It’s important, as the saying goes, to remember the past – in order to understand the present. Why are cars – specifically, used cars – so expensive today? They weren’t once. In fact, there was once an abundance of used cars so cheap teenagers could commonly afford them.
It was unusual, at one time, for a 16-or-17-year-old to not have his own car. By the time it was time to leave home, pretty much everyone owned a car. Because how else were you going to leave home?
Those old enough to remember . . . remember.
Today, it is not unusual for a 22-year-old to not have a driver’s license – never mind a car. The stat bandied about is that roughly half of today’s 16-year-olds do not have a driver’s license. About fourth of those in the 18-22 bracket do not have one.
Probably because they cannot afford to own or even drive a car. So why bother with the license?
But why is that?
If anything, cars ought to be less expensive and more affordable today than they were back in the ’90s and before, when pretty much everyone who was old enough to drive did drive. The car – as such – is a mature technology, as the saying goes. Like computers, and microwave ovens, they ought to have become less rather more expensive. Instead, the reverse.
Readers of this column already know the why about that. It’s due to a combination of compliance costs – the costs passed on to car buyers incurred by car manufacturers, who must design cars to be “safe” and “clean” (in air fingers quotation marks to make a point of neither word being the honest word) and a general trend of most people being ok with and signing up for long loans to finance what they can’t really afford. Instead of buying within their means. That is the main reason why every new vehicle now comes standard with AC (usually, climate control AC) a well as power everything, all of which was at one time optional so people who could not afford those things did not have to finance those things.
This partially accounts for the high cost of used cars. Something that sold when new for $50,000 will likely still cost $10,000 even after ten years and that’s a lot of money for a teenager or even someone in their 20s.
But what happened to all the old cars that used to be everywhere that cost $1,500 or even less than that?
As an example, the ’74 Beetle I drove for awhile after college in the early ’90s. I bought it for $700. That’s equivalent in today’s increasingly worthless money to about $1,600 – well within the budget of any teenager willing to work a part-time, after-school job at McDonald’s or something along those lines. I was easily able to pay cash for my ’74 Beetle in the early ’90s because I had a full-time job by then. I could have signed up for a new car loan but chose not to because I wanted to save rather than spend money and figured a good way to do that would be to avoid making payments on a car.
This was possible – at the time – because there was a ready supply of old beater cars like the ’74 Beetle I paid $700 cash for circa 1991. These beaters may not have been pretty – and they were often rusty. Many did not have AC or even heat (as in the case of my Beetle). It had a leajy aftermarket sunroof and a rusty floor. But it and its kind were functional and – usually – got you to where you were going on your own terms rather than according to the terms of a bus schedule.
Well, what happened?
Where did all those once-abundant and still functionally viable old beater cars go? Straight into the crusher is where they went. Along with silica deliberately poured into their still mechanically sound engines, in order to destroy them.
Some of you may remember.
It was called “cash for clunkers.” The term was meant to disparage functionally viable, affordable older vehicles in order to make it seem like a good thing to destroy them. Who wants a “clunker,” after all?
Maybe ask a kid who’d like to be able to afford to drive his own car.
That was of course the whole point of the thing; i.e., to destroy the once-abundant supply of older cars so that kids and people just starting or people who don’t have a lot of money to spend on a car can no longer afford one.
It was marketed differently, of course.
After the Great Crash of 2008 – which bankrupted or nearly GM, Ford and what was then DaimlerChrysler (today owned by Stellantis) the federal government decided it would “stimulate” demand for new vehicles by destroying the supply of older ones. The government paid people who owned these “clunkers,” as they were styled, to bring them in to be destroyed in exchange for cash to be used toward the purchase – the financing – of a new car.
These “clunkers” were generally owned by people who could afford to throw them away. But once they were thrown away, they were no longer there to sell to a teenage kid who needed his first car. Or anyone else who just wanted a cheap car.
Now, if they wanted a car, they had to finance it, too. Just like their enserfed parents and elders. Only most teenagers cannot qualify for a loan on a part-time, after-school income. So owning a car is beyond most of their means. Hence why bother with a driver’s license? It’s as pointless as going to the prom and not dancing with anyone.
Today’s youth, by an large, has no idea that it has been gypped – let alone by whom they’ve been gypped.
It is my hope in writing this that perhaps a few will read and find out why – which is almost as valuable as knowing why, by dint of remembering what many appear to have forgotten.
. . .
