Wow, I didn't realize the average price for a new car was so high! Are people mostly buying electrics, full sized pickup trucks and luxury cars these days? Whatever happened to mid-sized and compact cars?
Interestingly just looked and old frumpy minivans are right up there in price too!!
They went out of style as companies poured marketing into SUVs and trucks which have higher profit margins (I regularly see $70-90k pickup trucks used for office commutes!), all boosted by unusually low interest rates and 5+ year loans.
Then at the start of the pandemic, the car manufacturers slashed their orders for microprocessors in anticipation of a depression. The fabs sold their capacity to other customers which meant that when car demand didn’t crater as expected there was a massive shortage, and the car companies prioritized what chips they could get to the highest profit models.
Interestingly just looked and old frumpy minivans are right up there in price too!!