Up until this AI craze, computers were cheap.
Even now, you can still get a decent laptop for about 1k
Lets say the computer stuff adds 3k, it isn't nothing, but it isn't what's making cars unaffordable either.
Lets be real here. Cars are big complex machines. They are also very dangerous and need to comply with a ton of regulations.
Cars were never cheap to make.
The reason they feel less affordable now is not because they suddenly got expensive, its because the cost of everything went up, but wages have not kept up.
I do a lot of work in the computer portion of that industry. The computer costs are like a 100 bucks a car. Its the software costs that are more expensive.
Yeah I was gonna say the same. I recently grabbed a Carpuride screen for my motorcycle that does wireless CarPlay, TPMS, and front and rear dash cam for around $150. You don’t need anything fancy at all to get the same “computerized” center console that nicer cars tend to have.
If we compare things like-for-like, cars haven't actually increased all that much. The ceiling has increased, sure, but if we compare the same car from 60 years ago, the price is not actually all that different today.
Median household income in the US in 1965: $6,900.
1965 Mustang base price: $2,500, or about 36.2% of the median household's income.
Median household income in the US in 2025: $87,460.
2025 Mustang base price: $34,000, or about 38.9% of the median household's income.
Now, it might be 2.7% more of the income, but you get a much safer and more fuel efficient car for that price nowadays.
Bullshit, they absolutely did suddenly get expensive and then kept getting worse from there. I think it was 2010-2011 the cheapest car in America doubled in price. It went from being the kia Rio at like $7k to the Ford fiesta at like $14k when kia decided to rebrand from budget to what they thought was "cool young person car."
There was no inflation that year, nothing else really went up in price. And the Rio was everywhere, it wasn't that there wasn't demand. The manufacturers decided they wanted to go for the high profit margins and abandoned budget cars. Hell, a few years later ford discontinued sedans altogether because they could make more money off trucks.
That may have been part of it, especially prior to that with the buy one get one free cars kia was doing when they first showed up. But all the manufacturers pivoted at the same time with a major rebranding and all completely new models that same year. I'm pretty sure Ford's cheapest car also went from $10k to $14k that year. It was not just that single car holding the price down.
Also, the Kia Rio was legitimately the most bare bones car you could buy. It wasn't just a promotional thing.
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u/squngy 8h ago edited 8h ago
Up until this AI craze, computers were cheap.
Even now, you can still get a decent laptop for about 1k
Lets say the computer stuff adds 3k, it isn't nothing, but it isn't what's making cars unaffordable either.
Lets be real here. Cars are big complex machines. They are also very dangerous and need to comply with a ton of regulations.
Cars were never cheap to make.
The reason they feel less affordable now is not because they suddenly got expensive, its because the cost of everything went up, but wages have not kept up.