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Thomas Jefferson warned that “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”
” If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around(these banks) will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Eric – watching that video of them trash a perfectly good (twin engine V8) car is actually painful!…following all the official directives of how much goo to put in. Just like the guy wearing a mask and sanitising his hands before giving a covid death jab…THe main purpose of which is to be compliant with what the government mandate.. If you have to destroy a car at least do something fun with it (in Jeremy Clarkson style). But I guess that wont meet the requirements set by our overlords hence wont “qualify”
but I guess it does go to show the hubris in the west. Thinking destroying a good car to make a new one which will saddle someone with decades of debt is a good idea….
I agree, Nasir –
Gratuitous destruction as policy is a metric of a corrupted and dying society.
Interesting:
https://notthebee.com/article/epa-head-says-agency-will-reverse-requirement-that-new-cars-automatically-turn-off-engines-at-red-lights-
“And the #1 Movie in the country was called ‘ASS'”
EPA head according to NTB: I remember a time when you cared whose ASS it was and why it…
It’s a good a starting place as any Eric. Baby steps when it comes to anything demonstrativly positive right…
Psft, they don’t give a sheet.
” It’s all rotten now, top to bottom.” – EPautos awareness person.
‘IDIOCRACY Opening Scene (2006) Mike Judge’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2tUW0HDHA
Pa total purchase price of all three clunkers 1400.00 Canadian dollars 1985
My first 3 clunkers;
1980 Chevy Citation lemons are going to lemon tranny issues, had the braking capabilities of Yosemite Sam’s camel, body issues used a 2•4 to prop up drivers side bench seat.
1978 Mercury Zephyr carried a can of wd40 in wet weather to spray distributed cap.
Dodge Diplomat had electrical issues and would not start after a hot shut off good for mrs Savant in younger parking days.
JewSA is just a big ole Cuba now. Everyone speaks spanish and drives an old piece of shit.
*USA! *USA! *USA!
“But now that we have the recipe…”
https://youtu.be/qL0IItt-ff8?si=KTHJv5urRRhCRoHZ
‘Cash for clunkers’ was a great example of one of the economic fallacies so beloved by politicians all over the world – the Broken Window fallacy.
Something that’s perfectly functional is to be destroyed, so as to ‘stimulate the economy’ by rebuilding it.
Possibly the best example of this I’ve personally experienced was at the time of the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand in 2011, which destroyed almost the entire CBD of that city.
Yet there were a lot of people, including many politicians, who thought this was really not so bad, because all those builders out there would get a lot of work, so employment would sky rocket and spending & the overall economy would boom!
It did not occur to them that the materials and labor required toward rebulding what used to be entirely functional may well have better been used elsewhere. Notably, the job STILL is not complete even today.
The other popular fallacies include ‘devalue the dollar to boost exports’ – i.e. let’s empoverish ourselves all the way to prosperity, ‘low interest rates are good for the economy’ (in fact they kill savers and increase inflation), and ‘tariffs are good for the economy and are paid by foreigners’.
We all know who the biggest proponent of the last one is!
This is a great, and free, read for the interested:
https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/upldbook155pdf.pdf
Yeesh, John Bayley. You don’t spend much time at https://mises.org/ or Lewrockwell.com?
From your link: “Raising interest rates causes inflation 63
Credit controls are better than interest rates”
I dunno where to begin in this ignorance & bowing to overlords.
Did you know this?:
https://mises.org/mises-wire/what-money-who-controls-money
Hey Kiwi, thanks for the opening!
Is “the Wizard” still preaching in Christchurch square? (Timestamp FEB 1998)
If so, please mention his “Janus faced” VW beetle (For automotive purposes).
The guy had 2 front ends (back and front) on the car..probably a cut and weld or something similar.
You couldn’t tell whether the dude was “coming or going”! ;)….
RE:A personal experience with having my 1983 Ford Laser “flogged”…while parked overlooking “Punters on the Avon” checking out accommodation at Coker’s Backpackers….Christchurch..
“The Press” page 2 news, feb 10th 1998….reported this event..:)
Loved that asskicking beautiful country….Thanks for forcing me to eat “cheaper meat products than chicken”….i.e. economlcal pasture raised beef T-Bones, Ribeyes and all that beefy stuff!
Glad I’m not Hindu!!! Yeah Baby.
“Today, it is not unusual for a 22-year-old to not have a driver’s license – never mind a car. ”
Yeah, well, it gets much worse than that.
