Another inflation indicator

[LVSteve]

There is now only one 2025 model year car you can buy new with a list price of under $20k, the base Nissan Versa. SMH.

(Don't worry about the access message, the link works)

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[Rudi]

Only very wealthy people believe inflation is going down. It is out of control.

 

[Farmer17]

While renting cars I've driven the Nissan Versa and other very small bottom of the line cars and my feeling is to avoid them and get at least, the next size up. Nissan Sentras are pretty decent small cars along with the Hyundai Elantra and they are pretty reasonably priced on the used market. They are much more refined than their smaller relatives and are quieter, smoother, and more powerful without much of a hit on gas mileage. The Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are excellent as well but their new and used prices are much higher.

 

[Jebus35745]

Didn't the auto workers get a 25% raise over 4 years?? Not sure if that includes benefits. SSOOOO you hesitate to buy a new car now and in 4 years it will be 25% more plus. Am I seeing this correctly?

Will the prices go down on groceries or will they remain the same over time or higher?? Do prices go down when inflation gets better? Larry

 

[UncleEd]

Always continuing worries. Glad my family back in the 1920s through the 1940s never had such problems. They couldn't cope with the current times.

 

[mtgianni]

Didn't the auto workers get a 25% raise over 4 years?? Not sure if that includes benefits. SSOOOO you hesitate to buy a new car now and in 4 years it will be 25% more plus. Am I seeing this correctly?

Will the prices go down on groceries or will they remain the same over time or higher?? Do prices go down when inflation gets better? Larry

I'm pretty sure that the cost of labor is less than the cost of materials.. In any case, 6 1/4% is not keeping up with inflation.

 

[ladder13]

Political move.


Fed Governor Bowman explains dissent on rate vote, says she'''s worried about inflation

 

[dockmurgw]

Does life insurance and a shoehorn come as standard or optional accessories?

 

[glenwolde]

Didn't the auto workers get a 25% raise over 4 years?? Not sure if that includes benefits. SSOOOO you hesitate to buy a new car now and in 4 years it will be 25% more plus. Am I seeing this correctly?

Will the prices go down on groceries or will they remain the same over time or higher?? Do prices go down when inflation gets better? Larry

Your car price model only works if the manufacturer's cost of a car is 100% labor.

I worked in manufacturing my whole life and if I had to guess, direct labor is maybe 15%? It probably varies all over the place. It should be between 10% and 20%. There's a lot of expensive materials and components in a car. Labor should be a smaller piece. I'd have to dig through Ford's financials to get the right number and that's too much work.

Allowing for that, if it is 15%, a 25% wage increase would add 3.75% to the price. Plus that's over four years.

As far as prices going down, they aren't and I actually hope they don't. A decline in inflation just means the pace of increases as moderated. Prices actually going down is deflation. You don't actually want that. Well I guess we all do but we won't like what comes with it.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I Believe "Employee Benefits" is the #1 cost on American cars. That is because those costs cover the retired UAW workers too.

Ivan

 

[pasound]

I bought my 2019 Nissan Versa Note used in the midst of the Covid used car shortage. It was the only basic compact on the lot, and I needed a car "now" as my paid-for car was totaled by a negligent driver who ran a stop sign. These were built in Mexico at the Nissan factory there. Don't think it was a UAW house.

 

[Onomea]

Only very wealthy people believe inflation is going down. It is out of control.

I just read a long article on this. The rate that inflation is increasing is going down. The rate of the increase. From 9.1 percent in June 2022 to 2.9 percent in July 2024.

So, yes, we still have inflation. Prices are still rising, but the rate of the increase is down.



The article, "The Number" in today's WaPo — which perhaps touches on politics so I will not link to it — points out that food at home is up 28% over the past five years, and while this category only makes up 8% of the CPI it something we notice daily and hence has a disproportionate effect on how we feel about inflation.

 

[lkabug]

As the accountant said.....tell me what you want 1 + 1 to be and I'll make it happen.

 

[SafeTFirst]

As the accountant said.....tell me what you want 1 + 1 to be and I'll make it happen.

Any accountant that says that should be immediately fired.

 

[Kinman]

While renting cars I've driven the Nissan Versa and other very small bottom of the line cars and my feeling is to avoid them and get at least, the next size up. Nissan Sentras are pretty decent small cars along with the Hyundai Elantra and they are pretty reasonably priced on the used market. They are much more refined than their smaller relatives and are quieter, smoother, more, and more powerful without much of a hit on gas mileage. The Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are excellent as well but their new and used prices are much higher.

I was forced to use a rental car when someone ran a stop sign that nearly totaled by Toyota Highlander. It was some kind of Hundai, the first thing I noticed was how noisy it was to just ride in the thing...I heard everything around me, engine, tires, everything. The only bonus was it had Sirius radio...what a pop can of a car.

 

[LVSteve]

Does life insurance and a shoehorn come as standard or optional accessories?

I take it you are a larger gent who has issues with small cars.

 

[dockmurgw]

Any accountant that says that should be immediately fired.

Or hired by .gov

 

[dockmurgw]

I take it you are a larger gent who has issues with small cars.

5' 11', 220 lbs, and I like my Ford F250! Something about small cars...they just never appealed to me. But that's probably a lifestyle thing, always owned nothing but pickups and used them as such.

 

[SafeTFirst]

Or hired by .gov

No, fired by the government.

 

[LVSteve]

Any accountant that says that should be immediately fired.

A nice thought, but the realities of both business and government finances since the 1980s is that accountants have been largely employed to provide the picture their employers require, not record what has actually happened.