$1000 vehicle payments at record high

That's more than my first monthly mortgage payment on my first house @ 8.75% interest rate. Now I know why there are so many uninsured drivers and expired licenses plates on the road.

 

My guess would be the impact of smart phones as the cause.

 

There's evidence that infotainment centers are even more to blame than cell phones.

 

Almost included them in my post. I just didn't think it was because girls have started driving more like boys, nor that they have only recently been driving as much as boys.

 

And the average new vehicle price has risen above $49k.
Average new-vehicle transaction price hits a whopping new peak in December - Autoblog

 

average? that's crazy

 

Yeah, that's about the price of a car you can "afford" with a $1000 monthly payment if you buy it with no money down today.

 

Bob Wilson

 

It would help to also know the median price, along with average price. Is there a significant difference? If so, the median price may be a better indicator.

 

If you find a source of the data used by KBB to compile this "Average New Car Price", please let us know. I did a cursory search, but could not find the data source. I am sure they are coming from the manufacturer's and dealers' reports, but that source is not even clearly stated in the original article published by KBB.

https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/kbb-atp-december-2022/
It links to Data tables are available for download. but, it does not show how those numbers are generated for each category. They don't even mention if the price of an average new car is MSRP or the actual price paid at the dealer, or something else. In the table linked, the footnote says "*Kelley Blue Book average transaction prices do not include applied consumer incentives", so we at least know that the true cost of many PHEVs and BEVs are lower than reported.

As I commented in #33, this number is absurdly high for the average (or median) household income. I just can't believe the data really represents the average car buyer's price tag.

 

That would be helpful. A few cars worth millions of dollars are going to move the average price up even if the majority of people aren't paying that.

It would be nice to have a lot of info. Not just 50% median, but what about 25% and 75%?

What about used car averages, median and whatnot?

What about the cheapest car you can own? And the cheapest of different categories (2 seater, 4 seater, 5 seater, minivan, pickup, EV, cheapest-with-a-spare-tire, cheapest-with-towing-capability, etc.)? And by cheapest, I mean cheapest for the average person, not the one who just sold his 2 year old whatever for the same price as new and so basically got a brand new one for free.

 

Full picture includes the those values for used car sales, and the ratio between new and used.

 

"Average"
Mean, median and mode explained on the Tubes......or what people who are not victims of the US public education system call:
'6th grade math'

 

I understand ATPs to be actual selling price, not MSRP. From your linked article:

"According to Kelley Blue Book calculations, new-vehicle ATPs (average transaction price) have been above the average manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), also known as the sticker price, for more than a year."

 

@Trollbait mentioned it up-thread, gotta look at the used picture too, and integrate the data.

Stuff really went wild. 8 year old mid-market cars with 100k miles were priced within pocketchange of the Mitsubishi Mirage, which I think was the cheapest brand new car you could get (or not get, supply chaaaa aaiiiiin)

That car wore window stickers from between ~13k and $16k between early 2020 and now.

I agree, lots of people bit off way more than they could chew because they wanted *something* but quite a few needed a $4000 s-box and had to sign away everything to get... the same box for $12,500.

We imposed a 48-month loan limit on ourselves for our auto purchases. (This is a lot of what boxes us in to cheap cars.)

We also attempted to stagger our last two purchases so we'd only have one payment at a time. But when we heard about the limited availability predicted for 2022, we chose to replace the family hauler early. (That got us the gently used 2020 Mazda 6 in May 2021)

The combined payments were a bit over $1k and I wasn't fond of that at all. That was for a year, and then the Prius was paid off 5/22.

@Mendel Leisk I wonder how long ago our car racked up more miles than yours? We bought it new 5/2018 and it had 109500kms when my wife left for her ultracommute this morning.

This forum has deep history. Did anyone ever work out a graph or shared sheet to chart & viz that stuff?

 

I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever make 100K; finally went by 96K about a week back. Last time we drove...

Our location helps a LOT, lucky to be walking distance to a lot of stores.

 

I recently had a friend ask me about the outfit downstate here that rebuilds salvage Prii, and where in the past I had picked a couple up for decent prices.

After briefly revisiting their website, I had to report back to my friend that, at the moment, even their prices for rebuilt, salvage Prii were largely above anything I had ever paid for a car.

 

Our Prius & Mazda are by far the most expensive cars we've ever had. They both suit our family needs well for now, but I really dread having to replace either.