“About One Third of Americans Aged 18-34 Still Live at Home”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/mar/27/parents-paying-adult-kids-bills-long/
I moved to my own pad, shared with a couple of buddies, when I turned 16. Those were good times; we were poor, but independence was oh-so-sweet.
These days…fugget about it.
People, even the young ones, may nominally earn more that what we (Gen X) used to at their age, but inflation across the board, and asset inflation specifically (and remember that this has been a deliberate Fed policy!) plus regulations like the ones Eric writes about, have ensured they cannot afford to move – or buy a car – unless they take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.
And once you’re a debt slave, then you have no option but ‘take the jab’ or whatever, when the order comes. Because if you lose your job, you lose your ‘assets’. And yet, if you take the jab, you may well lose your life.
Damned either way. Dependent people are obedient people. The government is your friend.
The Road to Serfdom. We’re living it.
Oh, that’s a buncha bullshit, John Bayley, my fellow Gen X-er.
Total. And, complete cop-out defeatist, Pure Bullshit.
…You’ve really go to try harder to avoid becoming road kill!
Your Pussification is magnified when you say, “And once you’re a debt slave, then you have no option but ‘take the jab’ or whatever”.
No option? …Think, outside, The Box, dumbass.
RE: “they cannot afford to move – or buy a car – unless they take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.”
Seriously, slap yourself!
That’s ridiculous.
Are you Mr. Banker moonlighting for fun?
Or, are you looking for a way out?
‘OFF GRID with DOUG & STACY’
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChit3QKk051fCsqliwVrbuQ
I wasn’t talking about myself. 😉
Just observing the world around me.
How many people in their 30 to late 40s do you know that aren’t in debt up to their eyeballs?
I’m sure there are some.
But far from a majority.
Yeah, I wish it were not so, but it is what it is.
FYI, this is a good step, but more needs to be “reviewed”.
https://www.axios.com/2025/05/12/epa-lee-zeldin-stop-start-vehicles
How They “Clickbaited” Us”
Kia is running a nasty little clickbait ad campaign on the internet. Here is one of several ads featuring 1950s classics that you’ll find at latimes.com today:
https://postimg.cc/yk5LKx7M
To be clear, Kia is NOT making retro classics — as you’ll quickly learn if you get suckered into clicking on it. It’s just the regular old, boring, obese silver boxes on offer.
Needless to say, a company which tricks you in your very first interaction with them will continue lying, stealing and cheating all the way down the line.
This, then, is perhaps the most perfectly conceived negative ad campaign in history: it convinced me in a single click that I’ll NEVER do business with the carney-barker sleazebags of Kia. This way to the egress, folks! 🙂
A beater in the 70s could be made presentable with some work and skills learned by doing. In 72 my high school buddy got his grandmas worn but driveable 57 Chev station wagon, automatic with a small V8. Left rear quarter panel was really dented. The interior fabrics were worn out. The auto trans quit after four months.
I helped here and there fixing it. We went to the local junkyard and got the parts to convert it to a four speed floor shift manual transmission. Another junkyard for a 57 Chev wagon “shell” that was stripped, totaled but with a pristine LH rear quarter. He cut off the old mashed rear quarter, brazed on the replacement, and then painted the whole wagon a really nice metallic blue using a “paint booth” cobbled together inside his dad’s garage. His mom was really good at sewing and made new seat and door panel upholstery for him. Was the end result “concours”? No, but he had a nice looking reliable wagon for reasonable money and lots of sweat equity. We had high school part time jobs at around $2 an hour, yet were able to tackle projects like this with no $$$ handouts from mom and dad. His high school job was at what is today O Reilly Auto Parts and he made it into a corporate level career with them.
Today: Local junkyards gone, now a strip mall. Mom can’t sew. Dad doesn’t have air tools nor an oxy/acetylene welding set. State EPA rules now you’re banned from buying automotive paint and related chemicals over the counter as a DIY’r. You at home with the planet killing VOC emitting paints and solvents, oh my!
Don’t know where you live but there are still plenty of pick n’ pull junkyards.
Same for the paint. Not sure what your state is but I can buy automotive paint all day long over the counter. Not cheap but available.
I work at a shop. Couple of weeks ago we priced out a used engine (a Honda V6 for a car that was about 12 years old) and they wanted $6500. Nothing special, just a run of the mill J35. Granted, some of that cost is for them to pull it and deliver it. $6500! Wasn’t all that long ago you could get a pretty nice car for $6500. It’s all rotten now, top to bottom.
Buddy’s KIA got a replacement motor after an oil change shop screwup ruined the original.
