I've spent most of November finding out how screwed up the car market is. Nissan's CVT went into crap the bed and die mode, confirmed by dealer, for nearly $7000 they'll put a rebuild in it which will only get a 1 year warranty... ummm don't sound too promising.
Months waiting periods on most new small cars, and dealers don't even have any demos to check them out, order blind, pay 33% more than 18 months ago, yeuch. Interest rates on them are not great either.
So used cars less than 3 years old are selling over new MRSP, forget that. Over three years old... supply dried up and overpriced also. Looks like there's cars for sale, but when you weed the crap out, there's nothing much left. SUVs and trucks kinda plentiful though.
Anyhoo, been grinding my arse off just trying to find a reliable daily driver, turning up to "no accident" cars, which is what the paperwork says, the overspray on the trim and mismatched plastics says different though, seller acts dumb, okay buddy, whatever, bye. Some shadier dealers seem to be placing cars with relatives, who say it's their car, but they gotta sell, been driving it, super reliable, like you'd know when the paperwork has only been in your name 5 days. Gah. Unfriggingbelieveable the dumbass, obvious and ancient tricks some of these sellers trying to pull. Yah, I've come across one incidence of bondo over newspaper too. In a rocker panel of a unibody no less.
Clean one owner low mileage fuel efficient cars may as well be unicorns at this point. I have seen three slightly damaged cars "as they came in" to a couple of dealers, and based on the lightness of the damage and seeing those dealers operations, I've asked them to put me first in line for them, but holy crap do things take time... getting the repair and safety certificates done, they all say their mechanics are slammed and working flat out. Anyway, shortlist is looking like...
2013 C-Max, 170,000 km
2013 Rio EX sedan 100,000 km
2016 Chevy Cruze LT1 50,000 km
But I'm waiting on callbacks on those. Elsewhere there's another 2013 Rio, a 2012, and a 2012 Forte which doesn't have the nu engine which I've yet to see. I'm avoiding Jatco CVTs like the plague. C-max has a cvt, but that drivetrain has done 500,000 miles in taxi service on one vehicle, and over 300,000 on multiple so I think it should be fine.
Anything electric and hybrid new has more like a 6 month wait and prices have blown through $50,000 months ago and are more like $60,000 now, real crazy.
So sifting the crap for something to get 2 or 3 years out of.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.