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Comment by alsodumb | Hacker News Reader

I am not sure how it's out of reach for most people when the average price of new car in USA is like $48,000.

Sure, you might say the average price is skewed by people buying expensive trucks. But even Camry costs like $35-36k after dealer markups - you can get Tesla model 3 for like 32k now after federal rebate.

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the average price of new gas cars is also out of reach for most people. But your point is valid, EVs aren't really all that different in price anymore.

Recently was thinking that new trucks being completely out of reach of prudent wage earners is behind the inane trend of silly big trucks that are increasingly less useful for ordinary truck stuff. That was triggered by an article discussing how a number of industries depend on 'whales' for half or more of their sales. Like how 10% of people drink half the booze. Perhaps most new trucks are bought by people with too much money and too little impulse control.

What is the median new car cost?

If you're looking to remove outliers, Kelley Blue Book also tracks the average (likely mean) of new non-luxury vehicle sales, which was $44,626 in September. Non-luxury is about 80% of sales.

Also, concerning the lower end of sales:

"But the news isn’t all good. Only one car sold for an average price under $20,000 last month. The Mitsubishi Mirage’s average transaction price in July was $19,205.

Every other car with a list price under $20,000 sold for over $20,000 on average. It’s not a large group. Automakers increasingly focus on building more expensive cars, trimming affordable models from their lineups. In December 2017, automakers produced 36 models priced at $25,000 or less. Five years later, they built just 10." [1]

[1] https://www.kbb.com/car-news/average-new-car-price-sees-smal...

That's somewhat helpful, especially the last two quoted sentences.

But for the other part they track luxury at the model level. If you get a jeep or truck that cost $50k-80k because you wanted heated/vented seats, a panoramic sunroof, etc then it's not included in luxury.

I think part of this is also inflation (seems like some sensational journalism dor modt of the articles I found - using average instead of mean and not using inflation). Inflation from December 2017 to December 2022 would mean a $20k car in 2017 would cost $24k in 2022 adjusted for inflation. That's a huge jump.

What percentage of people are buying new cars over used?

I make six figures, never bought a new car in my life and don't ever plan to. Most I've paid is $19K.

It will be interesting to see where EVs fit into the used car market, as the battery is a wear item and is responsible for a significant amount of the price of the car (i.e. what the price will be on a 10 year old EV that will require an $8000 replacement battery).

Yeah, it'll be an interesting to see in a decade. Maybe we'll have a healthy market of salvage/rebuilt/recycled batteries driving down the costs to "rebuild" an EV. Maybe we'll find out recycling batteries isn't what we thought.

If batteries drop in price, even like 20%, a "rebuilt" used EV could be incredibly cheap as its operating costs and risks of drivetrain failure could be incredibly low. Coupled with reduced energy costs if charging gets ubiquitous for non-homeowners, it could be really nice.

Agreed. Perhaps a saving grace will be that run down EV batteries can be used for stationary storage on the electric grid. There's significant value there, but I haven't seen repurchase programs advertised. Maybe there just aren't enough used batteries available yet.

Cox Automotive (parent of KBB) estimates 35.2 million used [1] and 15.4 million new car sales in the US for 2023 [2]. So, about 30% buy new.

[1] https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/estimated-monthly...

[2] https://www.coxautoinc.com/news/cox-automotive-forecast-augu...

I have bad luck selecting good used cars. I pay the premium for new, and then keep them for at least ten years. The used cars I find are either totally shot mechanically, or have unpleasant smelling destroyed interiors. Or both in the case of the one I lost the most money on.

I suggest going for off-lease or rental fleet vehicles. They shouldn’t have either of the issues you mentioned, especially if you get one that is still covered by the manufacturer warranty.

I bought two cars new, and with all the recalls and factory defects, (and ignoring price and depreciation) they were way worse than the used ones I’ve had experience with.

> I make six figures, never bought a new car in my life and don't ever plan to. Most I've paid is $19K.

Yes, I'm in your demographic. Most I've ever paid for a car (a rare new one) was 20K. Nearly every car I've had (in over 30 years of having cars), I've bought for less than 10K.

I like cars and driving. But cars are a depreciating asset. Never worth spending much on. Buy the cheapest used one you can find.

Well, I bought new car and old computer. For some reason I found $34K for car okay but $1000 for a computer too much. (I work in IT, if that matters).

A lot more used cars are sold, but the average price of a used car last year was $30,700.

I've always done that too but the used car market has been so insane lately that it might make more sense to consider new as well going forwards.

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