2016 SEL Inventory for Bay Area

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Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
675
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
Certainly inventory is abysmal a the moment; since I'm hoping to find a Night Blue or Urano Grey (but am flexible), I ran the builds through the VW website and this is what I got as results. Thought I'd share for anyone else looking.

White/Black - 3 (2x Hayward, Sacramento)
White/Beige - 0
Black/Black - 1 (Sunnyvale)
Black/Beige - 4 (2x Stevens Creek, Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz)
Night Blue/Black - 0
Night Blue/Beige - 0
Pacific Blue/Black - 0
Pacific Blue/Beige - 0
Silver/Black - 5 (Stevens Creek, Hayward, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Roseville)
Limestone Grey/Black - 3 (SerraMonte, Hayward, Santa Rosa)
Urano Grey/Black - 0

Total = 16

As a sanity check I did visit Sunnyvale, Stevens Creek, and Santa Cruz this week and personally verified what they had on the lot matched the VW website.
 
Checking in a month later, interesting to see about half have sold, although half of those were Sacramento.

White/Black - 3 (2x Hayward, Stevens Creek)
White/Beige - 0
Black/Black - 2 (2x Sunnyvale)
Black/Beige - 7 (3x Sunnyvale, 3x Stevens Creek, Capitol)
Night Blue/Black - 1 (Newark)
Night Blue/Beige - 0
Pacific Blue/Black - 0
Pacific Blue/Beige - 0
Silver/Black - 1 (Hayward)
Limestone Grey/Black - 0
Urano Grey/Black - 1 (Sunnyvale)

Total = 15

Why is nobody buying black?
 
johnnylingo said:
Checking in a month later, interesting to see about half have sold, although half of those were Sacramento.

White/Black - 3 (2x Hayward, Stevens Creek)
White/Beige - 0
Black/Black - 2 (2x Sunnyvale)
Black/Beige - 7 (3x Sunnyvale, 3x Stevens Creek, Capitol)
Night Blue/Black - 1 (Newark)
Night Blue/Beige - 0
Pacific Blue/Black - 0
Pacific Blue/Beige - 0
Silver/Black - 1 (Hayward)
Limestone Grey/Black - 0
Urano Grey/Black - 1 (Sunnyvale)

Total = 15

Why is nobody buying black?

Black is for Limo's, secret service, and kids that have the time to wash and wax it constantly. Black is unbelievable hot in the summer time, late spring and fall, you will run your AC much more with a black exterior, thereby shortening your range. Black shows every bit of dust, dirt, dings, scratches, swirl marks. Black is poor visibility when it lighting gets poor or dark. Black has a higher percentages of accidents, due to lack of visibility, at all times. Black is hard to sell used.

http://www.planet-9.com/porsche-care-and-detailing/50413-i-will-never-buy-black-car-again.html
 
JoulesThief said:
Black shows every bit of dust, dirt, dings, scratches, swirl marks. Black is poor visibility when it lighting gets poor or dark. Black has a higher percentages of accidents, due to lack of visibility, at all times.

My question was somewhat rhetorical as I've been driving a black Subaru for 13 years, but interesting to see your take. Yes, let's just say if Meguiar's had a frequent buyer program, I would be signed up :lol:

Silver and Gray have visibility problems too during the day as they can blend in with the road. Since black's problem is at dusk or driving in shadows, I would think the daytime LEDs would negate the visibility concerns. My Forester is just young enough to have daytime running lights, and I've only once had someone pull out in front of me. I blame that driver's state of mine more than the color of my car.
 
johnnylingo said:
JoulesThief said:
Black shows every bit of dust, dirt, dings, scratches, swirl marks. Black is poor visibility when it lighting gets poor or dark. Black has a higher percentages of accidents, due to lack of visibility, at all times.

My question was somewhat rhetorical as I've been driving a black Subaru for 13 years, but interesting to see your take. Yes, let's just say if Meguiar's had a frequent buyer program, I would be signed up :lol:

Silver and Gray have visibility problems too during the day as they can blend in with the road. Since black's problem is at dusk or driving in shadows, I would think the daytime LEDs would negate the visibility concerns. My Forester is just young enough to have daytime running lights, and I've only once had someone pull out in front of me. I blame that driver's state of mine more than the color of my car.

Ask your insurance company if black cars are involved in more accidents than any other color.
 
JoulesThief said:
johnnylingo said:
JoulesThief said:
Black shows every bit of dust, dirt, dings, scratches, swirl marks. Black is poor visibility when it lighting gets poor or dark. Black has a higher percentages of accidents, due to lack of visibility, at all times.

My question was somewhat rhetorical as I've been driving a black Subaru for 13 years, but interesting to see your take. Yes, let's just say if Meguiar's had a frequent buyer program, I would be signed up :lol:

Silver and Gray have visibility problems too during the day as they can blend in with the road. Since black's problem is at dusk or driving in shadows, I would think the daytime LEDs would negate the visibility concerns. My Forester is just young enough to have daytime running lights, and I've only once had someone pull out in front of me. I blame that driver's state of mine more than the color of my car.

