The $20k Car (Culture Notes) (OT)

I had to un-stick the sticky. For some reason, sticky posts make traffic drop. I guess too many people look at the same headline on their devices and just assume that nothing new has been posted.

Just a little note in passing. In 1976, when I was 19, my Aunt Anne, who was an heiress but frugal most of her life, treated herself to an extravagance: a top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz. It was a 450SEL, and it cost $20,000.

A few years later, my father decided to buy my mother a Mercedes like her sister's as a birthday or maybe anniversary present. I went to the dealer with him. He owned a 1971 Buick Electra 225, and he was fond of saying, when I asked if I could borrow the Buick, "son, that's a six-thousand-dollar automobile." As in, too expensive to risk with the likes of you. A Cadillac, which was what my father really wanted but which I had talked him out of because the writers in Car & Driver scorned them, was the only American car you could buy that was more expensive. When we went to the Mercedes dealership, my father asked to look at the second most expensive Mercedes, one down from the top of the line. My father did not approve of foreign cars, I should add, and he was frugal too, having been born in the year of the Crash with parents who were scarred by the Depression. He looked the car over on the showroom floor, skeptically, and asked his favorite question, "how much?"

I don't know what he expected.

"You won't spend more than twenty thousand dollars," the salesman answered. To express his high dudgeon at that, my father ostentatiously said not one more single word to the salesman, and walked out of the dealership in silence. He expressed his indignation rather more floridly at me on the ride home. My mother did not get her new car.

Inflation is a thing
An article at The Street, by Jena Greene, posted yesterday, points out that now, there are only three new cars left in America that sell for less than $20,000. She names them:

• Kia Rio subcompact sedan: starting at $17,875
• Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback: starting at $17,340
• Nissan Versa sedan: starting at $16,925

I read once, a long time ago, that peoples' sense of the value of money tends to calcify at about age 50. We're mentally flexible up till that point, but afterwards it increasingly starts to seem like everything costs too much. I don't know if that's true.

I'm off this morning to Syracuse, to help my neighbor and her daughter pick up the daughter's new Honda. I don't know what the sticker price is, but I do know it costs more in nominal dollars than my Aunt's fancy Mercedes. Time marches on.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Gary: "I don't know if it's true that a person's perception of the value of money tends to calcify at age 50. I do know that inflation of late has been very real. I have a phrase to describe the phenomenon: Everything Everywhere Twice as Much."

garlo: "According to the St. Louis Fed, median sales price of house sold in the US back in Q4 1976 was only $45,500. That is less than 1/10 of sales price by the end of Q4 2022. So I guess car price inflation is not as bad as that of housing cost? Thanks for your efforts to keep this educational site running. Much appreciated."

Stan B.: "I distinctly remember a professor in my second year of college complaining (circa '74) that "there's absolutely no way you can get a new car for less than $2,000!" That afternoon at the school library I saw a print ad for a new Beetle- '$1,998.'"

Mike replies: I took my first driving test days after my 16th birthday, but I had already been saving up for a car for two years at that time. My dad had said he would put me on his insurance, which in those days made insurance for an additional car cheap. As soon as I had enough for a decent used car, my dad changed his conditions—he specified that he would only add me to his insurance if I bought a new car (he didn't actually want me to succeed). So I buckled down and started saving for that sub-$2k VW. But that was the early '70s, one of the times in history when the prices of cars skyrocketed. Every time I started to get close to the cost of the cheapest new car, the cost of it would go up. My memory for numbers is poor, but I believe by the time I had enough for that VW, the cheapest car in America cost $3,600. Maybe it was $3,300. I believe it was a Toyota. Anyway the target kept moving, and I eventually gave up. I ended up not getting my first new car until I was about 30. I believe it cost about $7,500.

Lois Elling: "My parents were both pretty frugal, having lived through the depression. My dad had a good-paying job that he loved, but always bought used cars and worked on them himself. Until he retired, that is, when he took my mom to a Lincoln dealership. Being six feet tall, he wanted something with plenty of headroom. I heard later that she asked him while they were there, 'Herman, do you realize where you are?' Although he was thrifty, he also knew when it was important to spend money for quality—or comfort. He did come home with that Lincoln."

Lawrence Plummer: "But, but, a $20K car in 1976 is $108,574.10 in 2023 dollars!!!"

JH: "I've mentioned before that I've owned a lot of cars in 60 years of driving, so below is the list of all I can remember and the prices on the ones I bought new.

