New car prices today, why so expensive?

[KTPhil]

Cars are expensive mainly because:
1) Money is cheap, loans are long, and most buyers seem go by the monthly payment, not the price.
2) Raised expectations of what a "basic" car is. Power windows and locks, A/C, decent stereo, bluetooth... these were either not available or expensive options back in the days of the $2000 VW/Pinto/Vega/Corolla/B210.
3) Costs of R&D, crash and emissions testing, longer warranties, legal liability, employee benefits... damn, it's a lot more expensive doing business today!

Best overall buy depends on your driving, plans to keep/sell, and your own expectations. For me, the best deal is a certified used... great warranty, lower price because the original buyer already took the depreciation haircut. Probably nearly as reliable as a new car. And a year or two to check Consumer Reports/Carfax for problems before you buy.

[Onceler]

Well since I started this thread, figured I'd give an update. My wife crashed her Equinox again, so I don't think I'll be buying a newer car anytime soon. But, the good news is she didn't want to fix it, and just pay it off (she's convinced it's cursed, lol) with the insurance money. It's not to bad, I think I can have it pulled by a frame shop and and start using it as my daily. But now she wants a convertible, so this thread was basically all in vain...oh well, hopefully I can at least convince her to buy a used convertible, but she's checking out camaro's
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1972 Karmann Ghia

[Abscate]

Its a fact of anthro that we are very poor judges of what value things are as we have a strong bias to our notion of worth set in formative years.

Here is probably the best way to 'gauge' true cost..how many hours a middle class worker has to work to purchase a mid range car, from an article in Hemmings - un-validated.

Short version - in worker hours cars today are up 15-20% in cost, but one can argue the product is a lot better than in 1965

[Volks Wagen]

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[slave1pilot]

All of this A/C talk has me cracking up
especially when dude said "Freon"

everything we are making now has R1234YF, and that shit isn't cheap at all
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My Photobucket for my Herbie Project - http://s1288.photobucket.com/user/TK-439/library/Herbie?sort=3&page=1

Currently:
1963 Ragtop Beetle
Previously:
1967 Beetle
1968 Beetle
1970 Beetle

[Tram]

[raygreenwood]

And....actually its not a myth at all and has never had anything whatsoever to do with keeping anything "lubed".

This is why things like this "sound" like a myth....is because typically the first people that start passing it on.....get the information so jacked up.....that when people who actually know something....finally hear the resulting garbled version years later......they find the jacked up version to be physically improbable....and call it a myth without further research.

Its a version of the "cocktail party effect"

The system needs to occasionally run.. to keep the o-rings expanded under tension against the grooves they are sealing in....because even the green HBNR o-rings used with the R134 and later refrigerants....have a constant shrinkage rate from the day they are molded.....small...but constant.

I have seen this problem across a range of industries that use o-rings that store gas pressure.....or gasses and oils combined. Ray

[Abscate]

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[KTPhil]