Cars that should be $500 for a 16 year old working at McDonald's part time to buy are over 10 times more than what they should cost.
Pre-COVID and during COVID, you could still find cars for sub $1000 that would be reliable commuters and even some cool project cars. I bought a couple of Integras during this time and had a ton of fun with them. A drunk driver crashed into my 89 Integra 5 speed, RIP silver 'teg... (Fun car, incredibly smooth motor.)
Post-COVID, the car market has lost its fucking mind. I even worked with a guy trying to sell an utterly clapped out, rustbucket 1988 5.0 Mustang notchback for $12,000 with a transmission that barely shifts and rust from driving it in winter on every fender. "I know what I got" attitudes on every single shitebucket people are trying to sell to people.
From what I can tell, high-end cars haven't really gone up in price much, mid-range cars are holding their value better, but the low-end cars? Seems like that entire market of shitbox beaters has been nearly eliminated. As a fan of shitbox beaters that keep running with 0 money put into them, it is shocking to me to see the inflation hit the beater market.
Although, I am now seeing even more opportunity to find broken $500 cars, fix them for cheap, and then put them up for sale for $5,000 since there are practically no beaters left for young and/or poor people to buy anymore!