"But first, comments on some car prices. Back in the mid-1960s my brother ran a dealership in Nashville that sold Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes Benz, Ferrari and a few other European brands you never heard of like Borgward. I do remember some of the prices.

"Around 1963–4, an Alfa Giulietta Spider cost ~$3,000 and a Porsche 356 closer to $4,000. The first Porsche 911's were around $6,000 but the 912 came soon after at under $5,000.

"I think the Mercedes sedans were priced at ~$4,000–6,000 except for the 600 series. One year my brother sold two 600s to executives at Monument Records, both over $20,000. Coupes and convertibles of the 300 series were in the $12–15,000 range.
Ferraris were around $14,000 and my brother sold several each year, one to the son of an oilman who went to Vanderbilt U down the street—his father gave him one each year when he made Dean's List!

"In those days, auto transporter companies were reluctant to carry cars over about $10,000 so we often got a trip to pick them up at the docks and drive them back to Nashville. I drove a $14,000 Mercedes coupe from Mobile back to Nashville once—nearly got thrown in jail in Tupelo, Mississippi, but fortunately had enough cash to pay off the local cops and Justice of the Peace late on Saturday night.

"JH Cars (in order of acquisition), starting when I got my drivers license in 1962. Prices are approximate—memory fades...."

'55 Dodge two-door HT (family)
'57 Ford two-door Coupe (family)
'57 Mercedes Benz 219 long wheelbase/limo
'59/'61 Fiat 1200 (counts twice—became a '61 after being totaled and rebuilt in a donor body)
'62 Alfa Spider (co-owned with brother, raced, sold in ’68, recovered in '93, raced for nine more years)
'67 Alfa TI Sedan traded for first Duetto in 1971 ($2,421—dealer cost—college graduation present from Father)
'68 Plymouth Sedan (company car)
'67 Alfa Duetto
'69 Alfa GT Jr 1,300
'69 VW Type 3 SW
My wife bought a new VW Super Beetle in 1970 for $1,700.
'71 Chevy Monte Carlo (company car) $4,000
'68 VW Bus
'71 Alfa GTV (used, < one year old) $3,000 (sold for $4,500 three months later)
'68 Rover TC2000
'73 Mazda RX-2 (first rotary car in New England) $3,100
'60 GSM Delta w/Holbay Ford 105E
'67 Alfa Duetto (different one)
'75 Ford Granada $4,000
'79 Dodge Omni. $3,000
'84 Pontiac 6000 SW (company car) (leased)
'63 Alfa Giulia Spider $1300, sold several years later for $20,000
'86 Plymouth Horizon (totaled by 240Z) $4,000
'89 Chevy Beretta
'74 Alfa Giulia Sprint GTV
'59 Alfa Giulietta Sprint (racecar) (totalled at Mosport, '93)
'59 Alfa Giulietta Sprint (parts car)
'89 Mercury Sable Sedan (company car) $7,000
'84 Corvette
'70 Zink C4 FV (racecar)
'91 Jeep Cherokee (company car) Tow car too $9,000
'62 Alfa Spider (second time around—see above, sold in 2002 and is still being raced in SCCA and vintage—you would not believe what racing it for 12 years cost!)
'94 Jeep Grand Cherokee (company car, tow car too) $18,000 (leased)
'59 Alfa Spider (racecar)
'73 Alfa GTV
'91 Mazda Miata (used—three years old) $10,000
'57 Alfa Spider w/Pininfarina Hardtop (sreet/racecar) $8,000, sold five years later for $22,000
'97 Jeep Cherokee (company car) Tow car too. $16,000 (leased)
'99 Jeep Grand Cherokee (company car) Tow car too $24,000 (leased)
'59 Alfa Giulietta Sprint (racecar, sold unfinished)
'01 BMW 330i $42,000
'02 MINI $23,000
'99 BMW 323Ci
'04 Ford F150 $20,000
'04 BMW M3 SMG $54,000 (sold for $47,000 after 18 months and thousands of track miles)
'05 Nissan Maxima $30,000
'94 Mazda Miata
'06 MINI John Cooper Works $35,000 (broke even when sold 18 months later)
'08 Nissan Frontier $20,000
'09 Ford F150 $24,000
'12 BMW 128i $38,000 (leased)
'11 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI Diesel $24,000
'16 Mini Cooper $25,000 (leased)
'16 Honda CR-V $27,000
'21 Honda CR-V $31,000"

