The Corona Car!

By
eric
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There actually is a Corona – not the virus, the car.

Toyota sold it as recently in as 2001, in Japan – and before Corona acquired other connotations. It was slightly larger and nicer than the more well-known Corolla, which Toyota still sells everywhere. You have probably seen third-gen Coronas (1964-1970) in ’60s Godzilla movies. Well, models of Coronas being stomped on by a guy wearing a rubber Godzilla suit.

Anyhow, now might be a great time to go shopping for a new Corona car. Not a refurbished Corona. A whatever-you’re-interested-in new car.

Because of Corona.

Unlike toilet paper – which is becoming scarce and expensive – new cars are stacking up and so becoming less expensive, because people – who are staying home – aren’t buying them. Per Warren Buffet’s advice about investing in a bear market, this presents what could prove to be an unprecedented opportunity.

Because you have unprecedented leverage – if you’re not paralyzed by fear about Corona and willing to go car shopping while most people stay home, trying to avoid being sneezed on by the Corona-afflicted. You will likely be welcomed at the dealership like Cortez by Montezuma, assuming the dealership isn’t closed because of fear about Corona.

You will also want to line up your financing ASAP – before the banks close because of fear about Corona. This may happen soon, too – so better hurry.

If you can get your money – or your loan – lined up and the dealer’s doors are still open, the odds actually will be forever in your favor for once. Or at least, for long enough to drive home a Corona car for much less than you would have probably had to spend on the same thing pre-Corona, just a week or two ago.

Because it’s not just dealers who are getting edgy about the situation – and it’s not just because of Corona. Ford’s profits are down an almost unbelievable 99 percent vs. 2018. GM’s earnings are down about 18 percent over the same time period and – an ominous harbinger about GM’s future –  it is losing ground in the critical-to-profitability truck market. For the first time in memory, the Chevy Silverado 1500 is not the country’s second-best-selling pickup. A controversial (read, ugly) restyle (and the decision to put a four-cylinder engine in a full-size truck) helped the previously and perennially number-three Dodge Ram sail past the misfiring Chevy and become the new number two.

But FCA – parent company of Ram – has its own troubles, some of them Corona-related but also predating Corona. It recently got bought up by French car combine Peugot, which will have to figure out what to about the Fiat Flop (in the U.S.) and whether to commit any resources to updating the ancient model lineup of the Dodge and Chrysler brands, most of which haven’t been updated significantly since circa 2007.

Nissan is in freefall after the finance fiasco surrounding the exit-stage-left of former CEO Carlos Ghosn, who took Nissan’s reputation along for the ride, in addition to a Brinks truck full of Nissan’s money.

The bottom line is the car industry isn’t healthy, either – and that means it’s a very good time to buy a new car. There are incentives from the manufacturers – both published and not – as well as incentive for dealers to do whatever it takes to get you into one of their cars and thereby get it off their books.

The longer a car sits, the more it costs. Put another way, it may costs the dealer less money to sell you a car for under-sticker than it costs him to pay the interest/carrying costs for another month – or several, if no one else comes to buy the car after you leave.

Keep in mind, also, that “under sticker” doesn’t necessarily mean the dealership is giving away the car at a loss. In fact, he will still probably make money on the deal – because of things like holdbacks, money paid by the manufacturer to the dealer that you don’t know about but which makes the deal viable for the dealership. The salesman may put on a bravura performance – and you may believe you got your new Corona Special for less than it cost to build it.

You probably didn’t.

But that doesn’t mean you didn’t get a deal.

Of course, it also doesn’t mean you’ll be able to drive your new Corona car – if the fear continues to take hold and restrictions on driving take hold. But at least you’ll have something new and pretty to look at in your garage.

. . .

Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!

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Related posts:
  1. Are Car Dealers . . . Evil?
  2. How Not to Sell Your Old Car
  3. Commando Car Buying
  4. It’s Easy to Buy a New Car
  5. The Anti-Corona

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

58 COMMENTS

  1. Muh Mwah Mah My Corona my pretty one Achooooo. My viral vidya ending of Clockwerk Orange.
    Off for a milky way bar fly at the Molocho Morloch Verde.

    — Crazy like an Ivan

    Peoples Cube Bestest Kuubb

    Ozymandias’ poems written by PB&J Shelley and the other dude whose name I’ve Blythe ly forgotten, then look south:

    The tendency of (even) great menn to bee forgott in the Auld Lang Signs & sands of time until some lost traveler comes across their works. The “great men” are God-king like an Avatar Sir Cameron baybee Ozymandias and that second poet whose name I’ve, aptly, forgotten, haha.*

    The Perishability of men, their empires, and accomplishments — your’e cities, offices, academic degrees, Apple bottom gene products, personal data on Facebook and Google servers in the United States (Babylon, anyone?), the Babble Lonians took the big nosed refusniks and were rewarded with plagarized testaments of their thinkings books, and, yes, in some cases, even your descendants, they will all fall to ruin eventually, like Ozymandias’ statue.

    The Irony — A godlike figure boasting about his empire that is, now, dead in some corner of the earth within swirling motes of dust and tumbleweeds. Deep in The Woods. Tom woods Thoas Pain El Bosky

    Serendipity — Hey, at least you found the statue! At least you reveled in what it was at one point in Time, 5,000 years ago! And that could mean someone 5,000 years into the future may do the same for you. They’ll remember what you did, if you make it a point to be as ostentatious as Ozymandias, by etching your name in stone on a 50-foot high statue. Or you could write a great book that sells like hotcakes, and plaster your name all over it, making sure it’ll be found by that one special human scavenger in a post-apocalyptic world.

    Life — Everything is a metaphor for the Eternal Gift, including a broken statue that may signify its opposite, Death.

    * Their real names are Ramses II and Horace Smith Lady Liberty soon to be only legs Walking Dead crisis actors Zombie Zone half in jest other half in desperspirration Irrationaly im a fly im melting Helllllp Meeeee !

  3. I think 2020 Silverado looks good, It must be mostly the 4 cylinder’s fault.
    I’ve said it many times, and I’ll say it again – There is one best way to buy a NEW car, without even naming a price! I have done it in real life 3 times:
    Go to dealers and test drive cars, and read up on them, until you figure out exactly what you want, and which options you want.
    Get online and get emails for all dealers, within reasonable distance, selling the car you want.
    Then email all those dealers, asking for exactly what you want with all the exact options, and an exact out the door price including all tax, title, shipping, handling, fees, licenses, carry charges, etc….
    You will have some say “Oh ho ho, I’m very sorry, but we don’t name prices over the internet,” but no matter. One of them will make you an offer. Then you email that offer to all of the other ones and ask them how much they will beat it. Keep sending one’s offer to all the others until you get to where they say they will match it but can’t beat it. This is how you know when you have reached the best price.
    I’m amazed when I tell people how to do this, and they look at me like I’m from Mars or something, as if they would never consider buying a car that way, or that it just can’t be done that way, or something….

  5. Will wait for the EV model…environmental justice notwithstanding. Many companies and consumers are going to be in trouble because of debt overloads. It’s the greedy growth at all costs mentality and brother…it’s gonna cost. And if Godzilla happens to take out a few control freaks while in his destruction phase, so be it.

        • Sure. And use those dollars to buy something of value. Gold is way down but coming back up. BTC collapsed. Silver is down to $12.

          When everything is relative the future value of the currency is just another variable.

            • BorderGold is selling Canadian gold oz. at $1610us. Buying at $1,549us.

              Spot at $1534 atm.

              Immediate delivery as far as I can tell. Other products are listed as pre-order.

    • Make no mistake, the deep state and your elected reps will see the opportunity and collaborate with large companies to put the little guys out of business. These large company ceos and union leaders will be having wet dreams about this virus doing what they could not do otherwise. This virus and its spread lend credence to it being an artificial creation of several governments, mainly the US and China.

    • People AND gubmint have very very short memories … and never learn the intended lesson!

      This is exactly what happened last time and it was a disaster …
      My story – In 2008, I closed my business sold my building and fired 10 well paid employees whose jobs never returned … I in turn left the state for greener pastures and never again had employees, bricks and mortar or large debt …
      I am self employed, have very few responsibilities except to satisfy my customers and I make just as much income as before … life is so much better today for me …

  7. Here in “Doitey-Joisey”, 2 deaths out of 176 “cases” means that schools are shut down for about a month and Governor Murphy has implemented a curfew of around 8pm for “non-essential” business and travel. Gee, I suppose next PSE&G is going to start cutting service to “discourage” such activities. Whoops, better not give ’em any ideas. lol

    Christ, people are so fucking stupid!

    • Current death count per Corona is less than half the number of people who die from slipping in their bathtub per year. “Oh shit! we’re all gonna die!”

      • “Oh shit! we’re all gonna die!”

        Well, can’t argue with that one. Technically, we are all going to die…eventually. Just not from this so-called “pandemic”.

  8. I bought a 1969 third gen Toyota Corona Mk II station wagon in 1973. Here’s my review.

    Solid, slow and stodgy. But it ran great. Cannot remember one time when it would not start. Top speed was about 97mph.

    Made a pretty good surf wagon. Upholstery survived many salt water soaked wet suits. With rear seats folded, it would accommodate a 6’6″ surfboard laying flat on the floor. Could have held up a foot longer board by intruding into front seat area. But in that era, no “serious” Huntington Beach surf rat would be caught dead on a stick exceeding 6’10”.

    The foundation of the Toyota brand was already apparent. Did I mention that it was boring as hell to drive?

    When I got a job in advertising (circa 1975,) sold it for something more glamorous…..a 1974 Rotary Mazda RX-4 coupe with 4 speed stick. The change in the driving experience was euphoric. Rocked my world! I soon bought a Second RX-4 wagon for a new surf vehicle.

    Looking back, that Corona Mk II was a car that served me very well…..and that I never missed after selling it.

  9. Day 5 of the COVID-19 apocalypse. I have self-quarantined in order to avoid the plague. I ran out of toilet paper over a week ago. I’ve been reduced to using my remaining dress socks and cardboard from the amazon boxes I keep getting in the mail. I knew all these survival/prep books I’ve been buying would come in handy. Unfortunately, there is little food left in the house. Just the leftover chinese food from last week. Normally I’d just go out to eat, but they’ve all been closed in an attempt to contain the virus. Can’t travel, I’ve already siphoned the fuel from my vehicle in anticipation of the coming grid collapse. I’ll be able to start a fire with the fuel, when others are freezing. I’ll subsist on the house plants for now while others fight each other in the streets for their rations. Work keeps calling, asking where the fuck I am. Those poor fools have no idea. They congregate, when we’ve been told to isolate. It’s so hard to be rational while others are not so. The headache and cough keep getting stronger, and my ass is bleeding continuously now. I hope I can make it through the winter. I must survive to vote for Bernie in November. The revolution must live on. A final, bitter test we must overcome in order to implement our utopia. I just hope enough of us have the gumption to see this plague though to the end.

  10. This is why debt is so horrible. By bringing purchases forward you miss out on good deals that come along randomly. You’re locked in on monthly paychecks and that’s bad enough, but if you run the debt levels most have become accustomed to you are basically just a pipeline from your employer to the bank. Maybe you can hold on to a few bucks as it goes through but when a great deal comes along you’re stuck.

    Of course I could say the same thing about owning real estate®, especially if you keep a mortgage. But at least if you have the place paid off your cost of living can drop pretty dramatically and you can build up some savings. If you’re not suckered in by the shiny objects.

  11. I have always been prepped so not really to concerned about hunkering down hermit style for a few months.

    Get a big laugh at the people cleaning out the TP but apparently not worrying too much about long term food, medicine or entertainment. Entertainment is a big one. Boredom will lead a large portion of these folks to simply give up or actively off themselves long before the TP runs out. Suicide notes will read “Can’t take not getting Facebook likes” or such.

    There is a giant bidet called a shower beside almost every toilet. For the cost of those carts full of paper they could probably buy a proper bidet. If there is no water supply, shit tickets will be the least concern. How many people even know what is required to make safe potable water from what they could collect if the main water goes down?

