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.”
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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.
Makes sense that “[new] car shoppers like luxury” as the people with the budget for a cheap car before the pandemic are no longer car shoppers.
I wonder how this looks when adjusted for inflation. It sucks that our wages haven’t kept pace, but everything has gotten expensive. Worth keeping in my total cost of ownership too though. There’s a few EVs that can be had right around $30K, and as long as you can charge at home, for most people they’ll be vastly cheaper over time than an ICEV.
I’ve had mine for a little over a year, have driven 20K miles, and have saved about $3500 compared to a similarly specced gas car
I’m considering saving up for years and buying a Miata as my last car ever. My current car which is an Opel Corsa B from 94 is about to die.
This isn’t just a problem with new cars either, used car prices have jumped too. I have a mid 2000s hatchback and was considering buying something used but slightly newer in 2019. Then covid hit and used car prices skyrocketed. So instead of buying a newer car, I’m just fixing everything on my old one.
I’ve only had one new car in my life, a 2008. The way it’s looking that will be the last new car I buy. Used is a much better value now for the most part.