Mike replies: Impressive. My life-list is as follows:

• Ancient 1960s rusted-out Toyota, late '70s. A Dartmouth assistant professor flat-out cheated me when he sold it to me. He told me numerous flagrant lies, for instance, that the radio worked when it was simply a faceplate with nothing behind it. I had various misadventures in it (some of which were actual crimes, I'm sorry to admit—I drove it without registration or valid plates). Abandoned in a fraternity parking lot where a tree fell on it.
• New Mazda 323, maybe an '87? Can't remember the year. My mother paid for half of it as a graduation present from art school. Kept it for nine years.
• Dodge Neon "Sport," bought because David E. Davis named it "Car of the Year" at one of his magazines. Worst car I ever bought. It ran well and was nice and tight when new, but after three years it had lost performance badly and was as loose, rattley, and rickety as a 15-year-old car. There's a good reason that you almost never see old Neons on the road today.
• Ford Escort ZX2. Bought new. Kept it for nine years. Mine was a great little car, although other owners did not have good experiences (I always asked other owners when the opportunity presented itself.
• Used Mercedes C-Class. Drove it for two years and it lost $11k in value! The maintenance expenses cured me of any further GAS (CAS?) for German cars.
• Used 2001 Mazda Miata, my only-ever second car. Kept it for three years while I had the Mercedes and the RAV4 and sold it to a TOP reader to help finance my move to the Finger Lakes—which was the exact wrong move, because it would have been perfect for the roads around here, and in fact you see a lot of them here in the summer.
• 2012 Toyota RAV4, bought new on model closeout on 0% financing. Most expensive car I ever bought at $26k. I lost a lot of money on this one too, because I set myself up for five years of ownership and bailed on it early because I missed having a stick shift. It's still the only SUV I've ever driven—not owned, driven—apart from a couple of dealer test drives.
• 2014 Acura ILX 2.4, which has the same drivetrain as the 2014 Honda Civic Si. Nine years later it's still going strong at 114,000 miles, and I intend to try to keep it at least until 200k miles. It's the only car I've liked better when it's older than I liked it when it was new.

So that's eight cars in 50 years of driving. The Mercedes, Miata, and RAV4 were purchased in an orgy of self-indulgence during the years that TOP was making a lot of money. After years of pent-up desire I went wild!

Dave Levingston: "Now at least you can say that you've written your AutoBiography. (Sorry...someone had to say it.)"

Comments

[Benjamin Marks]

In general, I am not a "car guy." I don't know how to define that term. . . I have a twinge of envy when I see a zippy little Miyata on the roads around my home, even though I know I have no practical use for the thing. But I don't lust after cars the way I have lusted after cameras -- totally different amount of mind-share used for the two. And most of the cars I have owned, I have bought used with an eye to function, not aesthetics, and I don't see that changing. I did buy one new car when I was 36, for $20K. The most recent used car I bought (this year) was well in excess of that. Still, this year's new (to me) car was half the price of a brand new one of the same model. Inflation is no joke.

[Jeff]

The first car I bought, in 1970, was a pretty 1968 Chevy Camaro convertible, white with blue top, front stripe and interior, for $1600. In 1977, my dream purchase was the BMW 2002tii, but $6300 was out of reach based on my new job at that time. Instead, I settled for the $4700 Toyota Celica GT. It wasn’t until 1982 that I finally was able to buy a small new BMW, the 320i, which at that time pushed $20k fully loaded. Mine was not that expensive, but I distinctly remembered the the seemingly, ridiculously, low price tag for the Bimmer I missed out on just 5 years earlier.

[Michael Casey]

But wow, was that 450 SEL a beautiful car!

[Jim Arthur]

I wasn’t aware that Mitsubishi still sold cars in the U.S. When I looked up the Mirage in my 2023 Consumer Reports car issue I found it had a road-test score of 35 out of 100 and CR referred to it as tinny, clumsy and depressing. I don’t recall ever reading such a negative review in CR before. For a few bucks more you can pick up the Ford Maverick Hybrid pickup which is a CR top pick and starts at 22,500. It’s nice to see that there are still a few affordable options out there. I read the other day that the average price of a new car in the U.S. is just north of $48K but I’m guessing this is due to the folks who spend $100K on a full size pickup skewing the average.

