There you have it. A continuing upward trend of nothing but historical upward pricing momentum that looks like it will never end. $41,000 for the average new car price.
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Wonderful. Not only is there not a significant cheaper form of mass transportation throughout the US, but now individual transportation costs are exceeding what many will be able to pay.
I know this is market economics at play, but greed is keeping those who want to work away from being able to work and live their lives.
This will continue to get worse. There is always a boiling point.
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One way or another, the trend reverses. But JP said today they are not tapping the brakes on this economy until it is running hot(ter).
tl;dr: expect more inflation, until their is either stagflation/reflation, or taper-tantrum (our likely next stop on this local train to barf-town, before we stop in Bondville - where everyone heats their homes with 10Y tbills).
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No tapping on brakes? Unless running hotter? Geez. It can get much much hotter, but remember the fed always says inflation in the US is always transitory. So it doesn’t matter how hot it goes for the economy, those rates will sit pretty near 0% for many countless years ahead.
How so? A global pandemic has disrupted the supply chain in unprecedented ways. This has drastically shifted market conditions. What part of that is caused by greed? The fact that dealers are not discounting their cars anymore?
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Government support for lower income folks is ending. Prices continue to rise due to current market conditions. Though, I don’t see MSRP prices dropping to pre-COVID levels.
Which means those who depended on social program support just to survive and have to go back to working two- and three- jobs just to keep expensive housing over their heads will continue to struggle to find affordable transportation.
Chevy themselves admitted they’re adopting a different sales strategy, that of only offering specific models and trims with the highest profits and will no longer make a vehicle for “every income level” as they used to do.
Ford beat them to the punch by dropping affordable cars off their portfolio for North America.
It’s all about showing growth and profit, even through a pandemic. There’s a lot more to it than just unprecedented market conditions. Those conditions will abate at some point; but the greed will not. The higher transaction prices are here to stay as far as I’m concerned… why wouldn’t they be? It’s more profit growth for the share holder.
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October 1st student loan payments are due. Just saying…
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There are a few students/new graduates on here who just leased cars in the worst market possible. This is going to be fun!
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I wonder what, if any securities are backed by Student Loan Debt and how this past year may have effected them? How might a mass default effect them and the economy?
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Yeah, my first thought is - of these people with a large amount of student debt - who has over-extended, forgetting that the loans will eventually be due (again)? Are how about what will happen when the government finally stops paying people to sit home? I think we are in for a flood of bankruptcies, foreclosures, and used vehicles coming into the market. It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when.
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Taibbi had a recent article on this wrt Brunner, and the comment section is enlightening as usual.
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Your forgetting the child tax credit which is worth hundreds per month for millions of families and it isn’t ending any time soon. Millions of people now live above the poverty line and for the first time in their lives have disposable income to pump right back into the economy. I don’t think most manufacturers want to keep supply low, they just can’t meet demand due to a global pandemic.
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You actually believe that? They have continued to extend numerous programs over and over and over and over again. Every time there has been a cut off date they have continued to push it out further… We have become a nation that now relies on handouts.
Maybe you havent heard, but check out the debt ceiling. How many times have they raised that limit???
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The dearth of small cheap cars is troubling but to some extent things aren’t as bad as they seem. Car prices are actually historically pretty stable and match wage growth
My 2018 Accord 1.5 touring costs less, adjusted for average wage growth than my parents 1994 Accord EX. And my car is so vastly superior to that car. Even an economy car like a Nissan Versa doesn’t cost much more than a economy car 20 years ago accounting for wage growth while being far superior to an old econo box…
Now the very very bottom of the market is a little thin compared to prices 20 or 30 years ago. But on have you ever watched a crash test of a Geo Metro it Chevy cavalier? You can’t sell those death boxes anymore.
So why are prices insane. 
Full size pickups . Buyers who would never consider a 60k BMW or Lexus don’t bat an eye getting a well equiped F-150 with a 400HP twin turbo V6. And three fill size pick ups are the top best selling cars in America so they really move the needle on average new vehicle price.
So are you 100% in precious metal and Bitcoin 
?
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Everything I learned from zombie apocalypse movies, diamonds, always diamonds! 
Again, noone fought a zombie horde in a BMW. It’s like you don’t even watch zombie movies!
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I’m not sure, I’m just going by the way things are right now, which is to say that we’re heading towards a cliff.
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Don’t forget full-size picks have much better Section 179 depreciation than a car or suv does. Unless something changed, the number one vehicle owned by millionaires was an F-150.
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Or we’ve become a nation that has tens of millions of individuals that are fed up with working two or three jobs at minimum wage, struggling to get by.
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Oh this thread is heading off a cliff very fast.
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I’m sure that’s right since F-150s are the most popular vehicle in America by a lot. There are just so many more of them than any other car. Makes sense on a non per Capita number that they would be owned by more millionaires than any other vehicle.
That said, on a per owner basis I’d bet f-150 owners are substantially less wealthy than owners of many other luxury cars just based on demographics. You don’t see a lot of F-150s in silicon valley or in parking lots on wall street.