Yep, a used engine no new ones available. It was $6500 including installation but this was about 8 years ago.
This whole, end-of/middle-of-the-thread, reminds me why we are All doomed. …Not just you guys specifically (well, maybe?) I imagine it times 10 million, or something.
Fer sure: “It’s all rotten now, top to bottom.”
Not sure how my comment got down here with you guys talking about doing things & making things better.
Psft, carry on.
Indeed it is, Cheddar –
I am thinking it’d be sound policy to find a good used engine for my ’02 Nissan – just to have it, for when I inevitably need it.
Get the entire drivetrain, used, along with other hard parts (,starter, alternator, power steering pump, radiator, as a hedge against inflation and/or bureaucratic Obstruction.
The cars of the past 10yrs or so will not be able to be fixed when they reach old(er) age.
It’s been baked into the cake.
There will be some aftermarket solutions, but for main components like engines, trans, computers, etc… they will be junk and/or unavailable too.
Maybe, just maybe, the aftermarket will be able to make kits that install an old-school engine/trans that doesn’t need the 10 or so computers to function, but it will not pass the blue states emission tests. Will not, which means no registration or inspection sticker for you.
In rural regions, this may be possible.
Hi Chris,
Hubby and I have made it our mission to buy older vehicles for this very reason. As newer vehicles make their appearances these autos have more surveillance, cheaply made parts, and computer upgrades. The goal is to keep the peasants off the road or in constant debt. I refuse to play.
Agree RG, wish I could. Absolutely can’t. Tried it, and I/we lost sales/reputation. I’m OK with pay to play, it’s just and expense and worth every penny for how much return we get. Every salesman in my company goes to around 50-70K and gets a new one, just like the gov/manuf want it.
“wish I could. Absolutely can’t.”
There it is.
Whatchya gonna do now?
Myself, I do my best to avoid using the phrase, “I can’t” in a sentence.
YMMV?
Morning, Helot –
Of course one can. But the question is, I think: What is to be gained? If I were to move from VA to some other state, I could avoid such things as state inspections. But the new state will have its own authoritarian collectivist ukase to deal with. Put another way, there is no real alternative within the United States – unless one wants to (and can) go Gray Man and live that lifestyle. Easier said than done. It is not a copout to not do it. I have more and more sympathy for the people who’ve been caught within an authoritarian system who stayed within it. Because where can you realistically go?
Exactly, Eric. Most people can’t move every 4 years because they disagree with the new incoming Administration. Florida is going to change substantially when DeSantis leaves office in January 2027. God, help Virginia this November. We are screwed.
Or do what I do. Live in two places. Deep blue place and deep red place. I like both for different reasons, and dislike both for different reasons.
The only sucky part is the commute, haha. But when I’m traveling to our red place I don’t mind the travel part at all, and when I go back to blue I stomach it, cause I have too.
Really from the last 30 years, since a check engine light is an automatic fail in the blue inspection states. And while the check engine light may functionally be ignored in most cases since it doesn’t affect driveability or performance, it very often stems from an obscure grounding or wiring problem which would require many thousands of dollars in shop time to track down including some parts replacements.
A distributor less ignition system can be replaced by a magneto or sometimes adapted to a distributor, and an injection system can be replaced by an aftermarket or open source EFI or a carburetor.
But when the communist state hassles you off the road with their inspection and enforcer regime, your choices are fight or flight. And flight keeps becoming less of an option, as all the things that ‘Merica was are crushed by effete communists.
Yet people continue to live in these blue state hell holes.
Worse yet, when they leave they import their shitty beliefs and behaviors with them 🙁
There is always the sincere belief that you can be a little bit pregnant, or not be a homo after sucking just one dick, or you can have the good parts of socialism.
I live in about as red a state as there is and I have to deal with an emissions inspection every other year due to living in a county covered by Federal EPA rules. I have a cousin who lives in a blue shit hole (by his own admission) but in an emissions-exempt county who doesn’t have to deal with any of it. You can thank Uncle Sam for the bullshit.
Interesting buncha comments. Esp. “I live in about as red a state as there is and I have to deal with an emissions inspection every other year”.
Well then, your so-called, ‘Red State’, is actually, Blue.
What State are you in? So, we all know to avoid it.
Hi Ernie.
I saw a small SUV where the owner had swapped out the 4 banger for a V8. At inspection time he swapped out the 8 cylinder and put the 4 back in. Once it had passed he put the 8 cylinder back in. He told me it was worth it and had gotten quite good at doing it. Seemed like a of work to me though.
