impressive!  Porsche, Cadillac, Hyundai, and Honda rounded out the top 5 rankings for quality vehicles.  Lexus won awards for its IS, GS, GX, LS, and LX models. The LX model had the fewest quality problems of any vehicle with just 52 per 100 vehicles.  If you read the full article, you can see the highest quality cars list. Hope you like Toyota brands!

As much as we read about the auto industry dismal sales, there are still some bright spots.  I’m going to give you 5 of the cars that have actually gone up in sales from last year at this time.  Some will probably surprise you, they did to me.  This information is from forbesautos.com.

1.  Hyundai Tiburon - April 2008 sales 894, April 2009 sales 3353. Increase of 275.1% (that’s pretty good!)  MSRP $17,270.

2.  Kia Amanti - April ‘08 sales 235, April ‘09 sales 671.  Increase of 185.5%. MSRP $26,580.

3.  Nissan Maxima - April ‘08 sales 2398, April ‘09 sales 3901. Increase of 62.7%. MSRP $30,160.

4.  Audi A5/S5 Coupe - April ‘08 sales 484, April ‘09 sales 680.  Increase of 40.5%. MSRP $40,700.

5.  Nissan 350Z/370Z - April ‘08 sales 1208, April ‘09 sales 1561. Increase of 29.2%. MSRP $29,930.

Did any surprise you?  I wonder why these cars (and the article listed more as well) had such significant increases in sales? I would never even consider like 3 out of the 5. Interesting information I think.

So, you want to know the names of some fast cars??  Well, get out your checkbook first. Fast doesn’t come free!  I think it’s kind of crazy for me to write about these cars today, since the stock market was down big today, because the unemployment rate is so high, and I saw a headline on msnbc.com that said “Jobless consumers will hold back recovery.”  So, who has the money to buy these fast cars?? I’m not too sure, but here’s some fast cars and their high price tags as well.

BMW M3 - 4-liter 414 horsepower V8 engine.  Price tag starts at $54,000. Fuel economy is city 13-14 mpg and highway 20 mpg.

Cadillac CTS-V - 6.2-liter 556 horsepower V8 engine.  Price starts at $56,000.  Fuel economy is city 18 mpg and highway 24 mpg.  Reaches 60 mph in about 4 seconds and has a top speed of 191 miles per hour (who in the right mind needs to go this fast!) 

Jaguar XF Supercharged - 4.2-liter 420 horsepower V8 engine.  Price starts at $49,000.  Fuel economy is city 15 mpg and highway 23 mpg. 0 to 60 in 5.1 seconds.

Lexus IS-F - 5-liter 416 horsepower V8 engine.  Price starts at $57,000.  City mpg is 16 and highway is 23.  0 to 60 in less than 4.9 5 seconds. 

Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG - 6.2-liter 457 horsepower V8 engine.  Price starts at $54,000.  City mpg is 12 mpg (not good) and 19 on the highway (still not good.)  It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds. 

So, here’s the common denominators - fast, expensive, and V8 engines.  For those of you that can afford it, good luck and buy one of these fast cars. I’m partial to the Mercedes and Cadillac (if I had the money!)