Cars - For Car Enthusiasts

3947 readers

24 users here now

About Community

c/Cars is the largest automotive enthusiast community on Lemmy and the fediverse. We're your central hub for vehicle-related discussion, industry news, reviews, projects, DIY guides, advice, stories, and more.

Rules

Stay respectful to the community, hold civil discussions, even when others hold opinions that may differ from yours.

This is not an NSFW community, and any such content will not be tolerated.

Policy, not politics! Policy discussions revolve around the concept; political discussions revolve around the individual, party, association, etc. We only allow POLICY discussions and political discussions should go to c/politics.

Must be related to cars, anything that does not have connection to cars will be considered spam/irrelevant and is subject to removal.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

With just 8% of new vehicles costing under $30,000, ‘it’s the least affordable car market in modern history,’ expert says (www.cnbc.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

By nearly every measure, buying a car has become extremely expensive.

Not only are new vehicle prices near an all-time high, but the interest rate to finance a purchase has also jumped dramatically. Now, fewer affordable new cars even hit the market, according to recent reports.

Today, new cars priced under $30,000 make up just 8% of the market’s supply, down from 38% pre-pandemic, car shopping app CoPilot found.

“It’s the least affordable car market in modern history,” said CoPilot’s CEO Pat Ryan.

Car shoppers like luxury

Well before the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer tastes had started to steadily shift away from sedans toward more expensive SUVs and trucks. Then, car buyers piled on options, such as high-tech touch screens, ambient lighting, 360-degree cameras and heated and cooled seats.

“There’s a war of features,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights.

In response to increased demand, dealers began stocking more cars with all the bells and whistles, he said, and carmakers upgraded their lineups with high-end packages, or trim levels, and scaled back on less-expensive cars.

“It only makes sense to continue to ratchet up the price to offer more features and increase the size of the vehicle with each redesign,” Drury said.

Car prices near a record high

For new cars, the average transaction price was $47,892 in May, near an all-time high, according to Edmunds. Now, 10% of all vehicles sold cost more than $70,000, up from 3% five years ago.

On the flipside, there are fewer options available at lower price points. Just 0.3% of new vehicles sold cost less than $20,000, compared with 8% five years ago, Edmunds found.

That’s leaving more car shoppers priced out of the new car market, Ryan said.

How to get the best used car for the money

Instead of getting a new car, buyers on a budget are purchasing older cars with more mileage, which means their cost of ownership is going to go up, Ryan said.

“Those that have the least ability to pay are getting the car that’s going to cost the most to own.”

top 2 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The question is how long before cars are the same price as a house right now? Just 10 years ago you could get a car for around $22,000 now that same car is $45,000 and the materials are less expensive then they where then. Don’t get me wrong I understand price increases, been a thing for years. What I don’t understand is why someone would pay up to $75,000 for a truck that cost 35,000 just a 5 years ago when the quality has gone downhill. Why would anyone want a $1300 to $1500 car payment a month for a car that might last 5 years before breaking down somehow. And don’t tell me “it’s the cost of materials and labor.” This is nothing but pure greed. The labor force is making the same amount of money they were 5 years ago, materials may have gone up by 3%-4% over the same period. The only people coming out ahead are the CEO’s and banks.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Just 10 years ago you could get a car for around $22,000 now that same car is $45,000 and the materials are less expensive then they where then. Don’t get me wrong I understand price increases, been a thing for years. What I don’t understand is why someone would pay up to $75,000 for a truck that cost 35,000 just a 5 years ago when the quality has gone downhill.

That's probably fucked up reddit formatting I'll figure it out it out.

Anyway, thats not the case, not even what is cited above.

Users prefer decked out cars. A 75k truck is incredible comfortable, going to have nice leather cooled seats, high end stereo and nice infotainment.

You can still buy a cheap truck. Nobody but fleets do that.

In addition a 22k car, let's take the Impreza for example is an absurdly nice car compared to 10 or 20 years ago. Even the base model has AA/car play, Bluetooth, electric windows, and twice as many airbags. Your comment about quality has zero merit.