My daily bike commute takes me from the W&OD biking / walking trail to Pacific Ave. To get from trail to street I have to cross a BMW dealership. For a long time, this didn’t present much of a challenge — I just rode along the big grass patch next to their parking lot.
A few weeks ago, however, the dealership lot started overflowing and they began parking cars up on the grass where I ride. It certainly makes the trip a bit more interesting, having to worry about slipping (on wet grass or muddy track) into a fairly expensive car :-/
I assume their overflowing inventory is due to decreasing sales (though I have no data to back that up). It wouldn’t be surprising, since you have to question the wisdom of buying a new car at this point in history. The end of the age of oil appears to be upon us, and gasoline prices are likely to rise pretty monotonically for quite some time. You especially have to question the wisdom of purchasing a new car (or truck, or SUV) that isn’t particularly fuel efficient.
If I had to replace my car right now, I’d be looking around for a small, cheap beater that I could run into the ground over the next several years… or maybe a scooter. I certainly wouldn’t be in the market for something that is likely to be a super-expensive, over-sized paperweight in 5 or 10 years.