In 1990 the cheapest new cars were about 1/4 of the median income. Today, they are more than 1/2. In real dollars cars have doubled in price in 30 years. (To be honest, they’ve also gotten a lot better) That is inflation.
They really haven’t gotten that much better since 1990-91. Just more distracting and breakage prone electronic toys and harder to work on yourself.
“(To be honest, they’ve also gotten a lot better)”
Well, yes and no. True, the cars are fantastically capable. But that capability is frangible. A mechanic near me advertises that you can finance your timing belt replacement. So, every 60-100000 miles you have an expense that runs from !,000 to several thousand dollars. The manufacturers have done everything in their power to prevent you from taking their car to anyplace other than a dealer, which greatly increases the cost for everything. Apparently, the Tesla dealer can completely disable your car if they detect certain things that you have done to it.
There’s a Pick and Pull near my house with a double row of Mercedes. They look like they could be on a high end used car lot. Some of them look nearly new. So, I asked about them. That one, needs a new engine; $15000. The one next to it needs a transmission; $12,000. Most of the others need one or more computers to even diagnose the problems they exhibit. Those computers are not made anymore and cost anywhere from $1500 to $3000 with no guarantee they work, because, they are coming from wrecked cars.
I have owned a number of the last model Lincoln built on the Panther platform. Since they are owned mostly by older people, you can pick one up, say, a 2009 with 60k miles, that has been garaged and well maintained. But, practically everything electric has failed. The seats won’t move. The dash doesn’t work. It’s a terrific, smooth, quiet ride. But the electrical glitches often make it practically unusable.
In short, modern cars are not built to last. They are built to go on lease. They will work fine for the first owner and that’s all that is intended by their manufacturers. There is no long, long term value.
Don’t get me started on depreciation.
BTW, I am rebuilding a ‘48 Plymouth and a ‘56 Studebaker. I have a 2004 Toyota, Tundra, which is the newest vehicle I will ever have. It’s relatively cheap to maintain, but the timing belt does cost $1,000 to replace. However, I have been able to do all the other maintenance on it myself.
Cars are much more expensive today than ever before, but they are also much more advanced.
If you built a 1990 car brand-new today I'll bet it would cost LESS than 1/4 of the median income.
However, you can't legally sell a new car today that's built to 1990 standards.
So how DO we measure price inflation in a product like this?
With your car example... which group has suffered the most car inflation as per the food example below...
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/
from link:
Over the past 25 years, the poorest 20% of households in the US spent between 28.8% and 42.6% on food, compared with 6.5% to 9.2% spent by the wealthiest 20% of households.