Something to think about

[Jeffrey S.]

Forty seven years ago this Saturday, Feb. 10, I plunked down $3300 to purchase my '69 Corvette. Just for laughs I went to the Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator to see what that $3300 is worth today. It turns out it is just over $20,300. Also, this fall I bought out the lease on my 2014 Chrysler Town & Country. I paid just under that much. Just think about what that $20,000 bought today. By comparison the Corvette was not much more than a body on a frame with an engine and a steering wheel and some brakes to make it stop. It got about 15 miles to the gallon and needed to be tuned up every 6000 miles. The Chrysler has every available option for both safety, fuel economy, and environmental protection and it gets over 20 mpg (and it's a big heavy vehicle). It won't need a tune up until the next ice age and runs smooth and quiet.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Corvette and that's why I still own it after all these years. I will probably never sell it and my wife has plans to put me in it after I die and bury it with me. But if anyone else tells me that prices of cars today is way more than it was back then, I will have to laugh thinking of this comparison.
Just my thought for today.
Jeff

[Joe L.]

Re: Something to think about

Forty seven years ago this Saturday, Feb. 10, I plunked down $3300 to purchase my '69 Corvette. Just for laughs I went to the Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator to see what that $3300 is worth today. It turns out it is just over $20,300. Also, this fall I bought out the lease on my 2014 Chrysler Town & Country. I paid just under that much. Just think about what that $20,000 bought today. By comparison the Corvette was not much more than a body on a frame with an engine and a steering wheel and some brakes to make it stop. It got about 15 miles to the gallon and needed to be tuned up every 6000 miles. The Chrysler has every available option for both safety, fuel economy, and environmental protection and it gets over 20 mpg (and it's a big heavy vehicle). It won't need a tune up until the next ice age and runs smooth and quiet.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Corvette and that's why I still own it after all these years. I will probably never sell it and my wife has plans to put me in it after I die and bury it with me. But if anyone else tells me that prices of cars today is way more than it was back then, I will have to laugh thinking of this comparison.
Just my thought for today.
Jeff

Jeff------


As I've said many times before when I hear people talk about 35 cent a gallon gasoline, on an inflation-adjusted basis, gasoline has never been cheaper in our lifetime than it is now (especially if one doesn't live in California).

[Floyd B.]

Re: Something to think about

Jeff,

Here's another way to think about the $3300 you spent on that gleaming machine. If you had invested that $3300 in the Coca Cola Co. (KO) in 1969, it would have bought about 50 shares. If you had also placed that money in a tax sheltered trust and reinvested the dividends (including the stock splits) you would now own about 5000 shares and it would now have a total market value of approximately $215,000.

-Floyd-

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: Something to think about

Joe,
That 35 cents a gallon is $2.42 today. I paid $2.29 a gallon at my last fill up at Costco so that is almost the same as the 1969 price.
Floyd,
I knew someone would bring this up and you are right, of course, but my point is that what you get today for the same price as then is incredibly more value. What is packed into this mainstream minivan boggles the mind with everything from headlights to hi-beams to windshield wipers all automatic and buttons to do everything from inside the car. I would put the real cost of today's cars at half the cost of one back then when you ad all of this up. They say that the computing power of you everyday driver is 10 times as powerful as the computers that put a man on the moon in 1969. And it cost pennies as compared to the cost then.
Jeff

[Gene M.]

Re: Something to think about

Forty seven years ago this Saturday, Feb. 10, I plunked down $3300 to purchase my '69 Corvette. Just for laughs I went to the Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator to see what that $3300 is worth today. It turns out it is just over $20,300. Also, this fall I bought out the lease on my 2014 Chrysler Town & Country. I paid just under that much. Just think about what that $20,000 bought today. By comparison the Corvette was not much more than a body on a frame with an engine and a steering wheel and some brakes to make it stop. It got about 15 miles to the gallon and needed to be tuned up every 6000 miles. The Chrysler has every available option for both safety, fuel economy, and environmental protection and it gets over 20 mpg (and it's a big heavy vehicle). It won't need a tune up until the next ice age and runs smooth and quiet.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Corvette and that's why I still own it after all these years. I will probably never sell it and my wife has plans to put me in it after I die and bury it with me. But if anyone else tells me that prices of cars today is way more than it was back then, I will have to laugh thinking of this comparison.
Just my thought for today.
Jeff

You need to compare apples to apples not apples to garlic. Compare 69 Corvette to 2014 Corvette. At least stay in the same ball park.

[Floyd B.]

Re: Something to think about

The Law of Accelerating Return states that technological advancement is exponential (not linear). It is theorized that every 100 years technology advances 20,000 times the current rate.

[Keith W.]

Re: Something to think about

[QUOTE=Floyd Berus (38878);822898]Jeff,

Here's another way to think about the $3300 you spent on that gleaming machine. If you had invested that $3300 in the Coca Cola Co. (KO) in 1969, it would have bought about 50 shares. If you had also placed that money in a tax sheltered trust and reinvested the dividends (including the stock splits) you would now own about 5000 shares and it would now have a total market value of approximately $215,000.

-Floyd-


Floyed - that's true , but Jeffs had over 47 years of fun - priceless

[Floyd B.]

Re: Something to think about

>> that's true , but Jeffs had over 47 years of fun - priceless

Even more true.

[Duke W.]

Re: Something to think about

Jeff - How about a chassis dyno test on that "base engine", TH400. When temps warm up above freezing, but are still cool is the best time to do it.

Duke

[Dan D.]

Re: Something to think about

If you think about it...most things remain relative over the years. If it took so many average man/hours/labor to buy something 50 years ago...It takes approximately the same average/man/hours labor to buy the comparable product now.