proxim2020 wrote:
RPreeb wrote:
You simply can't compare what you paid 10 years ago to pricing today... the world just doesn't work that way.
Dollar for dollar you cannot, but when you look into it deeper then you can see the problem. New vehicle prices are outpacing median incomes around the country. Not only that, but the price increases year over year for some vehicle types, pickup trucks for example, are far outpacing the rate of inflation.
Even the average year over year auto price increase is up. 10 years ago the average year over year price increase averaged about 0.4 percent. Last year's average was nearly 3 percent.
Since the recession wages have mostly remained stagnant while vehicle prices have continued to increase. When you add all of that together, vehicles are becoming too expensive for the average American. Banks are offering more and more long term loans with nearly 1/3 of new loans being between 73-84 months.
When you increase the regulations; such as safety standards requiring more air bags, CAFE standards requiring 10 sp transmissions and turbo chargers, etc. - well those don't come free, you got to pay for those regulations. And as you can see, they ain't cheap like they tried to tell you.
