So, I was discussing inflation to some co-workers, and they were telling me they haven't seen it.
I told them that the value of pretty much everything has gone up; food, gas, etc... including the cost of a used car.
I just looked up the values of our two daily drivers. We compared the retail price for what WE paid, with the suggested retail price of what KBB suggests right now.
2002 Ford Explorer Sport 2-Door, excellent condition, 43k miles, loaded. (bought 2 years ago)
- Paid $6,995 Retail at Khun Volkswagen / Honda in Naples, Florida.
- KBB Suggested Retail... $8,595
2008 Jeep Patriot Limited, excellent condition, 28k miles, totally loaded. (bought 2.5 years ago)
- Paid $13,600 at Daytona Nissan in Daytona, Florida.
- KBB Suggested Retail.... $17,959
Now, I know the first thought in everyone's head is... "You can't expect to get that."
I know... this was to see what inflation has done to the VALUE of the car. For both of those cars, we paid the asking price in the paper without haggling that. For both of those cars, we had trade-ins, and that's what we haggled on. But we bought both of those cars for their asking price. So that was the "Suggested Retail" price. So when compared to the "Suggested Retail" price today... it totally shocks me how much inflation we've seen over the past couple of years... and most people haven't even noticed it.
Based on my calculations, I would say that over the past 3 years, we've literally seen an inflation rate of the US dollar at 25%...
That just shocks me...
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Todd,
2008 Jeep Patriot Limited 4x2
2002 Ford Explorer Sport 2dr 4x2
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter
