10 VEHICLES DEALERS CAN’T SEEM TO SELL RIGHT NOW! Kevin Hunter, The Homework Guy

The 10 Vehicles Dealers Are Having The Hardest Time Selling Right Now Would you rather negotiate for a vehicle the dealer can't keep on the lot, or one they can't seem to get off the lot? Alright, let's set up the premise of this show so we're tracking right off the bat. Some vehicles currently have months, and in extreme cases, numbers that approach being more than a year of market supply at their recent sales pace. That does not necessarily mean they're bad vehicles. It means these may be some of the vehicles where buyers have the most negotiating leverage right now. Any clue, friends, what the number one vehicle not moving is? I'm talking about 443 days of market supply? Well, it's the 2026 Nissan Rogue plug-in hybrid. So what exactly does hard to sell mean? Here's a quick explanation of the five signals we're watching. Number one, market day supply. How much inventory exists compared with the current rate of sales? Number two is days on the market. How long an individual vehicle has actually been sitting on the dealer lot for sale? Number three, price reductions. Has the dealer already lowered the advertised price and possibly done so multiple times? Number four, factory incentives. That includes cash rebates, low APR, 0% financing, lease incentives, loyalty and conquest offers, etc. And number five, the sales rate. How quickly buyers are actually taking these vehicles home? So a key teaching point here, one week signal doesn't necessarily mean much, but when you find high supply plus old inventory, plus price cuts, plus big incentives and slow sales, now you may have some negotiating leverage, but you still have to know how to handle the situation. If you don't, you can still get burned. So here's our top 10 countdown. At number 10, the Land Rover Discovery. It has 233 days of market supply. This represents more than seven months of inventory at the current sales rate. And this isn't some tiny niche vehicle with no practical purpose. The Land Rover Discovery is a seven passenger, all wheel drive, luxury SUV starting around $60,000. You can step up to the six cylinder version and you're looking at a 355 horsepower and as much as 8,200 pounds of towing capacity. So this is a legitimate family towing and adventure vehicle, which makes more than 230 days of market supply, particularly interesting for somebody who actually wants one negotiating lesson. Find out how many comparable discoveries are sitting at competing dealers near you. At number nine, the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, 239 day market supply. Approximately 2,090 units sold during the preceding 45 day measurement period. Unlike some exotic vehicles on the list, there's meaningful sales volume here, but also a lot of inventory with about 239 days of market supply. And this one gets interesting because we're not talking about a cheap vehicle. The 2026 Grand Wagoneer starts around 64,000, but starts climbing through the trim levels and you can even get north of 90,000 or even a hundred thousand, but there's real utility here. You can seat up to eight people. You can get 420 horsepower and properly equipped. It can tow as much as 10,000 pounds. That's pretty serious. So if you actually want a big luxury three row vehicle that can tow, this is exactly where high inventory gets interesting because when a dealer has 70,000, 80,000 or $90,000 vehicles sitting around for months, I'm not walking in asking for their best price. I'm finding every comparable Grand Wagoneer within a couple hundred miles and making those dealers compete for the business. A negotiating lesson here, don't get attached to one Grand Wagoneer. Find several comparable vehicles and make the dealers compete for your business. At number eight, the Mercedes-Benz EQS. It has a 243 day market supply. Only about 59 sales occurred during this 45 day measurement period in the data set. And this vehicle gets our attention because of how much money is involved. Look at the EQS SUV. 2026 EQS 400 starts at almost $90,000 and the EQS 550 starts at more than $112,000. So we're talking about six figure luxury vehicles sitting in a market with roughly eight months of supply at the recent sales rate. And these aren't slow underpowered electric cars. The EQS 550 makes 536 horsepower and 633 pound feet of torque and can hit 60 miles per hour in about 4.6 seconds. But here's a number I'd be thinking about as a car buyer. How motivated does a dealer become when a vehicle with a sticker price north of a hundred grand has been sitting in inventory while the market has months and months of supply? If I wanted an EQS, I would be looking very hard for the oldest VIN I could find. And then I'd find several of them at different Mercedes dealers and start a competition. Here's the negotiating lesson here. Low volume luxury vehicles require context. The opportunity isn't simply that sales are low. It's that inventory is high relative to those sales. At number seven, the Alfa Romeo Giulia. 247 days market supply. Approximately 27 units sold during the measurement period. That is peanuts. The Alfa Romeo Giulia is a $45,000 plus Italian luxury sports sedan with 280 horsepower. And you can get it with an all-wheel drive. But with about 247 days of market supply, buyers aren't exactly fighting over them. If I wanted a Giulia, I'd be looking for the oldest one on the lot and making multiple Alfa dealers compete. Negotiating lesson here. Don't chase a massive discount without considering resale value. Price is not the same thing as value. At number six, the Porsche Taycan. There's a 253 day supply in this market. Approximately 180 sold during the previous 45 days. The Porsche Taycan has about 253 days of market supply. And these are not cheap cars. They start above $105,000 and can push past $240,000. When that much money is tied up in a slow-moving electric Porsche, I'd absolutely be looking for the aged vins and negotiating hard. Here's your lesson. Expensive aging inventory ties up a lot of dealer capital. The longer it remains unsold, the more interesting the negotiation can become. We're only halfway through this list and we haven't even reached 300 days of supply yet. And the number one vehicle is over 440 days. So where's this going? At number five, Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid. 256 days market supply. Approximately 74 sold during the measurement period. The 2026 Outlander starts at $43,245 before destination. Seat seven comes standard with all-wheel drive, makes 297 horsepower, and offers a decent amount of miles for electric range. Upper trims can climb past $50,000. Negotiating lesson here. We're beginning to see an electrification pattern. This doesn't mean electrified vehicles are bad. It means certain products aren't matching current consumer demand at their present price and inventory levels. At number four is the Maserati Grecale. There is a 300 days supply. Approximately 44 units were sold during the measurement period here. The 2026 Grecale is a five-passenger Italian luxury SUV. The Modena V6 starts around $84,500 with 385 horsepower and all-wheel drive, while the 523 horsepower Trofeo moves into the six-figure territory. Maserati lists about 20 cubic feet of cargo space. We've reached roughly 10 months of supply. Here's the negotiating lesson. National inventory identifies the opportunity. Individual vintage age determines whether your local dealer may be actually motivated to sell. At number three, getting more into the world of normalcy with the Dodge Charger. 