I have to say even by the mid/late 90s I would often do the math and based in interest rates being higher on a used car, you could dive a new car for about the same cost as a decent used one even though the price was thousands lower on the used car.

It was that point where you can afford to not drive a beater any more and think well, I will get something with low miles and 3-5 years old and the payment is just or at lease almost as high as a brand new car.

That should of told us what was coming but we were all so stupid back then. Cash for clunkers was the death nail but it was already dying.

I bought a used 96 Cherokee Sport very much an upgrade from this one. That would have been about 2002, it had about 75K miles on it.

Absolutely loaded with anything you could get on one at the time. Cherry condition, red with great wheels on it. Price was 7500 dollars. Literally had all maintenance records, garage kept, etc.

The economy is ruined, the money must be fixed.

They are only "collectable" because a lack of free markets

My first car was 300 dollars (75 Grand Prix), second was well, expensive (87 TA when came into some money, was young and dumb), third was 450 (77 Mustang II) , fourth was a 2500 dollar truck (79 Chevy with a strait 6 Nova Motor in it).

First "New Car" was a Nissan Pick up, 14K brand new with an extended cab and basically fully loaded. That was a 1994 model. You could get a base model standard cab at the time for about 9K.

That Nissan was 0 down, traded in the beat to shit Chevy I had on it, payment was under 300 and I had no fucking credit worth shit at the time.

Nevermind the cargo ships burning enough fuel in 1 passage to equal a small city’s worth of vehicle emissions in 1 year