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      10-05-2020, 01:25 PM   #103
Fugly M3
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Drives: 2023 M3CX
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SoCal

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Quote:
Originally Posted by watermelon3878 View Post
$50,000 in 2000 USD is ~$75500 is 2020 USD. The car technically hasn't got more expensive, the value of the dollar has just diminished
Yup, this!

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com

$50k in 2002 is about $72k today. The real deal, despite it's age is the M2C (not biased because I have one on order, still contemplating a G80). At $61,645, this equates to about $42,500 in 2002, or a then-loaded 330Ci coupe. If anything, the cars are actually a value today.

That being said, other costs (housing, healthcare, insurance, energy in some states) have risen more than inflation, and some costs have appeared and crept from where they didn't really exist before. How many people spent $200-300 a month on cell phones, Starbucks coffee and extraneous subscription services 20 years ago? Combine this with the fact that people generally are tied to dollar figures. I'm not terribly old, and I remember when a "base 911" was $75k. You can't get one for $100k today. It's not the car, it's all the other crap!
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