329 days market supply. Approximately 1,332 sold during the measurement period. This is particularly interesting because there's substantial sales volume, but inventory remains enormous relative to that volume. The 2026 Charger RT starts at $49,995 with 420 horsepower, while the gas-powered Scat Pack starts at $54,995 with 550 horsepower. Both come standard with all-wheel drive and Dodge now offers both two and four-door versions. The electric Daytona Scat Pack starts at $59,995 and produces up to 670 horsepower. A negotiating tip here, multiple dealers plus multiple vehicles plus limited buyers is competition for your business. At number two is the Volkswagen ID.4. There's a 374-day market supply because approximately 129 units were sold during this measurement period. We've crossed one full year of market supply. The 2026 ID.4 starts at $45,095 before destination and tops out around $57,655. It's a practical five-passenger electric SUV with 282 horsepower in real-world drive form or 335 horsepower in all-wheel drive and up to 290 miles of EPA estimated range. Here's your negotiating lesson. If several Volkswagen dealers have comparable ID.4s available, don't negotiate against yourself. Put those dealers into competition with each other. And now we got to the number one Nissan Rogue plug-in hybrid. As I said in the beginning of the show, 443-day market supply. Approximately 1,940 vehicles sitting on dealer lots versus approximately 197 sales during a 45-day measurement period. That's roughly 15 months of market supply. Then bring in the incentive evidence. Zero percent financing for 60 months or up to $6,500 Nissan cash under the applicable August programs. It starts at $45,990 while the platinum starts at $49,990. And don't worry about that being an August incentive. September will be even better. It does have real utility, seven seats, standard all-wheel drive, 38 miles of electric only range and about 420 miles of total range. A learning moment here is in the slow moving vehicle segments. This is what we're looking for. High inventory, slow sales, large market supply, factory incentives, potential dealer discounts. Now we investigate the individual vehicles. Something important to be aware of, slow selling doesn't automatically mean bad vehicle, bad reliability, dealer desperation, a guaranteed huge discount or even a great long-term value. You need to ask, why isn't it selling? Maybe it is overpriced. Maybe consumers don't want that powertrain. Maybe inventory was overproduced. Maybe there's a model transition here. Maybe the resale value is concerning. If the reason doesn't bother you, that's where your opportunity lies. How would I actually attack one of these deals if I wanted one of these cars? Find several comparable vehicles. Step two, check how long each individual VIN has been advertised. Step three, look for previous price reductions. Step four, identify every manufacturer incentive. Step five, separate dealer discount from factory money. Step six, get ridden out the door offers. Step seven, make dealers compete. These vehicles represent the perfect negotiating storm. High national supply, old local inventory, multiple price reductions, factory incentives, multiple dealers with the same vehicle means buyer leverage. Here's something that might trick some of you. Don't let the dealer call factory money their discount because it's not. If the manufacturer provides $5,000, the dealer didn't give you a $5,000 discount. You need to keep separated the dealer discount from manufacturing incentives. So make sure you ask, what is your dealer discount before the manufacturing incentives? Then you can build the OTD numbers from there. Price reductions can actually make the vehicle more interesting. For example, originally a $55,000 vehicle reduced to $52,500, reduced again to $50,900, now $49,500. Don't automatically think they've already discounted it. $5,500, there can't be anything left. Ask, why didn't it sell at $55,000? Why didn't it sell at $52,500? Why didn't it sell at $50,900? And if nobody has bought it at $49,500, what number finally moves this car? I guarantee it's going to be lower. That's the number we're trying to discover. And remember, the local inventory trumps the national inventory. National data identifies your opportunity, but your local market determines your actual leverage. So start by searching 50 miles, 100 miles, 250 miles if necessary. If dealer A near you won't move, dealer B further away might. And sometimes to call a dealer two hours away can save you thousands of dollars just right there. Big discount does not automatically mean a good deal. This is one of our strongest teaching moments. A $10,000 discount on the wrong vehicle doesn't make a good deal for you. A huge market supply doesn't make the vehicle right for your family. 0% financing doesn't make an overpriced vehicle cheap. A massive rebate doesn't erase terrible depreciation. Buy the right vehicle first, then use the market conditions to buy that vehicle right. So the Homework Guy buying formula. Before buying, investigate how many are available? How fast are they selling? How long has this particular event been sitting? Has the price been reduced? What factory incentives exist? How many competing dealers have one of these cars? So remember the vehicle that everybody wants gives the dealer the leverage. The vehicle that every dealer has and not enough people are buying gives you the leverage. So let's talk about our car buying service. If you found the vehicle you want but you don't want to spend hours figuring out which dealer has the room to move, let us do the homework for you. With the Homework Guy hassle-free car buying service, we shop competing dealers, push for written out-the-door prices, negotiate the numbers, and help you keep control of the deal from start to finish. Visit the HomeworkGuy.com and let us help you turn market leverage into a better car deal. Because the best time to negotiate is when you know something about the market the salesperson hopes you don't. I'm Kevin Hunter, the Homework Guy. Do your homework, friends, and we'll see you next time.