Right now, I have never seen used cars at such a high price. I bought plenty of very used cars till I was over 40 at $200-$500 running.
I know there has been inflation but used cars when you are buying are way higher than I would ever pay.
But try to sell an older used car and they offer you next to nothing. My 2005 Saturn Vue was valued at less than $2000.
I’ll keep it forever then.
All the money in the world is called the M2. Obama double it and then doubled it again. Then they added 87 billion of quantitative easing each month for his whole presidency. It took long time for that money to appear at our level, where we buy groceries and used cars. As I mentioned banks are holding their inventory of seized vehicles off the market because if they sell them, the book value goes from loan value to real value, which is nothing.
Also, cars built in the last decade are virtually unrepairable. The pick and pull near my house has several rows of high-end cars so it looks like a Mercedes used car lot. They look fantastic. This one needs an engine at $15,000. That one needs a transmission at $12,000. All of them need a computer or two or three. Those run about two grand. They’re used and you don’t get your money back if they don’t work, or the diagnosis now goes one step further and calls for yet another computer.
A cheap used car of yesteryear could be repaired. Today, the cost and availability of parts mean they can’t be repaired.