“At inspection time”.
You guys are enabling you overlords, you know that? Right?
…As long as you know that.
…The monster says, “Feed Me!”
I don’t know about the transmissions so much.
But fundamentally the engine is and always will be a fundamentally mechanical device with pistons, cylinders, and a crankshaft that runs off of fuel, air, and a spark.
You can rip off every single piece of electronic and emissions-related crap, bolt on a carburetor (some fabrication required) and some kind of distributor, and make it run. The tricky part is basically the details of getting the fuel into the engine, and getting the spark plugs to fire at exactly the right time.
It can be done, with some ingenuity. Which the aftermarket has plenty of but the EPA technically wont let anyone do.
Rig up a cable to the existing gas pedal, attach it to the throttle, and you’re good to go. Mostly you just need a drill and a little experience working on a 10-speed bicycle to figure out how to do this, anyone should be able to bodge something together.
Once you get something to work you can turn it into a kit, which at least some people would buy but no one is allowed to sell.
The major obstacle, as always, is government.
To Ernie and Publius, in the ’emission test’ states (that I am familiar with), if they can’t plug into the obd port, you fail. And then they put a big red sticker on your car. Granted, we just take them off, and I know many people that just drive without a valid inspection sticker anyway.
And agree, that most engines can be made to run with analog stuff. But no where to put a distributor anymore, spark is controlled by a computer, injection is controlled by a computer, etc….. You’d have to change a lot of stuff to make it work old school. hot wire the fuel pump might work? etc…..
For crying out loud – Megasquirt, Motec, etc. Lots of aftermarket alternative for both fuel and spark control.
Plenty of ways to keep stuff running.
Swear you guys just like making excuses to keep buying new.
haha. While I agree with you. What do ya think, 1-2% of the population could do these things? If you don’t do it yourself, add 2-3 times the cost.
So let’s just for grins and giggles that it is 2% (which is low). That’s 6 million guys capable of doing the work and conversions for others.
It’s also somewhat of a moot point because even the bluest of blue states have emission exemption for vehicles older than X date. Use CA as an example – no smog inspections on older than 75’.
Very straightforward to do any crate engine swap into pre-75’ chassis of your choice.
Or
Keep feigning learned helplessness and pretending that new is the only option and by gosh – I just can’t do anything about it.
Chris – fully understand your position on business vehicles – that is beyond the scope of this conversation .
my east state is 30yrs exempt from emissions, but those cars don’t exist in the rust belt unless you’re a collector. They rusted out after 10 and are practically gone by 20. I think it’s because those cars don’t have OBD ports and they don’t have the tailpipe testers anymore???
My west state doesn’t have any emissions or safety inspections.
And I think my percent number is too high, haha.
Yup. Distributors for LS engines.
https://www.lsxmag.com/news/new-products/comp-cams-launches-front-drive-distributor-kit-for-ls-engines/
I never said it wasn’t a major pain in the kiester. But it’s still possible to do.
A few other things to point out about the picture with the cute blonde and the car:
Look at the houses – small & basic. Look at the siding on the neighboring houses. No McMansion by any stretch of the imagination.
Look at the driveway – gravel. No fancy stamped concrete or pavers.
Look at her clothes – functional and basic. These are not designer clothes.
It’s quite likely the car itself wasn’t even hers / theirs. The car being more costly than what the neighborhood would typically afford.
But at lest it was all “real”.
Now compare that to the crap you see from today’s “influencers”
Absolutely valid point. Cars are not the only aspect to the place we find ourselves. Back then people lived within their means with their homes, their cars, their grocery shopping, their clothes and Christmas shopping. The explosion of revolving credit fuels it all.
Hi Pat,
I agree with you and John that debt-based living has played a big role in all of this. At the same time, I think it’s undeniable there’s been a concerted effort to make driving more aggravating and owning a car more difficult. There are evil synergies at work…
Having an upwardly mobile middle class has been a threat to TPTB, so taking control of your home, mobility and food security must all be disrupted. Cars are a keystone to the whole post WWII economic boom we saw, so it makes sense they would be central on their hit list. But pricing young people out of homes is insidious and the attack on food is plain evil.
Back when I graduated high “screwl” neatly a half century ago, no matter how well-paying a job you got, getting a car loan w/o an adult with substantial finances to co-sign, like Dad, was unheard of. Even my cousin, having then a great job at (un)Safeway, with a third to put down towards a 1977 Toyota Celica and enough to cover sales taxes and title, still had to get my namesake uncle to countersign.
