Topic: Car costs...then and now

[sailor723]

I was wondering if car prices (adjusted for inflation) have changed much over the last 20-30 years. My guess would be that today's cars cost more given all the features, safety systems and technology that didn't exist in yesterday's cars.

However, the thread on the MB wagon got me thinking about our old '93 300E sedan (3.2L 217 HP six RWD). If I remember correctly it was around 63k with just a few things that were options at the time (sunroof,heated seats.headlight washers come to mind). A check with the Bank of Canada inflation calculator shows that 63K then equals about 87K in today's dollars. A 2011 E350 4matic lists for 62,900 base.

So,am I wrong and cars have actually gotten cheaper or is the MB example just an anomaly?

[gotak]

They have gotten cheaper by quite a bit in the past year. Lots of incentives etc. My old Sentra SE R went from featureless to being able to add navi for 700 bucks and added many other features as well and it cost a bit less now then when we got it.

I also feel that maybe over the past 20-30 years as the population grows in Canada the prices have gone down as manufacturer can make less per car and still turn a good profit. Plus there's also more competition now with viable korean cars in the mainstream segment.

[Erik]

MB cut their prices a lot, and sadly removed some of the quality, after the huge scare they got from Lexus.

[Erik]

Inflation Adjusted Gasoline Prices in the US:

Year   Price
1958   $2.26
1968   $2.13
1978   $2.17
1988   $1.77
1998   $1.36
2008   $3.26
2010   $2.73

Average long term gas price is $2.36. Interesting to compare to 1968 (the peak of the muscle car era), for instance. While the current gas price is higher, it is not double the price, for instance.

[Snowman]

Unit costs have gone down due to engineering, automation, platform sharing, and labour optimization.

[initial_D]

Mostly, competition from over seas.

[The Mighty Duck]

Cars have gotten a lot cheaper and a lot more accessible. As others have said, more competition and greater economies of scale have helped.

So to, I think, has improved quality. Cars last longer, which means a bigger market of used cars. A large used car market means people are not willing to pay as high a price for a new car, hence lower prices.