Cars are becoming a lot cheaper

Way more bang for the buck

Back in 1997, I had to get a new car. My wife and I lived in a condo, walking distance to my work as a researcher at the University of Vermont. Due in part to a long-distance commercial (remember those?) on TV, we came to the conclusion that she wanted to advance our plans for having children by a couple of years. Once she was pregnant, we realized that while the condo was large enough to house us and a child, we could afford a house, so why not?

Once we moved, I realized by getting pulled-over twice in two weeks, that my un-inspect able car needed replacing. Strange how when I never drove, I never got pulled-over for no inspection sticker.

What I got was a 1997 BMW 318ti, what I really wanted, but it was $40k, was a BMW M3. This latter car had 240 HP, a 5-speed manual and great handing. The inflation adjusted price would be over $78k today. I just purchased (late 2024) a Subaru WRX for $32K, it has 271 HP, all wheel drive, a 6-speed manual and a bunch of things the M3 didn’t have, like torque vectoring, adaptive cruise control and a mapping/multi-function display. This is a better car, for less than half the price.

I know what you’re going to say: You can’t compare a Subaru to a BMW. Okay, fine, how about we compare the 1997 M3 to the 2024 M3? The starting price is $76,000—a bit less than in 1997, if you adjust for inflation. But it comes with a 6-speed manual and has 473 HP. It’s a much better car! And it costs slightly less than the old version.