[Today’s youth, by an large, has no idea that it has been gypped – let alone by whom they’ve been gypped.] Eric. As usual,,, like airport searches,,, real id,,, etc, we complied.
Most yobs kids and young adults did are now taken up largely by adults trying to support families or themselves. Lawn mowing,,, bus-people/waiters,,,laborer,,,mechanic assistant,,, etc. Many still living at home with parents.
Corpgov has demolished the structure of society with set asides for the fringe groups.
The last generation that was *car guys/girls* was the sport tuners of the Fast and Furious days pre-911. It’s been over now for 24 years from constant propaganda regarding *carbon* destroying the earth. It may take two generations (40 years) to de-program society from the fear mongering the Marxist teachers instilled into our kids. Shame on them (Marxist Teachers) and shame on us for letting this happen.
>*carbon* [based life forms] destroying the earth.
No doubt there is a (still secret) government protocol somewhere for how to eliminate “clunker” life forms. Only questions are what it will be called, and when it will be rolled out.
“Cash for Grandmas” still sounds a bit vulgar.
Soylent Green is people!
Cash for Clunker’s [sic] — lede photo
This year, a new factor emerged to drive up used car prices — Donnie Fubar’s tariffs.
But Jim, you protest — the Orange Emperor can’t tariff used cars! They are already here.
Nevertheless, cars (in their functional role of transport devices) are somewhat fungible. Plenty of punters front-ran the tariffs by purchasing not only new vehicles but later-model used ones as well. This wavelet of artificially-induced demand boosted the prices of ALL vehicles, just as surely as covid stimmy checks sent used car prices soaring in 2021.
So what happens next? Ask Wile E Coyote, when he’s suspended in midair after running off a cartoon cliff. Nothing bad can happen until he hits the ground with a savage thunk. That’s the precarious predicament of Lightning Jim Farley, EeeVee Mary and whatever euro-weenie runs Stellantis these days.
It’s a long way down and they’ve got no parachute. The good news is, terminal velocity in a free-air fall is ‘only’ 120 mph or so. Happy landings, y’all! 🙂
Stonks are ripping higher, after the Orange Emperor and the Yellow Emperor agreed to dial back tariffs to 10 percent for ninety days (but not including cars, apparently).
How would you like to run an international business, as I once did, when the applicable tariff rate on your product can change from 145 percent to 10 percent (or vice versa) over the weekend?
This is not what the Founders had in mind. It’s some kind of shambolic joke. It’s two minutes to midnight — do you know where your Congress Clown is??
Every now and then, a great purchase can be had. My sister over the weekend had purchased a used 2008 Silverado crew cab 4×4 with 150k miles for $1,000.00 from a close friend of hers. Her father can no longer drive and let my sister have it for a “steal” price. It is far from a beater and is in fact well maintained and cared for. The only distraction the truck has is a “Roll Tide” Alabama decal on the hood. She had been looking at new full sized trucks and none of the area dealerships were unwilling to haggle and come off the prices. I’m glad but a bit jealous she got it. I’d jump on that deal if I had the chance.
Isn’t it ironic that most of the new cars purchased using the Cash for Clunkers $3500 – $4500 incentive are now clunkers themselves?
Nothing, but NOTHING, makes me more infuriated at politicians like Obuma than knowing they promoted a program like that.
I’m about to buy my aging parents’ 2015 minivan. Book price is $15K. Sure, it’s fairly well optioned, but still a long way from affordable for a student.
Hi RK,
Yup. Heck, a new riding mower costs as much as used cars used to! Good look finding a viable used car for less than $5k today. Burn it Down is correct about the fact tat there are used cars available for $3k or so – but that’s still easily twice as much as what it cost me to buy my ’74 Beetle back in the early ’90s. And is that $3k car viable? The cost to repair these things is forbidding and the skill needed generally beyond those possessed by a 16-or-17-year-old kid today. I was able to fix whatever went wrong with my ’74 Beetle because there was not much to the Beetle. That’s part of what’s been lost.
And is that $3k car viable? The cost to repair these things is forbidding and the skill needed generally beyond those possessed by a 16-or-17-year-old kid today. I was able to fix whatever went wrong with my ’74 Beetle because there was not much to the Beetle. That’s part of what’s been lost.
