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Why Leftover 2024 and 2025 Models Might Be Your Best Bet

Buying a new car has never been simple, but lately it’s started to feel like a high-stakes game of timing chicken. Incentives appear and vanish, interest rates loom large, and MSRPs seem to have forgotten how gravity works. Still, if your finances are squared away, one old-school strategy is suddenly relevant again: buying just before—or even after—a model-year rollover.

Dealers, it turns out, are sitting on a lot of metal. And not the good kind.

Across the U.S., unsold new-car inventory has quietly ballooned to levels not seen in over a year. As of the end of November, dealerships were holding more than 3 million vehicles, a figure that would’ve sounded downright optimistic during the supply-starved years of the early 2020s. While most of those are shiny new 2026 models, a meaningful chunk consists of leftover 2024 and 2025 vehicles that simply aren’t moving.

December may have been peak deal season, but the hangover is lingering into the new year—and for buyers willing to hunt, that’s good news.

Inventory Is Up. Prices? Not So Much.

Here’s the frustrating part: despite all those cars clogging up lots, prices refuse to come back down to earth. The average new-car listing price in November sat at $49,422, a record high and slightly above the previous peak set late last year. For most of 2025, prices hovered stubbornly between $47,000 and $49,000, leaving bargain hunters with little to celebrate.

As Karl Brauer of iSeeCars puts it, new-car prices remain “near record highs,” which makes value hard to find—unless you’re flexible. Dealers are far more willing to negotiate when a car has been aging on the lot, especially when it’s technically last year’s model, even if it’s still brand-new.

Translation: yesterday’s model year might be today’s smartest purchase.

Stellantis Has a Problem—Several, Actually

No automaker illustrates this inventory imbalance better than Stellantis, which appears to be playing a one-brand game of musical chairs—and the music stopped early.

The poster child is the Dodge Hornet plug-in hybrid, which still accounts for an eye-watering 82 percent of all remaining 2024 inventory. To put that in perspective, the industry-wide average for leftover 2024 models is just 0.4 percent. That’s not a typo—that’s a market-wide rounding error compared to Dodge’s situation.

Jeep isn’t faring much better. More than 70 percent of 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokees remain unsold, while the Alfa Romeo Tonale Hybrid is approaching 50 percent availability. These aren’t niche halo cars—they’re mainstream models that simply haven’t found enough takers.

Even more curious is the Chevrolet Malibu, a discontinued midsize sedan with nearly a third of its 2024 inventory still hanging around. At under $27,000, you’d expect it to fly out the door. Instead, it’s reportedly selling above MSRP, proving once again that the car market can behave in ways that defy both logic and spreadsheets.

The 2025 Bottleneck Is Even Worse

If you think the leftovers stop at last year’s models, think again. Some 2025 vehicles are piling up at rates that would make a rental fleet manager sweat.

Leading the pack is BMW’s i4, with nearly nine out of ten units still unsold, carrying an average price north of $67,000. Lexus isn’t far behind, with the GX 550 and LX 600 both hovering well above 80 percent unsold inventory. The Subaru BRZ, beloved by enthusiasts and priced relatively affordably, is also languishing, with 87 percent of its 2025 stock still waiting for homes.

What’s especially striking is how many supposedly hot-nameplates are on the list. The Toyota GR Corolla, the perpetually popular Ford Maverick, and multiple Toyota hybrids—including the Tacoma Hybrid and 4Runner Hybrid—are all seeing sluggish turnover. Toyota alone appears four times among the worst offenders, suggesting that even bulletproof brand loyalty has limits when prices climb and loan payments sting.

For context, the industry average for leftover 2025 inventory is 21 percent. Anything north of 60 percent isn’t just slow—it’s a flashing neon sign that dealers may be open to talking numbers.

What This Means for Buyers

If you’re shopping purely on price, this is still a rough market. But if you’re willing to look past the newest badge on the trunk lid, the current inventory glut creates leverage—especially on models that dealers are clearly eager to move.

Leftover new cars come with full warranties, modern tech, and zero miles of prior ownership, but they don’t carry the same psychological weight as the latest model year. That’s where buyers can win. Dealers want these cars gone before the next wave arrives, and incentives, discounts, or quietly generous financing terms are often easier to extract than headline pricing suggests.

The catch? You’ll need to be selective. Not every car with high inventory is a steal, and some models are lingering for good reasons. But if you’re patient, informed, and ready to negotiate, the excess of 2024 and 2025 models could finally tilt the playing field—just a little—back in the buyer’s favor.

In a market that’s spent years telling shoppers to take what they can get, that alone feels like a small victory.

