Remember how the conspiracy theorists said the elites don't want you to own a car anymore?
Yeah...
Look at that insane jump!
The average price of a new vehicle in 2016 was $34,000. Now it's $48,000!
Tell me, are you making 41% more since 2016??
Wild times.
More from CNBC:
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.
...
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.
In 2002, a family could buy a brand-new Honda Odyssey minivan starting at $24,690.
Today, it starts at $38,835 for the base trim.
Let's do a few calculations.
In 2016, $24,690 of 2002 money would be worth roughly $33,000. But in 7 short years, we've jumped the inflation shark. What you came to expect in 2015-2020 is dead. That same $24,690 requires $42,000 to equal the same spending power because our politicians played games with our money.
That means that Honda Odyssey is actually competitively priced!
The problem is, your real wages aren't going up at the same rate that prices are. If you made $50,000 a year in 2016, you could buy a new Honda Odyssey for your family for $32,573... and at much lower interest rates. If you had a 5-year, 3% loan, you'd pay $585 a month at sticker price even with no money down.
But in 2023, the exact same product, plus or minus a few new bells and whistles, would cost you $770 with a 7% loan (heaven help you if you buy used and get stuck with 11% or more).
And these are the base trims we're talking about!!
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."
You want my advice?
Buy a used Toyota and hang onto it for life.
