

Car Sales at 10-Year Low - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/business/02auto.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

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vaksel
I think the main reason for this is people stopped buying SUVs and Trucks. And
those used to make up a very large proportion of car sales.

And the reason for that is simple really. Price of gas makes SUVs drop like a
rock in value, and make used cars a lot more affordable. Why would I spend 40K
for a new SUV, if I can get a 2 year old model for 20K

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nostrademons
Bingo. My dad just bought a car last month. The dealers we went to all said
"You can't get a Prius or a Fit with less than a 6 month wait - nobody has any
in stock." Meanwhile their lots were completely full-up with SUVs that they
can't sell.

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kirubakaran
Which car did he buy?

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nostrademons
Used Honda Civic, it had just come in earlier that day. Civics and Corollas
still seem to have a decent supply (at least here in Massachusetts), but the
smaller cars were all gone.

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utnick
with entry level cars priced at 15k the average person has to work years just
to save up enough money to buy a new car.

Have cars always been this expensive in relation to american wages?

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nostrademons
From Wikipedia's entry on the Model-T:

"In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months'
pay.[18]"

4 months pay for an average American making $45k/year is $15k. (Not including
taxes, but I'm not sure if they're included in the Model-T figures above.)

I recently asked my parents how much they paid for their first cars, and IIRC
the answer was about $3k on a $6k/year salary, for _6 months_ of pay. (This
was around 1970.) It'd seem that cars were more expensive then.

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dangoldin
Ah cool info. I'm wondering whether the actual costs of ownership were higher
or lower now or then though?

I imagine now with the price of gas and insurance the costs may come close.

In addition, let's not forget the fact that now families tend to have more
than 1 car whereas before they used to have one.

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nostrademons
Price of gas as a percentage of household income is significantly lower now
than it was in the 70s, even with today's $4/gal. Remember that in inflation-
adjusted terms, gas prices in 1973 were about $3.30. Figure in 50% or so real
wage growth since then and we'd need about $5/gal gas to equal then.

