[kotaKat]

No, the average is high because we've lost a lot of our cheap 'new' cars.

10 years ago you could go onto a lot and buy a brand new Dodge Dart for around $17,000.

Today, the cheapest Dodge is a Hornet SUV/CUV for $31,000+; the cheapest Jeep is $27,000.

We just don't have new car choices under $20k -- we're all forced into extremely high loans for 'new', or extremely screwed rates for 'used'.

[chneu]

Because people buy them.

Americans are really dumb and do next to no research on most purchases. I know several people who think that's a waste of time. The best that a lot of folks can do is a YouTube video.

Throw money at the problem. Learn nothing. Complain when things go bad.

That's what a ton of Americans do now and it's wild seeing it as often as I do. There was recently that Ars article that looked at a study showing how bad anti-intellectualism in this country has become. Being dumb is now a sort of prideful thing for a lot of Americans.

It's real weird.

[tzs]

> 10 years ago you could go onto a lot and buy a brand new Dodge Dart for around $17,000.

$17k 10 years ago is $23k today. That's under the MSRP of a 2026 Toyota Corolla.

In constant dollars car prices for comparable trim levels of similar styles of car have actually been have been pretty steady for the last 40 years or so. The average car is a lot more expensive now in constant dollars because the mix of cars bought has shifted significantly toward larger and more luxurious cars.

For example when I was looking for a new car earlier this year I looked at the Honda Civic. When I compared the price to my last Civic, which I bought in 1989, it was about the same after correcting for inflation since 1989. I also looked at the CR-V, and when comparing to my 2006 CR-V today's CR-V after correction for inflation since 2006 is actually about 5-10% cheaper.