Sticker shock: Car prices top $50K for first time in US, Kelley Blue Book says

[EdmondDantes_]

14. Simple is fine if one doesn't want to understand I suppose

So let's take a very simplistic look by comparing the average price last year before the tariffs was 48,700 and now it's 50,080 after the tariffs, that gives us 1,380, giving us 2.7% as the cost difference. But we know inflation exists and so you can't assign all of the additional cost to the tariffs. Inflation in 2025 has been 2.9%. So if we used simple logic, tariffs dropped the car price by .2%. Which is of course a ludicrous claim, but many things go into the price of a car. For example blind spot assistance costs about 1,600 which is above the cost increase.

What's more the cost since we're dealing with average and not median is people buying EVs since the rebates were known to be ending in September and higher end vehicles higher end buyers are less impacted by higher interest rates and economic fears. And those cars are in fact more expensive than the median car. Luxury vehicles costing over 75,000 went from 6% of cars to 7.4% of cars in the last year. EV sales went up 30% in September and are up to 10.5% of sales Those both increased the average regardless of tariffs.

And sorry but the real world is complicated. Many things go into the price of a car. I'm sorry you think everything bad lays at the feet of Trump, but it's faulty reasoning and leads to lack of agency and an increasingly nihilistic view.