[ASW]

I won't be 50 for quite a while, but it seems like my sense of money got stuck when I was growing up on a rural Missouri farm in the 1980s-90s. We didn't have much, and most of what we did have was used or hand-me-down within our large family (my dad had 12 siblings, by mom had six, all living within a 30-40 mile radius). My grandparents suffered through rough times during the Great Depression and that was definitely passed on to their kids and grandkids. I have no memory of buying things with my own money until college, simply because until that point I never had any money. Don't get me wrong, I worked all the time, but it was just part of life and my pay was getting a bed and being fed.

One of the most common things my wife says to me (just after "You're wonderful!") is "Things cost money." This occurs whenever I scoff at the price of groceries, or pants, or electricity, or dog food, or whatever.

So, I just keep muddling along in my thrift store clothes, scratching my head in wonder at the crazy world around me. I've never had a new car. The computer I read this blog on is 13 years old but works fine after OS, RAM, and SSD upgrades. My camera (Nikon D700, bought used) is even older, and most of my lenses were also bought used. When we closed on our house a few years ago my wife just clubbed me over the head and manipulated my hand to put an "X" on the signature line of the paperwork. I'm joking. Maybe. Everyone is happy this way.

[Keith Cartmell]

Lots of things start calcifying about 50, but that's neither here nor there. Cars are stupid expensive just now, beyond the normal steadily increasing prices. Last year we had a Honda dealer offering to buy our 4 or 4 5 year old Fit for more than we paid for it, even with not quite 100K on the odometer. Then we thought about how we'd replace it, and that ended the conversation.
For a while, cars were getting significantly better. I remember fuel injection and airbags as being derided as too expensive to ever go in a family car, and I doubt you can buy a car without them now. Cars are much safer now, though the drivers compensate by driving more dangerously.
But I wonder if cars have tipped over into decadence. In one sense they have become an appliance, nearly indistinguishable from one another, differing only in subtle luxury details. There doesn't seem to be a way to make them better at being a machine for driving, and in fact, the latest advances take the driving part away from the human.

[Chris Bertram]

Then there's the $1000 car ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngbpvjN-K0s

[robert e]

I have a slightly older friend who shakes his head at the obscenely high price of new vinyl records these days, but in reality LP prices seem to have barely kept up with inflation, despite the market having shrunk drastically, production capacity even more drastically, and material costs like paper having skyrocketed. And from what little I've seen first hand, quality is higher--there was some really crappy product 40-50 years ago.

But cars are a special case. It seems car prices have shot upward in the last 5-6 years thanks to a heap of factors on top of inflation.

[Christer Almqvist]

Dad, can I borrow your car, please. I'm old enough.

No. The car is not old enough.

[xf mj]

Small suggestion: maybe just remind us of the no-longer-sticky post with a brief link and blurb at the start of each new post? Has the same purpose and shouldn't cause too much interference. Perhaps it compromises some of the archival aspects of each new post, but I wouldn't think too much.

[Mike Plews]

Just went to an inflation calculator and punched in the cost of a Nikon F2 Photomic at $1040.
In todays money to comes to just over $7000 which is close to the price of a Z9.
I ended up buying a 1973 vintage F2 in 1978 for $250 gently used.
I still have it and it still works fine at 50 years of age and it is still a relevant photographic tool
As for a Z9 who knows?.

[DavidB]

We're looking at cars now. It's surprising that 1 to 3 year old used models are almost as expensive as the new models. The difference is you can drive the used model off the lot today. A new model may take weeks to month for delivery.

[David Brown]

And we have mostly over-50 congresspersons deciding how we should fight inflation! 20 years ago I paid $40K for a 2 year old BMW. 4 years ago, I paid the same for a new Subaru! I'm 72 and have mixed feelings about the next car.

[Bob G.]

Mike,
Camera value might have the same effect, but at least for the new digital ones, I generally equate them with buying a good personal computer… from Apple.

[Dave]

The federal pollution controls, increasing luxury features and the popularity of SUVs and trucks have made cars more expensive and a smaller piece of the pie.

I remember my uncle telling me that his dad was flabbergasted when he told him he was buying a '66 Corvette and it cost more than $4,000. He did make that money back when he sold it. :>)

Nowadays, the Corvette is practically a bargain, compared to foreign sports cars. Pickup trucks can cost more than $100,000 when loaded with options.

Times sure have changed from bare bones pickup trucks without power steering or radios.

Those three cars that cost less than $20,000 are probably miserable to drive. (Remember the Yugo?)

