Car ownership has long been integral to the American dream. But as automakers slash the production of inexpensive models to cater to customers who can afford oversized pickups and sport utility vehicles, buyers find themselves facing sticker shock at the same time they are already frustrated by the lingering effects of high inflation.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March, the biggest yearly increase since May 2024, while new car prices were up 12.6% from a year ago, the Labor Department reported Friday.
New vehicles now sell for an average of nearly $50,000, up 30% in six years, and average monthly payments — based on 10% down and a 6-year note — recently hit $775. Looking for something on the cheap end? The share of vehicles listing for less than $30,000 is about 13% — down from 40% five years ago, per the car review site CarGurus.
I’m 60, I’ve never bought a brand-new car, and I doubt I ever will.
The car I’m driving now, which is two years newer than the car I drove for 18 years, is a 2006. I paid $6000 for it about eight years ago, and I’m very happy with it.
Yep, I find it insane people who buy a new car every few years. Cars don’t just die after 4 or 5 years of use. Most of my Toyotas have 300k miles on them and are early 2000s. They will last way longer than most people assume. Just maintain the damn things.
As the owner of an 01 Tacoma I can confirm, the damned thing is basically a modern Model A/T. It has a good chance of lasting 500,000 miles and being resurrected afterwards.
I got 400k miles on my current truck. I need to do some repairs to the frame, but I’m going to keep driving it because it’s still cheaper to keep it running than deal with a new truck that also needs money put in to it to fix factory design defects.
V8 version?
Standard cab 2WD V6. Pretty solid for me though and gets mileage comparable to modern cars. Figured that if I’m gonna have a pavement princess I’d at least get one with the specs of one and the repairability of a Yugo.
The 5VZs are stupid reliable if you do the maintenance on them. They’ll basically outlive you lol, I’ve seen people with 500k miles on the stock motors no rebuilds and still daily driving them.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if the US had a mass-transit system like Europe or China? Oh well.
We’ll have our walkable cities for sure at this rate.
We’ll have more people walking in cities, anyway.
Walkin down the stroad
Does US media know the difference between average and mean or median?
Yes and they use them all to get you to click.
Seems like the average is inflated with $100,000 extended cab pickup trucks with luxury features. Which have taken over the market.
Don’t worry… that extra cost gets you more LCD displays and the ability to pay for a heated seat subscription.
Those buyers, he said, are being pushed into the used market.
Haha yes that’s what we did too, we could buy a new car for the same we paid for a 4 year old car. But we wanted to be able to pull a trailer, and we wanted a better than minimum battery, and the luxury of the bigger car is of course nice too. 😋
We got the VW ID.4 a CUV which means it’s built like a real car, not some pickup truck construction that avoids regulation, that American SUV’s often are.The CUV is an amazing drive with perfect handling, an SUV is not.
New vehicles now sell for an average of nearly $50,000
The share of vehicles listing for less than $30,000 is about 13%
So you can get a car for less than 30k, but those models don’t seem to be in high demand
Shit like this makes me glad I have no car payments, a relatively newer pair of cars (2008 Sienna, 2015 Highlander), and a pair of “apocalypse-ready” vehicles (1980 Mercedes 240D, 1980 Honda XR500). And a little 49cc Honda Metropolitan for around-town stuff.
And yes, I have most of the tools required to work on all of them.
New vehicles have been selling for an average price of $50k for years now. I don’t know where they’re getting their data, but I’ve read this same article numerous times over the years already.
I just bought a very lightly used BRZ (20k miles) for $27k and I thought I was splurging because I could have paid significantly less for a completely adequate car, but I wanted something fun. It cost me more than an SUV would have, so even people who want practical cars aren’t being forced to spend over $30k.
I bought a new car a couple of months ago. It wasn’t easy.
Mines making all kinds of weird noises and is quite old but I just keep saying “no. No. No. No.” and turning the stereo up louder. Really gotta make it to 2028