Ask your insurance company if black cars are involved in more accidents than any other color.

I work for an insurance company, and can tell you that unless car colors were evenly distributed across the population, then that is a completely meaningless statistic.
 
JoulesThief said:
Black is unbelievable hot in the summer time, late spring and fall, you will run your AC much more with a black exterior, thereby shortening your range.

Sure, black absorbs heat, but I can't see how this would make a significant difference on a small car. Seems the color of the interior would be a larger factor, and might explain the stagnant white/black sales. Although I did see one today in San Jose on 880.

Regardless, I do wish there was an option for tinted windows and a sunroof. This is one thing I did really like about the Kia Soul.
 
johnnylingo said:
JoulesThief said:
Black is unbelievable hot in the summer time, late spring and fall, you will run your AC much more with a black exterior, thereby shortening your range.

Sure, black absorbs heat, but I can't see how this would make a significant difference on a small car. Seems the color of the interior would be a larger factor, and might explain the stagnant white/black sales. Although I did see one today in San Jose on 880.

Regardless, I do wish there was an option for tinted windows and a sunroof. This is one thing I did really like about the Kia Soul.

I guess you won't be buying an e-Golf any time soon, then.
 
johnnylingo said:
Quite the opposite. I'd take a black/beige one if the price is right.

What is your definition of "price is right" ? Are you leasing or buying? 2015 pricing of SEL's is pretty much gone. Those were very rare, incredible deals, where you didn't really get a choice of color for interior and exterior, you got what you got, and an outstanding valued price point, when VW was begging for new car sales.

It remains to be seen if we'll ever see VW with pricing as aggressive as that on VW electric cars, ever again. That was kind of a perfect storm era for VW, with what they had to do to keep moving cars to market.
 
JoulesThief said:
What is your definition of "price is right" ?

25% off MSRP would make me bite. If they won't do it, I'll wait for the 2017s where I can compare it side by side to the Bolt. Sure, I'll have to settle for more like 15% off MSRP, but I'll get 30% more range, gesture control, self park, and wireless charging.
 
johnnylingo said:
JoulesThief said:
What is your definition of "price is right" ?

25% off MSRP would make me bite. If they won't do it, I'll wait for the 2017s where I can compare it side by side to the Bolt. Sure, I'll have to settle for more like 15% off MSRP, but I'll get 30% more range, gesture control, self park, and wireless charging.

25% off MSRP might be doable on an old stock 2015 SEL, but not a 2016 SEL. You'd have to go to a dealership in an area with less progressive demographics and less money, to find them. I know where a silver 2015 LE is sitting, might be a good deal, for the right person.
A long ways away from Santa Cruz, in other words, or most of Northern California. VW of Coachella near Palm Springs has a few, it would have to be trucked or you spend few days on the road getting it home. Mckenna VW still has a few also.

To get a smoking deal, timing is everything. Many dealerships are blow hards if they think you have to have the car and don't have options. By the time somethings been on their lot quite a while with added flooring costs, they are more anxious to turn inventory over.

Around the Bay area, and Silicon Valley, you are competing against young geeks making big paychecks that are willing to pay top dollar for electric cars, which limits your leverage on getting that kind of pricing. There's another young, inexperienced car buyer with fat paychecks right in line behind you, to buy what you want, with the money to pay for it, no problem.
 
JoulesThief said:
I know where a silver 2015 LE is sitting, might be a good deal, for the right person.

The 2015s were a non-starter for me due to lack of CarPlay. Personal preference. I eliminated the Kia Soul and BMW i3 for this same reason, although both had their advantages over the e-Golf.

JoulesThief said:
By the time somethings been on their lot quite a while with added flooring costs, they are more anxious to turn inventory over.

Agreed. This is why I think one can score a sweet deal on black or white/black right now, as these cars have likely been on the lot since December.

JoulesThief said:
There's another young, inexperienced car buyer with fat paychecks right in line behind you, to buy what you want, with the money to pay for it, no problem.

With gas at $2.50, they're buying Mercedes, BMW, Jeep, and Subaru. There's a large segment though, both young and old, that are looking at having an EV as a commuter car. That's why the SEs here are selling much better than the SELs. And they're leasing rather than buying.

I don't know if a dealer would rather lease at a higher price or sell for a lower price. Maybe someone can weight in on this.
 
They'd rather lease or their sales personnel haven't been properly trained.

But it's not an either/or dilemma. Negotiate lowest price and then sign a lease for it.
 
Who cares what they want. THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Tell them up front what you want and how you want to do it, and what your expectations are. If they aren't interested, leave your name email address and phone number, then get up, thank them for their time, and walk out.
 
bizzle said:
But it's not an either/or dilemma. Negotiate lowest price and then sign a lease for it.
Not always true.
A good example are the 0% financing or $xxxx cash back deals. You can't get both.
Often the advertised lease deals are subsidized in the same manner - you can certainly sign a lease after negotiating a price, but you may not get the subsidized lease deal (lower money factor, artificially high residual value, etc.)
 
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