    If this is the big one, cities are going to be deathtraps.

    • Quite remarkable that what appears to be a majority are focused on their anal orifice. Not realizing that if you don’t eat you won’t need toilet paper. Not to mention that if you have a rag, soap, and water, you don’t have to have toilet paper.

      • If you eat the right things, you won’t need toilet paper or a rag, soap, or water, either.
        You might have to become pretty anal about what you’ll eat, though.

  12. Funny, Eric- I was JUST thinking last night, that I aught to post a message saying something like: “You should do a retro review of an old 70’s Toyota Corona”…..

    Heh, new cars- They could be givin’ ’em away for $5, I STILL wouldn’t want one, with all of their beeping buzzing annoyances, “connectivity”, spying devices, flimsy metal/plastic, gobs of electronics and computerized BS, and Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions designed to get an extra 1/10th of an MPG…… I seriously could not see myself ever driving these abominations.

    We need a Corona virus for cars!

    • You took the words right out of my mouth, Nunz! Ages ago a buddy of mine had a Toyota Corona just like the one in the picture and it was a good little car. (I had a Datsun 510 myself that got me through the 1st phony “gas crisis” of the 1970s.) I wouldn’t want a new car if someone gave me one. Even an old VW bug would be preferable.

      As far as the virus the most worrisome thing is this might just be the thing that the power elites need to do away with the last vestiges of liberty. Every day more draconian measures are being announced.

      • Amen, Jason! Hell….I’d take a 70’s Corona over a new car any day of the week! If the Japs had only had the rust-proofing figgered-out, those things would’ve lasted forever.

        Yeah….funny how we’re getting it from all sides as far as the overlords go. Always some new “catastrophe” to conveniently give them excuses to screw with one facet of our lives after another- be it a “drug epidemic”, or “terrorism” or a “health crisis”- now they found something that most people will perceive as being a personal threat to them. If ya don’t take drugs, the “drug crisis” couldn’t do ya any harm (but of course, their response to it sure could!); Most people have figured-out that they’re unlikely to be the victim of a “terrorist”……so now they’ve come up with something that’s “everywhere” and “potentially can affect everyone”.

        Of course, the REAL thing to fear is the mental illness of “government”……and how IT has infected everyone around us.

        • Quite likely the “cure” will be worse than the disease. Usually is when the US Sociopaths In Charge insist on taking “action”. Somehow, collapsing the economy is not a big deal as long as you don’t get sick.

    • We already had one in 2009, the great $4000 bailout to buy a new car if you traded your old one in and it met the criteria for the $4000 credits. The beater cars poor people used were all destroyed, and cheap cars now started at $4k l, making life harder for everyone.

  13. Nissan is a dead man walking. May she and Datsun rest in peace. Maybe the silver lining in all of this is the EV scam flops with $1.59 gas (what i just paid in texas off I-45). I haven’t kept up with the Dodge vs GM trucks sales since last year but I can guess Ram wins again with sales reports in April.

    • Boeing is about to experience the same thing due to its incompetent self-certification of the 737 MAX, which will be available for a very reasonable price to whoever takes over the commercial division of Boeing. Between their screwup and the COVID shutdown of air travel, good riddance.

  14. Having accepted Eric’s view that the 1990s to early 2000s were a golden era of autos (high reliability but lower tech), I won’t be in the market for a new vehicle now or ever.

    Interesting question is what happens to used car prices. As of last month, Manheim’s Used Vehicle Value Index was at a record high. Probably not for long, though.

    In late 2008, as financing dried up, the used car index plunged back to its level of 1995 where the data begin.

    Probably later this year or next year, a buyer with a fistful of dollars (or scarce rolls of t.p.) will be able to pick up some astounding bargains from Ebay sellers who just need to pay the rent or put food on their families, as G. W. Bush used to say.

    Today’s evolving Mad Max scenario is reminiscent of a post-apocalyptic science fiction story from my youth, in which one clever character had stocked up on not only distilled spirits, but also unavailable cosmetics to sell to the ladies, who naturally flocked and flirted around him.