My current car is the best Impala GM has made in at least twenty years. "That consumer magazine" rated it the best family car. So, naturally, GM barely advertised it on TV commercials and retired it. I guess I'll have to be vigilant with the inevitable rust and keep a stash for a rebuilt engine, once that time comes.

[Rant begins] Now, the politicians are pushing electric cars despite the hazardous non-recyclable materials in the batteries. NY state is going to ban natural gas from most new buildings. Where do they think they will get the extra electricity from? Coal-fired power plants? (Only China is building those.) Maybe a million of those non-recyclable windmills that are eyesores and kill plenty of birds. [Rant over]

I'm glad I'm not a young person.

[James Bullard]

There's a simple reason for the "calcification" of price perception you mention. When we are young we tend to fall into the lower earning brackets and increase our earnings as we age through a combination of raises, promotions, and bonuses At some point though, around age 50 perhaps, we top out and the upward progression slows, often not keeping up with inflation. Some us just get tired of "chasing a buck". Then we retire and the upward progression on pension for many of us stops. In the first 5 years of my retirement on a state pension, I lost over $10K in purchasing power to high inflation and that has likely doubled since. Social Security keeps pace pretty well with inflation but by design is meager. It was always intended to keep seniors from abject poverty, not to make them well off. One of the reasons that changes have been proposed to "expand" SS is that at its minimum benefit level, SS isn't even above the poverty level. So yeah, everything is too expensive from my perspective.

[Greg]

Related: https://robservatory.com/mazdas-magnificent-miniaturized-marvel-mx-5-miata/ Miata price and size evolution.

[Nick]

FWIW, based on the CPI, your grandma payed about k$151 in 2023 money for that car. Even in real dollars, that's more than all the cars I've ever purchased (5 in total, 3 bought new) put together!

[Daniel]

New vehicles. Try getting one with a Front Bench type seat. Instead of the shoehorned in bucket with center console that traps you in claustrophobia hell.
A good bench seat allows you to stretch out from time to time if you want. Your girl/boy friend or partner can sit next to you. Your dog can lay there with head on your leg while he naps and you drive.

In some you can even lay down for a nap.

Room to roam and relax. Easy to get to the passenger window for photographing out that side, something impossible in the bucket seat trap.

Would love a SUV type but now Pickup trucks are pretty much it. Still a few full size cars come that way but they aren't too good on dirt roads and farm fields.

[Paul]

My last "new" car/truck was a 1998 Chevrolet Silverado Ext cab, 6.5FT bed with all the basics and manual transmission for 19.5K. That same truck today obviously looks different and is over 3X more money. Insane dollars regardless of the "technology". The sheet metal is no where near as good. I am quite sure I will never purchase a new car or truck again.

[Howard]

Long story shortened.
My dad bought my mom a Cadillac typically every four years. Late 1970's he decided that a diesel Oldsmobile was a better choice during the fuel crisis so he purchased a diesel Toronado (basically a Caddy). After six months he noticed it leaking oil so he took it to the dealer who basically blew him off and said it was normal- this went on for months. After about a year the engine blew (lack of oil)and he had it towed to the dealer where he fought with GM for 6 months to have it repaired at their cost. After the settlement, they split the cost 50/50, he picked it up from the dealer and drove it right to a Mercedes dealer and bought a new 1980 300 SD Turbo diesel for $30k- they loved it and drove it for years. Meanwhile, several years after GM was involved in a class action lawsuit where they were sued for using engines originally designed for gasoline as diesels.

[Richard Alan Fox]

My first new car was a Datsun B-210 it was a two door with a four speed, $2710.
My first car I purchased was a used 1960 Jaguar Mark 2 3.8 sedan, white with red leather and wire wheels in 1968 this went for $600. Of course the automatic transmission had issues and the car was sold before long.

[Mike Ferron]

So you unstick the sticky with a car post to increase traffic then mention passing. Subliminal code in motion here I think.

[Eric Rose]

I had a Benz 450SEL, Euro edition and it was one hell of an automobile! To bad your dad was so cheap, err frugal, ya that's right, frugal ;)

I bought my then wife a Benz 300SD with a paint job that closely matched her hair. The car lasted longer than she did.

[Bob Johnston]

Here in the UK the sale of petrol and diesel cars will be banned by 2030. Currently the cheapest Golf sized electric cars are priced around £40000. I am retired and that is way beyond my means. I guess they want us all on the woefully inadequate public transport system. I know that it's necessary, but no I don't think that I am stuck in the past.

