Locator: 44605AUTOS.
$100,000 cars and auto sales are increasing and the meme? The US economy is not doing well.
Link here.
The WSJ article is the best I've seen so far today.
The whole story bores me so I won't be posting much on the blog regarding auto sales but ...
... having said that, this is perhaps my favorite graphic:
Unfortunately we're not told the average downpayment paid, but my hunch: the minimum. Also, we're not told the average length of the loan, and then the actual amount of money folks spend on a new car over time.
The question is: how do folks pay for these $75,000 vehicles?
This is how.
When I was growing up, my dad, the single wage earner in our family for most of our childhood years, had to pay for college for six children.
Today, the American average number of children: 1.66.
And unlike the 50's and 60's it's not uncommon to have two wage-earners.
Today, college is costing tens of thousands of dollars every semester. And that's for state colleges. A "real" college is costing upwards of $100,000 / year for four years, and maybe even five years. And then graduate school.
Bottom line: a new car is much less expensive than paying for college.
Also not mentioned in the article: cost of insurance. Even if rates had not increased (and they have), insurance premiums are a lot less for a $25,000 sedan than a $100,000 Cybertruck.
And, of course, it goes without saying, that the story about EVs is being mis-reported. Really mis-reported. Outright obfuscation in most cases.
I'll be tracking this story elsewhere; I'm not going to clutter the Bakken with this nonsense.