    Sure, honey, I’ll give you this mascara kit. But first you have to wash my GTO …

    • “Probably later this year or next year, a buyer with a fistful of dollars (or scarce rolls of t.p.) will be able to pick up some astounding bargains from Ebay sellers who just need to pay the rent or put food on their families, as G. W. Bush used to say.”

      When toilet paper becomes more valuable than gold, you know it’s over.

  15. Hey: I gotta a piece of gouge for you: In states like VA that have car inspections (argh, but that’s another rant) there will be a sticker on the windshield as to when it was inspected. Typically cars are delivered uninspected and that is one of the first things the dealer does after he takes it off the truck. Inspections have a one year duration, so if the new car you’re looking at has an inspection sticker expiring in (say) Dec 2020, that means it was inspected in Dec 2019, when the dealer first received the car. I’ve seen Ram trucks at my local dealer with inspections expiring in Oct 2020, which means that truck has been sitting almost 5 mos!

      • BTW; I smell a rat in all this coronavirus BS. Trump has been tough on China. Xi were watching impeachment and it ended just about the time this virus got started. The Chicoms are experts and disinformation and propaganda. I think they concocted this virus and released it, to tank the economy and get at Trump. I wonder when the chicoms announce they have the vaccine developed for this concoction.

        • No Hans,,, this looks more like Western stupidity. And its the West that are experts at propaganda,,, land of the free and home of the brave?? The Chicoms already have control,,, it the West that is in perilous financial shape this time around
          and they desperately need a scapegoat. And it is the Israelis that claim to have a vaccine near ready. The West is sick and dying and IMO, the sooner the better.

        • Maybe. But I seriously doubt the west will see the 1% death rate that they had in China. In many ways China is still a 3rd world county, outside of a few high profile cities. And most of us don’t hawk up loogies on the sidewalk (although I stopped going to a very busy gas station in Rifle after noticing all the spit on the ground), or shoot snot rockets in restaurants, or steal all the soap and TP from the public toilet (although that might change soon). And we have more square footage per capita than they do by far, and really hate when someone invades our personal space.

          I’ve been subscribed to serpentza and ADVChina on YouTube for years now. They show much more of the Chinese nation than most Chinese ever get to see. The good, bad and ugly. And it gets pretty ugly! From visiting a packed casino in Macau -really, like fire code violations in the US numbers of people to a “truck stop” in a northern providence that looked like the abandoned outhouse I saw in an old silver mining ghost town. But that’s norma life in China. Will it happen here? I seriously doubt it, even if the socialists take over, at least until the “Great Leaps” and 5 year plans start.

          • Yes, RK! They say that the Chinks are also quite vitamin C and D deficient; the population density there is insane- with cities all over the country being more densely populated than NY- and it’s still the norm there for babies not to wear diapers- they just have slits in their britches, and crap and piss wherever they happen to be- be it in the street, or on a bus or in a store, etc.

          • Hi RK
            Well tell that to the idiots out here. I’m in Pensacola FL, no virus here (yet) but the madness has begun. Went to get a gallon of milk and the places were empty. It’s pure insanity. Got some diesel for my generator and had people ask me if it was because of CV. I told them No, I’m getting ready for hurricane season. They laughed, knowing I was buying it for outages caused by CV. I’m 70 and I have never seen people this nuts. Fighting over TP has got to rate up there with the Twilight Zone. I seriously never thought people could be this stupid.

            • Hi Ken,

              I stopped by Kroger today to get some cat litter and cat food; both were nearly out. The store had no paper towels or toilet paper and most of the other shelves were 30-50 percent empty. This is bad news. A few weeks of this and the economy will crater – and with it, the veneer of civilization. This could be it, folks.

              • “This could be it, folks.”

                I hope so. Enough with the artificial BS the world has become, burn it down and start over. Those who adapt survive, those who don’t will no longer be the millstones around our necks. Darwinian sorting time.

                The economy has cratered, it happened long ago, but TPTB would not let it actually die. It has been brain dead for years, but now the life support for the body is breaking down.