[Timothy Auger]

My first car cost £10. None of my next three cars cost more than £100. They ranged in date from 1929 to 1956. They seemed expensive enough to impoverished me at the time ... late 1960s. Now when I read of cameras costing literally thousands of £££/$$$, I can't clear my brain of perceptions of the value of money that were drilled into me all those years ago. Now a mainstream APSC or FF camera costs more than an new executive car did when I was a student. Which is why I am a bit tight-fisted when it comes to gear.

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

A roll of Kodak Ektachrome E100G in 120 is now selling for $32.98 in Canada.

This used to be the price of a 5-pack in the early 2000s. I'm not 50 yet, but my wallet is too calcified to open for this.

[Henrik Lund]

Americans are so funny. Kia Rio in Denmark: starting at $33.000 ... Petrol: abt. $8.5 per gallon ...

[Keith McKibben]

I do this comparison every now and then, and I have decided that you actually get more car for the money today. You can get a new Honda Civic for less than $24K, or a Corolla for less than $22K. Either is a much better car than the comparably priced Mercedes from 40 years ago - the 190E at $24K. Either is probably also a better car than the 1983 Mercedes 380S, which was priced at $48K. Inflation might not mean what you think it does, and I for one am glad to live at a time when so many quality goods are so inexpensive.

[John Carini]

The Chevy Bolt EV starts at $26500 and qualifies for the full $7500 US tax credit. Good luck getting one at that price, but it's a great value even with a few upgrades.

[Kye Wood]

My wife and I always get our American dog food (we live in Australia) on sale if we can. Saving maybe $20 a bag. We'll go to some considerable effort to achieve that.

But if there's a house or car expense running into the thousands, we just shrug and go "Oh well, it just is".

The same applied when my sister in laws dog needed stomach surgery. She didn't have the cash, so we covered the extra 5K as a gift. Never considered for a moment any other course of action.

[Steve Rosenblum]

I bought my first new car when I graduated from college in 1974. It was a red Fiat 128 sedan and it cost $3,000 which, according to an online inflation calculator, is equal to $18,367.30 now. The three cars listed in your post are very close to but less than that number. It would appear that the relative cost of a “cheap” entry level car has remained pretty constant over the last 50 years. However, I would say that the value for that money has increased substantially due to marked improvements in quality. I had to tune my Fiat every 12,000 miles and it rusted through in 5 years despite the additional rustproofing I paid for. Cars now don’t need new spark plugs for 100,000 miles and tune ups are ancient history. Gas mileage for equivalent cars now is easily triple what I got in that Fiat.

[Joe Kadhi]

My first, and only, new car was a 1998 Saturn SW2 small GM-made station wagon. Cost, $15,600 complete with good dual overhead cam engine, sports suspension, AC, 5-speed stick shift, 36 mpg on the highway, and a good stereo system.

It was generally very reliable, never had any rusting problems, and I gave it away only two years ago with 343,000 hard Alaska miles on it and still counting. I still see it around town. Excellent vehicle and good on snow and ice. Easy to repair using standard high-grade parts like. Monroe struts, etc and the dealer actually tried to help you rather than cheat you.

No wonder Saturn was shut down by GM. We’re still driving two other Saturn Vue SUVs, both bought as reconstructs from someone we knew and trusted. They’re still running well,

[Dave Levingston]

Back in high school in the 1960s my two fantasy cars were the Porsche 911 and the Shelby 289 Cobra. They were each priced at the absurdly out of reach $5000.

And, now at least you can say that you've written your AutoBiography. (Sorry...someone had to say it.)

[Benjamin Marks]

In response to the mention of the Mitsubishi Mirage by @Jim Arthur above. My first car was one of those -- a standard shift model that I bought used with about 96,000 miles on the odometer with the aid of an avuncular cousin who is a machine guy. The thing ran like a top -- completely without issue for three years until I had to sell it (moved to a city with perfectly good mass transit). We called it the "Sherpa" because it hauled us and our stuff around with such dependability. I like Consumer Reports. . . but occasionally they are just wrong, or one's specific example outperforms the mean.

[Albert Smith]

Hey Mike, maybe late but just one more data point from Florida.

Today, May 6th, I just bought a 2023 Nissan Sentra for cash for $27,800. The cost on the window was in the $25,000 range, and then they add the Florida sales tax.