What’s been lost is a sense of individual responsibility. Bought my 91 Mazda B2600 4×4 three years ago – $3k. 176545 miles. Entire front end was shot but it ran great, 4×4 worked (but not the switch lighting), and drove at highway speed and had newish tires. Cab is red, bed is blue, has a red tailgate, it the bed is bashed up. At some point the bed was clearly swapped. Solid frame, no rust.
There is nothing that front end that a motivated 16 year old couldn’t easily rebuild. Total cost of parts was $700.
The simple fact is the majority of Americans no longer the inclination to do “dirty work”. Likewise they would not dare to be see in the non-matching hillbilly paint scheme.
Artificial standards about one’s dignity and sense of self entitlement cost real money.
‘they would not dare to be seen in the non-matching hillbilly paint scheme.’ — Burn It Down
Just for laughs, cruise up to the fanciest valet-parking restaurant in town, dressed to the nines.
Chances are the valet boys will make you park it yourself, having no idea how to drive such a contraption.
“Welllllll, doggies! That’s the thing about possum innards — they’s just as good the second day.” — Jed Clampett
Hilarious. I kid you not, wife and I have been streaming Beverly Hillbillies lately.
I’ll start working on the proper accent.
“Chances are the valet boys will make you park it yourself, having no idea how to drive such a contraption.”
It’s a manual so 80% chance the valet can’t park it.
Just tell them all that happened last time you were there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxWmdQwacMo
Fair points, BiD!
My truck has a dented (but not rusted) bed and the paint on the passenger side front fender has lost its clearcoat. But it runs and drives well and reliably. I keep it because I do not want a car payment and because I can fix the thing myself. I cannot fix the new stuff because I lack the expensive equipment to fix it and the specialized training needed to fix it. Hell, my friend the professional mechanic is in the same fix!
Totally understand – currently working on 2012 BMW X5 and having trouble getting ISTA+ connected to the vehicle and working.
Comparability issues. J2534 interface not working. BMW has obsoleted its old $1k ICOM A & A2 interface. They are trying to force migration to ICOM Next.
It’s not easy maintaining a modern vehicle like an X5 with 34 modules, multiple CAN busses, K-line bus, and even a MOST fiber optic bus. It really is insanity.
But the reality is there are plenty of affordable used cars out there.
Merican’s just think too highly of themselves to be seen in an ugly 2002 Buick or maybe a shoddy looking Toyota Camry.
That was the original intent behind the “Strength Through Joy”, or KdF, car. Even budding engineers or scientists had to take some vocational education then in German schools and those not academically inclined were diverted to trade schools. The “Kafer” owner could keep his ride going quite readily himself, or at least some kid could fix it for cheap. Needless to say, the VWs, most Kubelwagenns, that went to war were readily repaired at the front. This was noted in an evaluation of a captured example, taken in North Africa early in 1943, and sent to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in MD. Altough the “German Jeep” was less powerful than the Bantam-designed Jeep, it consumed less gasoline and was simpler to maintain.
Let’s be honest.
Cash for clunkers back in 2009 has very, very little to do with used car prices today . . . 14 years later.
Less than a million cars (677k is the official number) were scrapped.
The annual US new car market is on the order of 10-15 million units. 15.9 million in 2024. 10 million at the low of 2009 when the program was in effect for just a few months. Hundred of millions of cars have been produced over the past decade which easily negate the loss of 677,000 “clunkers” which as you recall only required cars to be driveable. Many just barely made it onto a dealer lot under their own pier to claim the government sponsored grift.
I’m not defending this egregious waste of taxpayer money but to say that this program is the reason a kid can’t afford to buy a used car in 2025 is simply not believable.
There are still plenty of used cars out there floating around for $2-3k.
Now whether people want them, have the skills to fix them and keep them running, well that’s a whole different sorry and requires some introspection rather than simply blaming GovCo for a program that occurred more than a decade ago. If you want to blame Givco, blame the continued money printing of GovCo that has made it such at $2k is now the price vs. say the $500 it used to take.
True, but the post 2008 cars are typically made to self-destruct after 100,000 miles. Mostly transmissions. CVTs, “lifetime” fluid and constant shifting kill what should be long-settled engineering that can basically last forever. Except that it doesn’t, because it shouldn’t, at least according to the people who want to sell more cars.
Not to mention all the electronics and other hard to fix propriety components. Most of which are made of plastic that will become brittle over time.
Go look on Craigslist or any number of other places. There are literally millions of cars for sale from 60’s, 80’s, 00’s. Pick your vintage – they are available.
