←back to thread

The $25k car is going extinct?

(media.hubspot.com)
319 points pseudolus | 2 comments | 29 Jun 25 15:59 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
slg ◴[30 Jun 25 04:28 UTC] No.44419379[source]▶
I don't know why inflation is dismissed so quickly. The article lists the industry average price increase as 29.2% and the inflation value I got out of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics calculator[1] was 26.2%. So sure, "this isn’t just a case of inflation affecting the entire vehicle market" [emphasis mine], but it is mostly that.

[1] - https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

replies(1): >>44419788 #
dingaling ◴[30 Jun 25 05:36 UTC] No.44419788[source]▶
Retail inflation is based on the prices of goods, including new cars.

So it's pointless to compare car prices to inflation because they are part of the basis of the measure. Hence why they track closely.

replies(5): >>44419835 #>>44419987 #>>44420171 #>>44420296 #>>44421423 #
anon7000 ◴[30 Jun 25 05:46 UTC] No.44419835[source]▶
Then it’s pointless to compare nearly anything to inflation, which means inflation isn’t very useful. You can still find many product categories increasing in price more slowly than inflation. Some much higher than inflation. So it is useful to compare inflation
replies(1): >>44419848 #
ajkjk ◴[30 Jun 25 05:48 UTC] No.44419848[source]▶
But the question we're asking is why the price of cars went up. "Inflation" isn't an answer. Inflation is what we call the price of cars going up. It still happens for a reason...
replies(4): >>44419935 #>>44420299 #>>44420333 #>>44421936 #
1. jonny_eh ◴[30 Jun 25 06:04 UTC] No.44419935[source]▶
Except that inflation isn't just the price of cars. The fact that car prices have gone up faster than "overall" inflation is significant.
replies(1): >>44419969 #
2. chii ◴[30 Jun 25 06:09 UTC] No.44419969[source]▶
cars inflating faster than overall/average inflation of the economy is significant.

I suspect the reason is that a car's parts are numerous, and because specific inflation affects different components, there's a good chance that a car's component has more inflation than other products in the economy.

And because inflation has an expectation driven aspect, suppliers that know inflation is happening is going to raise their prices more to combat it pre-emtively. This happens throughout the entire supply chain.

Thus, the end result is that a car's inflationary pressure is higher.

But that's just a theory - an inflation theory...