The average transaction price for new cars has crossed $50K.
Would you pay that much for a new car?
We’ll remind you here that the ATP is an average — meaning there are still plenty of new cars for sale, including some mainstream metal, under $50K. And you, of course, know that the actual sale price of a new car can been negotiated.
I mean, a Honda Accord is probably not taking you past $50K — the base MSRP for the top-trim is under $40K and that model isn’t rare enough for dealer markups. And an Accord is just fine for commuting and will offer a plethora of popular features.
Still, if the ATP for the fleet is over $50K, that means some higher-priced metal is moving.
So I ask of you, assuming your budget isn’t limited by a small paycheck and/or bank account, what is the most you’d spend on a “mainstream” car?
Let’s pretend you make good money, though you’re not rich. Let’s also take dream cars and the like out of this scenario — many of you would stretch for a Corvette or Mustang but not for a Lexus ES or RX.
So, with those parameters in mind, go ahead and sound off below.
[Image: Honda]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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