Amen, BID. Bring A Trailer is also a great site. There are affordable cars out there. A little bit of elbow grease and a willingness to learn and most people could have a well made used car that will hold up for many years.
Yeah, if you buy a post 2008 (or 10) car, the best brand would be a Honda or Acura. They have a lot of the bussed electrical/electronics, however, their reliability is high enough so there won’t likely be module difficulties. Same can’t be said for Ford, GM, Chryco or the Eurotrash cars.
I drive a 12 Acura TL and a 06 Pilot. In terms of smoothness, reliabilty and ease of maintenance, they are the best vehicle’s I have ever owned.
The ongoing debate about fuel efficiency versus performance continues to rage, especially in a world increasingly concerned about emissions and fuel costs. Are we destined for a future of solely electric, ultra-efficient but somewhat sterile vehicles? Or is there still a place for the roar of a V8 and the thrill of raw horsepower?
I’ve been pondering this lately, considering my own driving habits and priorities. I appreciate a car that’s economical and environmentally responsible, but I also value the visceral experience of driving a powerful machine. It seems increasingly difficult to find that “sweet spot
In my view there is no sweet spot. I don’t believe that cars are particularly harmful to “the enviornment” nor is there a safety issue with them. During the 80’s and 90s , cars were improving to the point where handling, roadholding and throttle response, the ingredients of a safe automobile, were more than acceptable. It coincided with a dontinued fall in the nationwide fatality rate.
By 1980, emissions were 1/10th of that of a 1970 model vehicle. The issue of auto emissions should have been put to bed by MY 1981. From 1981 to 1990, the auto industry was adapting to the new fatwas issued by the guberment, but it was never enough for congress. They wrote the clean air act of 1990, which, at the cost exceeding the first air act, clamed down on emissions to take out the last 10 percent. By 2000 cars were emitting less than 5 percent of a 1970 vehicle.
Those achievements aside, I am against all safety and emissions regulations.
Auto safety was already being improved before NHTSA was created by the government. The big jumps in safety came during a relatively quiet period in NHTSA regulation (from 1975 to 2000). By 1990, the fatal accident rate had dropped from 5.5 in 1965 to 2.0 by 1990.
I’m not entirely sure that emissions wouldn’t have dropped with the twin fuel shocks, the move to smaller cars and teh development of fuel injection technology.
‘
Bottom line: I don’t care at all. I’m gonna drive what I want.
Let’s not forget the two men who cooked up this scheme, O. Bruton Smith, owner of Sonic Automotive one of the largest new car dealer conglomerates and Senator Harry Reid, D-NV.
He bragged about calling it “Cash for Clunkers” on a local Charlotte radio show just minutes after getting off the phone with Reid, his “close friend”.
This is the GovCo/GloboCorp[h/t CJ Hopkins] incestuous relationship that is today’s fascism. The good news is that it will collapse. The bad news is we have to live through it. It’s amazing to live during the fall of an Empire. Centuries from now people will wonder what it was like. I wish we could warn them.
And Senator Harry Reid — as worthless a ward healer as F. Joe Biden — got his lowlife name plastered on LAS airport.
I object in principle to using such degraded public facilities, just as I object like hell to George Bush airport in Houston and Bill and Hitlery Clinton airport in Little Rock.
Hell, I’d rather take a frickin’ Greyhound bus.
Harry Reid “broke his ribs and bones in his face while exercising” back in 2016. I suspect it was more likely a violent (and very public) warning to stay in line.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-harry-reid-eye-injury_n_57dbf220e4b08cb14094fe87
Why Do So Many Politicians and Celebrities Have Black Eyes?
https://americafirstpatriots.com/many-politicians-celebrities-black-eyes/
@Eric – Is the last picture one of Tonya Harding?
I swear I remember a still like that related to the publicity for “I, Tonya”.
When we lived in WA State, Harding worked in the tool section of the Sears closest to where we lived. I didn’t learn this until after moved away.
Harding had a reputation for being very knowledgeable about tools, construction, and cars. I think that she sold me a garage door opener remote at Sears one afternoon.
My brush with fame.
Tonya Harding is indeed a sketchy, troubled woman. But back in ’94…what an ass! Even though you KNEW she was TRUOBLE…you just HAD to tap that!
And the rival skater that was “hit”, Nancy Kerrigan, looked all sweet innocent, ask the ex-wife of her skating coach, whom she slept with and gor knocked up by.
Lets also not forget that once crushed they were no longer a source of affordable used parts to keep other cars still on the road running.