US consumers are finding cars too expensive.
For years it has seemed no sticker price was too high for American car buyers. Even as average new car prices approached $50,000 this year, dealers fretted more over depleted inventories than losing customers to sticker shock.
Those days are coming to an end.
Increasingly stretched consumers are starting to draw the line on what they will pay for a new car, according to dealers, analysts and industry data.
Car buyers are downsizing, buying used vehicles, taking on longer car loans and holding out for deals.
It should be noted that cars are like hamburger, you pay for them by the pound.
A Cadillac Escalade weighs 2½ times as much as my Toyota Corolla.
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For the U.S. auto industry, 2025 was supposed to be a banner year fueled by tax cuts and a deregulatory wave. Analysts predicted a third-straight annual sales increase as automakers, who had been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and semiconductor shortages, finally got their factories running full steam. Now forecasts predict muted or no growth for the year and more of the same in 2026.
Also, people remember just how much dealers overcharged in the years immediately following the height of the pandemic.
People still have a chip on their shoulder about that.
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