Uplifting News
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We would need some sort of actual movement into public transport first. The original cash for clunkers was awful for the used car market in such a way that it affected the poorer population. It used to be easy to grab a decently used but neglected car for cheap and spend enough to keep it out of the junkyard for a few years more. I remember being able to grab a 20 year old used truck that was quite beat for $800 all day.
The cash for clunkers removed that cheap tier of used vehicle and forced people to buy new which exacerbated the new car purchase price. It’s only ever climbed quickly ever since as manufacturers took that as “people don’t want cheap cars, only luxury” and now options are fairly garbage.
And Covid did a number on prices too that hasn’t recovered. I purchased a new Golf in 2015 (right before dieselgate) for $16k as it was a base model with a standard trans. You can’t get that anymore.
https://www.financialsamurai.com/average-new-car-price/
Cash for Clunkers didn’t really have the negative effects that people purport it to have had. Only 677K vehicles were scrapped out of 246 million in the nation (less than 0.3%). I do agree it was more of a benefit to wealthier people due to the fact that you needed to buy a new car to use it, but what really hurt the poor was the recession happening at the time which drove up the cost of used vehicles since fewer people were buying new.
A caveat that is often forgotten - inflation. It's an economic nostalgia. We have prices set in our head that is deemed reasonable, and use that to compare against today's costs. My parents bought a used car in 1975 for $200 that needed repairs to run. Sounds like a bargain, but that's around $1200 or so now. A lot to pay for something that may or make not be fixable.
But that's not even the real problem. It's the ability to keep up with costs of expenses when your income isn't keeping pace.
It's also whats offered. Like you said, you can't buy base models anymore, they have to have all the frills. Imagine being able to buy a base truck to just haul stuff in. Maybe still possible for companies who buy large amounts wholesale, but not consumers. I'd like to have my grandfather's POS manual Datsun these days. It just ran.