The 14 year old Nissan Altima that I've also bought new in 2009 for $18,000 died today and I said I'd drive it until the wheels fell off. Mission accomplished.

This new car is more computer than car and will have a steep learning curve for an old guy like me, buy if history is consistent, I'll need $50,000 for my next car.

[scott kirkpatrick]

OK, I'll join the auto life list crowd. (There are other life lists that have melted into the mists of memory, but cars stand out better.) Back in the day, we could start driving on our sixteenth birthday (unless you lived on a farm where driving started earlier) and I did. I did some damage to our '55 Ford station wagon determining its acceleration abilities, so I spent my summer earnings on a lovely '52 two-toned Ford hardtop, decorated with two chromed spotlights, police interceptor style, and installed seat belts, which were entirely optional at the time. My parents insulated me from the realities of the expense of insurance. Unfortunately, it failed to get me all the way home from a Junior prom, burying its nose in some parked car. But the seat belts helped. That was followed by a '50 Chevvy coupe, with a GMC 6 engine driving a '39 LaSalle transmission with a massive stick shift. No more automatic transmissions for many years after that. I went off to college in a spanking new '59 Ford Anglia, paid for again by working at the Ford dealership. When I finished college, I picked up a Volvo 544 (the one that had the lines of a '44 Ford, but slightly reduced in size -- remember the Ken Josephson picture?) in Europe, delivered it to Goteborg to be shipped to Boston and drove it for the next 12 years, crossing the country twice, until it rusted out. A lovely redhead that I tried to impress while driving her home from her college to Delaware told her friends later that it looked like an upside down bathtub, but I loved that car for its general ruggedness. As it began to die, I bought an empty Dodge van that a cleaning company had worn out, painted an orange racing stripe around its middle and used it as a camper for long trips. Then, with new wife (and a house in the lovely upper Westchester woods costing $18,000!) we slowly acquired two early Subarus, a coupe and a station wagon. The station wagon burned up in the hands of its servicing dealer and was replaced by a boxy Isuzu station wagon that carried a lot and lasted quite a long time. The final addition was a Ford Probe GT, the most powerful and best-handling car I ever owned. Wife #2 (we got together in the late 1980s) didn't care much for manual transmissions so we drove a brief series of family handmedown sedans before acquiring, in Israel, a Mazda Premacy, predecessor of the Mazda 5. After a sabbatical in the US in 2007-8 (Ford Explorer) we got an actual Mazda 5, replaced a few years ago by a Hyundai Tucson. Both were excellent cars. Moving back to Boston during the carless days of the pandemic, I was able to get a new Subaru Forester at an inflated price of about $40,000, also proving to be trouble-free. But our block now has two Mustang-E (it's actually an SUV-E) and I expect to go in that direction about 5 years from now, when charging on the road is no longer just a dream.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I grew up in a Mercedes family. We picked up a 180 at the factory in Stuttgart in 1958, no idea what that cost (I was 4 at the time), drove it in Europe for a year and then brought it to the US (I hear there were huge benefits to importing it as a used car). Then did that again in 1966 (a 200 that time; the bottom model both times). My parents kept that car until 1984, when inability to get premium leaded gasoline finally convinced them to sell it to an enthusiast. (They actually took it back over to Europe in 1973, they spent that year over there too but couldn't afford a new car that trip.)

Those models weren't actually that expensive, certainly not for what you got.

I had no idea what "car trouble" was as a child. These things never broke. The regular maintenance schedule was expensive (and looked kind of like an airplane engine maintenance schedule). Ran up through at least replacing the head gasket on time or mileage (not waiting until something failed).

[Anthony]

Never understood spending a fortune on car after car after car by people pretending to be rich. Got a VW Rabbit in 1972 and eventually replaced it with a Volvo 745 GLE Station Wagon in 1990 and used it until I stopped driving, but amazingly still runs and sits in our driveway with the battery on a trickle charger. Our state now designates it as a 'classic car.'

[Steve]

Re: car price inflation not being as bad as housing inflation:

Housing inflation tends to be worse than almost any other good because there hasn't been much labor productivity efficiency / automation improvements in our lifetimes, and the land inflation component of housing goes up faster than goods inflation.

Cameras/cars/computers/electronics/etc are built in factories, with lots of robots and Kaizen. Plus, components and subassemblies have moved to lower labor-cost regions over time.

Houses, not so much.