Car Prices Would Go Down… If The Free Market Were Allowed to Operate

Eric Peters reports:

How much would the average new car cost if the least expensive new car you could buy cost around $5,000?

Probably, a lot less than the current average price paid of just over $30k.

Part of the reason for the ballooning cost of new cars is the balloons in new cars. Most 2015 model cars have at least six of them now and several have eight or more. At least one has 11. But it’s much more than just the air bags. The cumulative cost-per-car of all the government’s various mandates – including the conflicting mandates regarding crashworthiness and fuel economy (it’s hard to make a “safe” car that also gets good mileage) probably amounts to more than the cost of cars themselves in the era before mandates (rather than consumer preferences) effectively dictated vehicle design.

Regulations shaft the poorer consumers by pricing them out of the market.