Source: iSeeCars

News

The Chevrolet ZR1’s Real Horsepower May Shock You

Chevrolet claims the new Corvette ZR1 makes 1,064 horsepower, which is already the sort of number that makes traction control cry uncle. But if early dyno testing from Hennessey Performance is any indication, that headline figure may be more suggestion than fact. Because according to the Texas tuning house, the ZR1 is quietly packing a whole lot more heat than Chevy’s press release lets on.

After taking delivery of its ZR1 and putting 3,200 kilometers on the odometer—call it a high-speed break-in—Hennessey strapped the car to a dynamometer. What they saw raised eyebrows even in a shop accustomed to outrageous numbers: 1,051 horsepower measured at the wheels.

That distinction matters. A lot.

Factory power ratings are quoted at the crankshaft, before the drivetrain eats its share. In most high-performance cars, somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of an engine’s output is lost on its way through the transmission, differential, and half-shafts. But if the ZR1 is truly putting down 1,051 horsepower to the pavement, drivetrain losses appear to be closer to 2 percent—an improbably small number for a street car making four-digit power.

Run the math the conventional way, assuming a more typical 10 percent loss, and the picture changes quickly. Back-calculate that wheel figure and you’re staring at something like 1,150 horsepower at the crank. That’s nearly 100 ponies north of Chevrolet’s official rating, and well into the realm of “we didn’t want to scare anyone” engineering.

Now, dyno tests aren’t gospel. Results vary with ambient conditions, calibration, tire choice, and even the mood of the machine operator. Still, when a reputable shop like Hennessey posts wheel horsepower numbers this close to the factory crank rating, it’s hard not to read between the lines.

And honestly, this wouldn’t be new territory for Chevrolet. Automakers—especially when playing in supercar territory—have a long history of underrating engines for reasons ranging from internal politics to marketing strategy to sheer confidence that enthusiasts will figure it out anyway. Think of it as horsepower modesty, Detroit-style.

Whatever the official number ends up meaning in the real world, one thing is clear: the Corvette ZR1 isn’t just a 1,064-horsepower monster. It’s very likely more powerful than advertised, and possibly one of the most hilariously underrated production cars on sale today.

If this is Chevy being conservative, we can only imagine what happens when they stop holding back.

Source: Hennessey

News

Mercedes EQB Recall: Don’t Fully Charge Your EV

If you’re the type of Mercedes EV driver who already checks the range estimate more often than your bank balance, we’ve got news that won’t help your blood pressure. Mercedes-Benz is advising owners of certain EQB electric SUVs to cap charging at 80 percent—not to preserve battery health, not to optimize efficiency, but because charging to 100 percent could, in engineering terms, trigger a “thermal event.”

In plain English: the battery could short-circuit and catch fire. And unlike a check-engine light or a rattling trim panel, battery fires tend to command your full attention—and the local fire department’s.

The good news, such as it is, is that this recall affects a vanishingly small slice of Mercedes’ EV fleet. Just 169 vehicles are involved, including 100 EQB 300 4Matic models, 48 EQB 350 4Matics, and 21 single-motor EQB 250s. That’s barely enough cars to fill a Costco parking lot, though that’s cold comfort if yours happens to be one of them.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because Mercedes has been here before. Earlier in 2025, the company recalled more than 7,000 EQBs in the U.S. for—you guessed it—fire risk, issuing the same temporary advice to keep charging below 80 percent until a software update could be applied. Déjà vu, now with fewer vehicles.

According to Mercedes, the newly recalled cars are “early-stage” 2022–2023 model-year EQBs. Later vehicles supposedly received more robust battery hardware, sparing them from this particular drama. For the affected cars, the company says drivers will likely get warning messages if things start getting spicy under the floorpan while driving. Unfortunately, a parked EQB could still ignite without so much as a polite heads-up.

Naturally, you might assume Mercedes would replace the suspect batteries with improved units. Naturally, you’d be wrong. The fix is—again—a software update, scheduled to roll out via dealerships in early 2026. Until then, owners are stuck playing battery-management limbo.

That’s especially painful given the EQB’s already modest range. The dual-motor EQB 350 carries an EPA rating of just 227 miles on a full charge. Knock that down to 80 percent and you’re looking at roughly 180 miles. Add a sensible buffer at the bottom end of the gauge and real-world usable range could shrink to around 150 miles.

That’s enough to visit relatives across town, but probably not across the state—unless you enjoy spending quality time at freeway charging stations, contemplating life choices and scrolling through apps that insist your charger will be available “any minute now.”

For now, Mercedes EQB owners affected by the recall can take solace in two things: first, the odds of being impacted are low; and second, Mercedes insists the fix is coming. Eventually. In the meantime, charge cautiously, park thoughtfully, and maybe keep the holiday travel plans local.

Source: Mercedes-Benz

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