Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle
Looking for a new car under $20,000? Good luck. Your choice has dwindled to just one vehicle
Just five years ago, a price-conscious auto shopper in the United States could choose from among a dozen new small cars selling for under $20,000.
At a time when Americans increasingly want pricey SUVs and trucks rather than small cars, the Mirage remains the lone new vehicle whose average sale price is under 20 grand — a figure that once marked a kind of unofficial threshold of affordability. With prices — new and used — having soared since the pandemic, $20,000 is no longer much of a starting point for a new car.
This current version of the Mirage, which reached U.S. dealerships a decade ago, sold for an average of $19,205 last month, according to data from Cox Automotive. (Though a few other new models have starting prices under $20,000, their actual purchase prices, with options and shipping, exceed that figure.)
At the current minimum wage ($7.25), it’s takes 2.757.6 hours or nearly 70 40-hour weeks to reach $20,000.
That is over 1.3 years of full time work to equal the one “cheap” car option. And it completely ignores any other costs, like taxes and interest, let alone god-damn housing, food, medical bills, etc.
This economic system is fucked. If you’re not fighting for income and wealth equality, you’re sociopathic.
Don't worry, if you can't afford it in cash you can always take out an 84 month loan at 6.5% if you're lucky, so it's actually only ~$25,000, or 3,448.3 hours/86.2 40hr weeks!
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That's why, if you or someone you know doesn't make enough, you get a used car. Brand new cars are such a waste of money. With that being said, prices across almost everything today is still fucked in the US with housing definitely being the worst offender.
I make enough and I drive a 2007 accord. Fuck paying for a new car.
If you are minimum wage there's no way you are getting full time hours. Minimum wage employers will only schedule works for 20 hours a week to ensure they won't get close to getting benefits.
minimum wage is too low
Very reasonable take. I'm here for it.
all jobs should be compensated equally and wealth should be distributed equally
Hard pass.
But minimum wage -> minimum effort, right? I have no problem with
no effort => no reward.I've worked minimum wage jobs and jobs that pay far more, and I definitely wasn't working harder at the high paying ones
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Alright bub. You tried buying a car in the last 3 years?
You have any recommendations on how to find a good range EV used?
Build one of those custom jobs that runs on fry oil?
Several companies, including Tesla and NASA, are working on new battery technology as we speak. I'm guessing by 2030, the technology will be wide spread and available for commercial use, and so by then there will be electric cars that have way better range, and as they become more economically available, the price in the long run will go down. So my recommendation is to wait about 5 years before investing in an electric car.
If you really can't wait, Tesla and hopefully other brands have short term leasing options, where you can pay a monthly fee to lease the vehicle.
Americans sure love wasting money.
If love is code for being forced to by horrible corporations that can do whatever they want because we have no consumer protections at all. Yup. If you mean buying cars, we kind of have to. Public transit is a joke outside like 3-4 major cities. I remember my first job out of college, had a light rail stop within biking distance from home and one right outside the office. Looked into riding it. Near 2 hours each way, multiple transfers. 20 minute car drive.
Nope. This is all driven by the car companies. They can get higher margins on large vehicles.
A fucking Mirage? That's even worse.
It's still cheap, only 20x the minimum wage
At least if you consider that in my country the cheapest is 50x the minimum wage
How are people up voting this. Can people not do 1st grade basic math? This is just incorrect
Maybe the car is 0 dollars then the math checks out.
The minimum wage is not $1,000 anywhere in the United States.
At the absolute worst min wage, the car is 2x the minimum wage.
Yearly vs monthly wage.
The new 2024 Chevy Trax, which has gotten rave reviews, starts at about $21k.
It is infinitely better vehicle than this Mirage.
Difference is that the number they're looking at is the average sales price. There is a big difference between starting price for a bare-bones option without fees and actual sales price across the model line.
What's the Nissan versa going for? I thought it was supposed to be cheap as balls too?
Fuck Nissan and their shitty transmissions
I hope China can flood the market with cheap EVs.
I hope the Chinese do a better job at it than the Vietnamese have. Vinfast cars are awful.
Detroit thanks Biden for standing behind trumps China trade war or else the American consumers may have been able to get a new EV at half that cost.
"Average sales price" what a shitty headline, but hey gotta soak that karma somewhere.
Consumers are choosing expensive vehicles and companies are responding. Stop blaming everyone else but the rampant over spending on features.
You poor bastard.
When your choices are made for you, you have no choice.
Blah blah blah, everybody but my own fault. You do have a choice. Instead of buying the model with 50 different features, you can buy the one with plain cloth and 5 inch shitty screen. But you won't because you want ACC, heated seats, and cameras everywhere.
Edit:
Shipping all the Mitsubishis for sale.
