Are Used Car Prices Driving Away Young Enthusiasts?

Some young people feel like enthusiast cars are unattainable, here’s why.

Looking at the current world of car enthusiasts as a teenager can be kind of bleak sometimes. To your left is a group of drunk, reckless, or just generally narcissistic street hooligans looking to make trouble. While on your right you have incredibly high track fees, skyrocketing prices on cars, and an increasingly narrow selection of enthusiast-based automobiles on the market. However there are a lot of upsides to it as well, driving fast is really fun, competition when kept on a track can be one of the most incredible experiences of a car person’s lifetime, you meet some really cool people in the car scene, and you can customize your ride as an extension of your personality. It’s just that some young car people are quite hesitant to join the community, a problem we have got to work hard to overcome lest our beloved hobby die out. So why are young people being phased out of the culture?

Find out why a couple intentionally caused car crashes here.

Let’s start with the rising prices of automobiles. Recently, there has been kind of a lot of talk about the prices of used automobiles. Most young enthusiasts are in the same position that pretty much all the teenagers are in at one point in their lives. It’s not like we’re all trust fund babies or yuppies with lots of money to spare. Actually, most car people buying their first automobile will definitely be buying a used car for their affordability. However, as the raging chip shortage continues to make new cars nearly unattainable for many Americans, used car prices are skyrocketing unlike ever before.

According to jpmorgan.com, “the average price of a new vehicle was up 6.3% in the last year,” a scary stat for sure. However, what’s even crazier is how much that increase has affected the used car market. “Average prices were up 42.5% in September 2022 vs. February 2020” according to the same article. This might be one pivotal reason why younger people are slowly being pushed out of the car community. There may be hope as 2023 projections show around 2% to 5% decreases in new car prices translating to 10% to 20% decreases in used car prices. However predictions are merely speculations and, until our economy re-stabilizes, it’s going to be pretty hard for some people to justify buying a sports car these days. Hopefully everything will settle in and people will once again be able to enjoy muscle, pony, and sports cars to the fullest extent without having to worry about the cost but until then we’ll just have to wait and see.