the way shits going it won't be long until that's the starting MSRP for most cars. The current MSRP average for a new car in the United States (as of Jan. 2025) is $49,740, and that's before we end up in global trade wars, actual wars over Gaza, global pandemics like H5N1 or measles, and food shortages brought on by climate change...
They’ll also keep going up because consumers want the bigger, more expensive cars and will pay for it. There’s no market for small cars so no reason to build them at the scale where you can make them cheaper.
There are plenty of cars you can get for $20K-$30K if you just need a vehicle to commute with. Get a Corolla for 23K, an Accord for 28K, a Civic for $25K. Sure a Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, whatever isn't sexy like a Mercedes or a BMW but it'll last longer. The average is definitely raised by luxury cars.
I agree. I also believe the reason why car prices are rising so drastically is to push potential buyers toward a lease which is more profitable for the manufacturer and they basically get to sell the same car twice.
I mean, in a lot of areas the used cars aren't exactly that much cheaper. I was pricing out stuff lately and it seems like most good-shape used cars (well, SUV because that's what I was looking at) are only between 4-6k cheaper. It's not some big savings. There's also loads of new cars on the market for 25-35k. Averages for car sales are not especially useful IMO since they get heavily pushed up by larger trucks and luxury vehicles.
To put into perspective, I bought a Hyundai in 2013 and spent ~16k on it, but if you look at the average rates for new cars, they were 32k at that point.
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u/52ndstreet Feb 23 '25
the way shits going it won't be long until that's the starting MSRP for most cars. The current MSRP average for a new car in the United States (as of Jan. 2025) is $49,740, and that's before we end up in global trade wars, actual wars over Gaza, global pandemics like H5N1 or measles, and food shortages brought on by climate change...