Along the same lines of this thread.. We've been driving around looking at acreage. We pass by one of the biggest dealers in the area and has a long line of F150's. Out of curiosity looked at how many they had. Almost 300 Ford trucks and 150 are F150's, the cheapest 2024 XL is $40k. I'd guess the highest would be over $100k, didn't look. They have another lot full of Ram trucks, couldn't get a number but they have over 555 Ram's. Has be almost 300 in the lot. I just find those numbers insane. Only a couple are used F150's. Dakota might get a LS swap and drive till the end of days!
The average car loan today is $48,000
- Thread starter odie
- Start date
Yes, I would much prefer buying a home with high interest rates vs a home with low.
High rates can be renegotiated purchase price can not. High rates - lower purchase price. Low rates - higher purchase price. Either the bank gets the money or the seller. Not the purchaser.
You cant fix ignorance.
There’s a video out with her and her husband’s truck.. it’s worse. And she bought both.
Better plan, buy a 1 or 2 year old vehicle and drive it for 10> years. Let the original owner eat the bulk of the depreciation...
Until recently manufacturers have not offered below market financing. Make no mistake, the vehicle manufacturers will do what ever is necessary to move metal.
Chrysler and Nissan is a case study on how to do everything wrong.
Reasonable on this forum is open to interpretation.
A new 2024 base trim Civic has the same purchase price as the amount I paid for a new 2018 Impala LT 3.6 with leather, Bose stereo, etc.
It’s a good thing I like the Impala; buying a new equivalent car now would be painful on our retirement income.
It’s a good thing I like the Impala; buying a new equivalent car now would be painful on our retirement income.
OK-I will bite. What is "reasonable"? And don't say $12,000.00. They are not selling vehicles below what it cost them to put them together.
Less than $10k. And available as a station wagon. With a manual transmission. RWD of course. But has to get 50mpg without being a hybrid or using start/stop or DI. Preferably with a carb and points. And having a sub 9 second 0-60mph time. While being able to tow a house. And brown. Has to be brown. There's no other choice.
Millions will be sold every year. They just have to build it--they will come. If they build it...
1980 Toyota Corrolla was $5208 MSRP in 1980 according to the interweb. They were pretty small cars compared to now. Price is $21,119 in today's dollars.
Current Corrolla MSRP with freight (unsure if the above included that) is $23,310. There is another thread here that says you can't find them for that? But if you could it would seem to be a pretty good deal.
My first "almost new" car was a 1996 cutlass supreme I bought with 50K miles in 1999. From memory I think it was about $11K. That $21,123 in today's dollars. Not sure whats comparable now days, but I could probably find a 3 year old accord or something for that price?
I think the big issue is wages have not kept up. When I bought that car I was 1 year out of college and making todays equivalent of $73K as the most Junior engineer. Do they pay junior engineers that much these days? Maybe after 1 year?
Google AI indicates $51k to $79k, while salary.com indicates average of $77k. But I think that is all the engineering fields, and across the country.
In trying to figure out what a senior engineer makes, not finding a good answer as the results seem all over the place. It probably also gets complicated fast if the company engages in a compensation setup with stocks and bonuses. The indicated base pay might not paint the real picture—while looking at potential total compensation during a downturn may think one makes far more than they actually did.
I think compacts priced over $20K is ridiculous. Compact vehicles are supposed to be economical to own, and it's pretty hard make that case at their current pricing levels...pickup trucks are another example of out of sight prices...who wants to pay $50-60K for a work vehicle? That's a dang house payment...never mind the $100K+ luxury SUVs...insane...
IMHO-I don't think you can bring a vehicle to market to meet the expectations of American consumers and meet all safety standards less the 20 grand.
You can still get a mid level trim truck for $50,000ish grand. I bought one a year ago. But yea-generally trucks are profit heavy for the manufacturers.
1980 Corolla in today's dollars is $21,119, with no airbags or other safety stuff. See my post #174. By your measure they have always been over-priced. Possibly true, but nothings changed.
Pickup trucks are a whole other crazy matter.
After 45 years of R&D in finding production efficiency, you might think cars and trucks might be a getting a bit cheaper? I'm pretty sure a new corolla has far far less man hours in assembly and labor in parts production. 25%?
I guess there is nearly 1/3 more raw materials in a new Corolla, just by weight, an ipad worth of screen and processing power? Some pyrotechnics for air bags, and a bit more engineering, although CAD must make those guys far more efficient too.
Also they now make exterior in 3-4 colours, 2 interior trims?
So while a new car has features that are more complex, it probably has 25% fewer parts, put together by 75% less labor?
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Well, it's not that simple though.
Here is the price of that 1980 Corolla in 2020, pre-pandemic inflation dollars vs to 2024 inflation.
It's quite a dramatic increase for absolutely no value added between the model years.
It's quite obvious that people who bought the 2020 MY Corolla got a much, much better deal than what you can get today for essentially the same car.
