To me and as several of you hit on it already - with the increase in price of new cars, the wages not going up for a lot of people; people do one of two things - either they buy used or they look to get on payments for longer than 60mo. I mean, I remember doing a 72mo loan was considered crazy but now you can get a 80mo loan so it ensures that the person will wind up trading it in with negative equity.
So manufacturers wind up getting rid of half their underperforming rides like what Ford has done and you are left with one sports car, one economy car and then nonstop SUVs and crossovers. I won't be surprised if you start to see some 'staples' from GM go away soon and other manufacturers follow the trend.
As for the cost of vehicles - I recently had the opportunity to drive around in a new Sentra for 4 days. The cost of the vehicle was close to $22k. I'm not saying that I could find better used options for that cost......but I could have found A LOT of better used options at that price. The engine was meh at best, I felt like I was sitting soo high that it felt like a I was in a crossover. FirstWorldProblems I know - but that car made me appreciate everything the Z was - analog, very direct steering, great brakes and decent power but tons of fun.
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