Are cars unaffordable?


Apparently, JD Vance thinks so.*

Not to go all anecdotal here, but in 1981, I bought my first car, a brand-new Mazda GLC hatchback, for $5770. In 2024 dollars, that’s $20,000. It had no radio, no air conditioning and no passenger-side sun visor. 


My most recent car purchase was a 2013 Honda Fit four-door, which I bought for $15,000. It has a radio and CD player, cruise control, air conditioning, front and side-door air bags and both driver- and passenger-side sun visors. So way more car for less money (real dollars). 

Kevin Drum has a post with actual, you know, data. He plots the average cost of a new car as a percent of average household income and shows that the trendline has been flat for over 30 years. 

JD Vance isn’t just weird, he’s unmoored from reality. While that makes him a good fit for the Trump ticket, he’s not the sort of Vice President America needs.

*What Vance actually said was "Thanks to Kamala Harris's spending policies, the average new car costs nearly $50,000 a year." Not only does an average new car not cost $50K/yr, but the VPOTUS does not set spending policies. If Biden committed a gaffe like that, there would be bleats all over the MSM that he should step down because of dementia.

https://jabberwocking.com/dont-listen-to-j-d-vance-things-are-fine/

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