{"id":839,"date":"2011-04-06T12:28:46","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T02:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=839"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:56:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:56:43","slug":"would-you-pay-50000-for-a-new-corolla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/would-you-pay-50000-for-a-new-corolla\/","title":{"rendered":"Would You Pay $50,000 for a new Corolla?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A famous political saying of 50 years ago \u201cYou\u2019ve never had it so good<\/em>\u201d* could well apply to today\u2019s new car buyer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0We\u2019ve been doing some homework on \u2018value for money\u2019\u00a0 new cars comparing those manufactured today against those produced a generation ago.<\/p>\n

We looked at two popular cars \u2013 the Holden Commodore and the Toyota Corolla.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the Corolla first.<\/p>\n

In 1985, a Toyota Corolla CSX Hatchback 5-door with 5 speed manual transmission and a 1.6L engine cost a base price of $14,140, excluding delivery costs. Air-conditioning, power steering and front power windows were extra cost options which would have brought the price up to just under $17,000, excluding delivery costs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Twenty-five years ago, the Holden Commodore was relatively new and was the most popular car of the year. A 1985 Commodore SL VK 3 speed automatic cost $14,815 at the dealership. Add to that the extra costs you had to pay for air-conditioning, 4 wheel disk brakes, power steering and power windows. This brought the price up to just over $18,200 before delivery and registration costs.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s adjust these 1985 prices, allowing for inflation and calculate them into today\u2019s dollars. The consumer price index has nearly trebled \u2013 a factor of 2.615. So this means that in today\u2019s dollars, the Commodore would have cost $47,632 and the then locally produced Corolla Hatchback translates into a staggering $44,324 at today\u2019s prices.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s look at what hidden extras you get with the modern version that would have cost a motza in 1985 \u2013 assuming you could get them.<\/p>\n

ANCAP Safety Ratings \u2013 the modern car has built-in crash protection; \u201ccrushability zones\u201d and front and side airbags. They have anti-skid braking as standard \u2013 that hardly existed in 1985, and only on the most expensive cars like Mercedes, and traction control- which did not exist.<\/p>\n

Whilst the enormous advances made with vehicle safety are probably the most important, let\u2019s not forget reliability.<\/p>\n

The JD Power company in the USA just released its\u2019 latest annual reliability survey \u2013 see our report here<\/a><\/span>. It shows a reliability factor of 151, which is the best that the survey has ever reported, and that\u2019s an outstanding 140% improvement on reliability standards on those of 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s put all of that aside and compare just the raw dealer floor prices.<\/p>\n

We worked out that our venerable 1985 Toyota Corolla would cost $44,324 in today\u2019s dollars. (Of course, if you add in all the safety features, you\u2019d be looking at well over $50,000 but forget that for a moment.)<\/p>\n

So, would you pay $44K for a new Corolla? Of course you wouldn\u2019t \u2013 not when you can get a staggering 52% discount<\/span><\/strong>!! A new Corolla is just $21,000 \u2013 less than half the price of it\u2019s 25 year old equivalent in today\u2019s dollars..<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a great deal for a Corolla. Now how does the Holden Commodore fare?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

We have an inflated 1985 cost of $47,632 and a brand new Commodore, equipped with airbags, anti-lock braking, traction control, CD player will set you back just $36,990, which is around 30% less than twenty-five years ago.<\/p>\n

Just occasionally we have to remind ourselves that it is indeed true – \u201cwe have never had it so good!\u201d<\/p>\n

* British Prime Minister,\u00a0 Harold McMillan, 1957<\/em> http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/zaymyi-v-ukraine.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A famous political saying of 50 years ago \u201cYou\u2019ve never had it so good\u201d* could well apply to today\u2019s new car buyer. \u00a0We\u2019ve been doing some homework on \u2018value for money\u2019\u00a0 new cars comparing those manufactured today against those produced a generation ago. We looked at two popular cars \u2013 the Holden Commodore and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12484,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/12484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}