Seriously, I’ve spent like an hour searching and there appear to be absolutely no used cars in the US or Canada priced at or under $500. In fact, they’re not even really close. I can only find a handful of cars under $1000, and they all seem to be parts cars that have major issues that are insurmountable for all but experienced mechanics who happen to have a spare engine laying around.
Am I just searching in the wrong places or what? Where have all the cheap-ass cars gone in this car-mandatory society?
The same reason why it’s rare to ever find interesting stuff at yard sales, thrift stores, and flea markets anymore. The internet and that nearly everyone having a phone has made people a lot more aware of what they have, and if not that the existence of flippers. People who make it their life mission to be as close to a leech on society as landlords are. What they do more often than not is find someone who doesn’t know what they have, buy it off them, then fix any minor issues, then flip it for a lot more than they paid and put into it.
They’ve completely disappeared thanks to inflation, not even mentioning the damage to the cheap old car market done by cash-for-clunkers
even beat panther platforms are $2k+
Car prices went dummy thicc right around 2022 and haven’t adjusted back and seems like they won’t. But those 10 year old dodges and Nissans can’t hold their value forever
At certain points during the pandemic used car prices were through the roof because new cars weren’t getting shipped or whatever. Market never recovered of course.
in addition to things others suggested, I think there is an additional squeeze on the used car market due to the larger transition from ICE -> EV.
few people want to be the bozo that buys the last ICE vehicle, while manufacturers certainly don’t want to eat a ahitload of inventory leftover from the ICE paradigm once EVs become the default. hence their hesitation in being transparent about a transition timeline.
additionally, apart from bazinga brains, most people are waiting for more generations of EVs, more diverse offerings, and experiences with reliability and maintenance. including the prospect of EV maintenance/repair that is not connected to car dealerships as they are NOTORIOUS for a long history of crooked behavior with ICE vehicles.
so all this means, if you are not bazinga & your current ICE vehicle is trashed, are you going to buy a brand new ICE vehicle that you might be stuck with for a while? or are you gonna try to find something used to reduce your total sunk cost and keep your options open over a shorter window?
I didn’t invent this logic. some guy published a white paper like 6 years ago predicting this crunch to happen around this time. I think COVID and the general state of the economy (unstable) made more people risk averse, hence tightening the market for an affordable vehicle even further.
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