                They have been pumping TRILLIONS into the market trying to keep it afloat and it still has not worked. Jump you fuckers. I want to see bankster road pizza.

                • Amen, Anon! Only thing is, even if this is “it”, it’s not gonna be the “it” we’re looking for- but more likely the pretext for world overt world government (we already have the covert version) and a reset of the the new “global economy”- i.e. the establishment of the NWO (Although, bring that on too! It has to happen, and it will be short-lived…so might as well get it over with! The ensuing confusion/restructuring just might provide chances for escape for those of us who are aware and desirous of such)

              • Eric,
                Sounds like my local Walmart on a normal day….

                More likely than not, once the media-induced hysteria dies down in a week or two and people stop rushing out and trying to buy-up everything, things’ll return to mostly normal…as far as the “supply chain” goes.

                Long-term economic impacts though? Not so much.

                Funny how a little bump like this can bring a lot of people back to reality (Even though it’s too late too matter). An acquaintance/client of mine, who has always supported the Dumbocraps and always justified “gun control”, just bought an AR!

                It’s funny, how when it only affects “someone else”, people can advocate all sorts of nonsense; but when faced with realities and consequences that affect THEM, they change their tune…..

                Such are statists. They have the mindsets of criminals- advocating coercion when it suits them and they perceive themselves as being a beneficiary more so than a victim- just like a robber, who couldn’t care less about the property rights of others, but would kill you for so much as looking at what is his- only these people do their robbery via proxy.

                Now that they sense that they may well be physically robbed…suddenly they “see the light”- at least as far as it applies to themselves.

                • We’ll start seeing the immediate effects of the “emergency” spending bill passed last week pretty quickly. I saw a crawl headline on CNBC this afternoon saying something along the lines of “Larry Kudlow mulling over sending $1000 checks.” So I guess that’s the pre-MMT we’ve all been waiting for. All those CEOs standing behind Trump in the Rose Garden last week were there to make sure that any overtime or hazard pay never hits their books. And still the stock market cratered. Any extra cash I get will either go to charity or maybe a stripper named Charity, but in reality it is basically a tax refund.

              • You might try Tractor Supply, Eric, if there’s one near you. I bought a bunch of cat food and litter there today. Far less crowded than the supermarkets which are still inundated with frantic panic shoppers fighting over the last roll of terlet paper.

              • Yeah, “this could be it”, over a virus that’s killed about half the number that slip and fall in their bathtub every year. Something you NEVER hear about this is the area of China this occurred in, and in Italy, tuberculosis is an ongoing problem, and my be responsible for a large portion of death from the Coronavirus.

                • This is calculated. The boomers get the SSA payments. This is so the gubment doesn’t have to cut checks.. buy stocks. Campbell’s chicken soup. Sprite. Blankets. Don’t buy charmin or bottled water stock. Everybody already has plenty.

                • “over a virus that’s killed about half the number that slip and fall in their bathtub every year.”

                  …..so far. You don’t know how many WILL die. Nobody does yet.

                  This thing has spread more rapidly than anything else in modern history. Even if the mortality rate is the same as the regular flu, and it seems much greater, the infection rate appears much higher.

                  https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

                  Look at the “other locations” line. The in number of infections is climbing drastically. Almost certainly, plenty of those new infections will die.

                  Closest one can assume at this point from the JH chart Died/recovered is that ~9% of infected die. And BTW, that is up from around 5% a couple of weeks ago. We don’t even know where that number will settle out yet.

                  Even my earlier guess at 300,000 infected by end of month is looking about 100,000-150,000 too low based on the JH chart.

              • I was at the store Sunday (two days ago) and surprised that onions and garlic were gone and the pet aisle completely untouched.

    • Five months hasn’t ever been a long time for a vehicle to spend in inventory. Now that model years have gotten silly, arriving the end of the year before, it won’t even matter. The dealership in your story isn’t very smart, since they don’t need to put the sticker on until after you buy it, during the dealer delivery setup. They could impress the customer by doing this, maximising the time on the dealer-bought sticker for the customer.
      I used to work in a dealership in Denver, and all of our new vehicles were exempted until after the title was registered.

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