Not too long ago I could buy a decent beater for 3 grand, put another $1000 in parts, and have a solid car to give to grandkids. Now those are more like 5000 bucks.
people often forget about inflation and how it affects the cost of everything.
Under “ideal” inflation conditions (the fed shoots for 3%) the price of everything doubles about every 20 years.
So for someone like me 40 years removed from my teens, something that cost $5,000 then would have doubled to $10,000 by 2000 and then doubled again to $20,000 now in the 2020’s.
So yeah... if you are thinking you are going to go pick up a car for $5,000 like you did when you were a teen, you shouldn’t be surprised when you see the $20,000+ price tag. That’s just simple inflation.