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this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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chapotraphouse
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Fuck this article
It's not a "sigh of relief" that poor people's best/only option of getting around, used cars, sticker price is rising substantially every month
The only people with more "breathing room" now are small business used car dealership tyrants
Without used cars I think most of us would be without work (unfortunately. I want more public transport). The fact that from the outside looking in, that used cars are that expensive in the USA is baffling. What the hell drove up the prices so much?
The Car Allowance Rebate System (AKA Cash for Clunkers) destroyed a lot of stock in 2009, and the chip shortage during the early years of the pandemic impacted vehicle production, reducing the supply of used vehicles from that time, which would otherwise tend to be in a sweet spot of still under warranty but depreciated in price - a rung is missing and people are holding on to older cars.
I imagine access to Chinese EVs helps keep used car prices down in non-burger countries
Sort of, where I am there's only a couple of Chinese car brands (LDV, Haval and BYD off the top of my head, probably more but I can't remember which ones are floating around) but used cars are certainly more expensive than they were 5 years ago. But what I've seen from the US, it's much more expensive over there, even adjusting for cost of living
Another factor is the internet, you can see this in a lot of other places too, a lot more people have access to knowing what their stuff is actually worth now.
As Tay Zonday (yes, the chocolate rain guy) has pointed out: Being poor now just leads to being more poor later. Poverty charges interest.
What few walkable cities exist in North America are in such absurdly high demand that rent is out of reach for all but the wealthiest people. So your more “affordable” option are car-dependent suburbs. Cars are a tax on poor people as far as I’m concerned, the rich can easily dodge it by simply living in one of the few places worth a damn.