Car prices are scary high
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Anonymous
| Still driving a car I love that I bought new in 2017, has 60K miles, cost $28K financed at like 2% and paid in full by 2020. Although it has a lot of life left and I plan to drive it a while, I am terrified looking at new car prices now. When I bought this car I was choosing between it and a $40K Audi. That same Audi is now $60K and my income certainly hasn’t gone up 50%. My current non-luxury car was in retrospect a great buy but how will I afford to replace it? You can’t buy a decent used car for what I paid for this new. |
Anonymous
| The swamp has destroyed the value of the dollar. Actual inflation using the traditional pre 2000s formula before they changed it to the manipulated bs formula is twice the cpi. When they release cpi figures double it to understand reality. When they say 3.5 percent it is really 7 percent. This underlying reality is why the country is miserable. The consequences will be dire in that the best case scenario is decades of stagflation politically. The only other roads are way worse. |
Anonymous
| I agree, OP. Not sure what direction to go in, because I refuse to pay current vehicle prices. I got a deal on my last car, but it took a lot of work to locate a deal under $30K, 10 years ago. The same car today is running around $40K and no deals out there. |
Anonymous
| The world has gone mad. I don't understand where everyone is conjuring up all this money from. We do alright, but OMG. |
Anonymous
|
I know leasing is an unpopular idea on this forum, but I just got an upgrade on a lux suv, same make and model, better equipped lots of extras, new model year, for less monthly than what I leased previously. It’s actually the same monthly payment as I was making back in 2014. I don’t know why that is, maybe there are more dealer incentives on leased cars, so they have more wiggle room? I don’t bother to play around with calculating residuals etc etc… I basically just tell them I want this car, equipped this way, in this color, and I’m not going to pay you more.
Also there are some really good incentives on other cars right now, 0.9% interest rates on purchased vehicles, etc. There are a couple YouTube channels that track dealer inventory. The ones with climbing inventory are making some sweet deals on a purchased car. So maybe shop around. |
Anonymous
| Maybe the solution is not buy an Audi. I bought a new Hyundai SUV last year for about $27k. Probably not the car OP wants, but it has a ton of safety features that you have to pay extra for in some other cars and I’m happy. |
Anonymous
+1. Subarus are also good alternatives -- safe, reliable, good family cars. I've also driven Toyotas and liked them. Luxury vehicles are marketed to people with cash to burn. Top earners in this country are sitting on houses they bought or refinanced at 2%, that have appreciated 20-30% since they bought. They've seen salary increases and record bonuses. The luxury car market is competing for their dollars and also know they'll pay extra for prestige/luxury. You can simply not participate in that game, buy a practical car that will last and get you from point A to point B, and move on with your life. I actually expect we'll see some additional lower cost market entries in the next few years because as the industry has shifted to larger, more expensive cars, and the used market's gotten tighter, there is a larger underserved market segment for people who need a car for less than 30k, or even less than 25k. Will these be sexy, fancy cars? No. But they will be cars. |
Anonymous
Hyundai costs 50% more too. |
Anonymous
Decent used cars cost $20K now (which is too high). |
Anonymous
| The new car I want is $26k. My 'old' five year old low mileage paid off car sells for $20k. I may go for it in May. The old car is just too slow. It's Honda. I would never buy European car. Plenty of cheaper new cars out there. |
Anonymous
It’s nuts. I was looking at Chevys the other day and was floored. The same thing. |
Anonymous
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It's because they really aren't cars now.
They're computers. |
Anonymous
| I'm about to buy my 3rd Audi (current one is 7 yrs old) and similar models have not increased by 50% in that time. |
Anonymous
Same and no interest rate deals, either. |
Anonymous
+1. I am currently in a 10 year old car we would normally have replaced a few years ago. Currently discussing how much $ we want to put into to keep it going. It’s an Odyssey with no issues other than normal maintenance/wear and tear. |