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You may have not been car shopping lately. Before you make that trip to the car dealership, you should brace yourself for a rude shock. Cars have gotten expensive; really expensive. The National Automobile Dealer’s Association (NADA) says the average price of a new car last year was $28,400. Remember when a $30,000 vehicle was a pretty nice ride? Well, it still is, but it’s by no means an overly expensive one.

Why have cars gotten so expensive? Well, the quick and easy answer is the same as why every other product is more expensive no than it was 20 years ago; inflation. Unfortunately, with vehicles, it’s much more complicated than that. Inflation has played a part, to be sure, but so have many other factors. One major reason for the increase in the price of new vehicles is government regulations. The cost of compliance paid by the auto manufactures is obviously passed on to the consumer. Tighter emission controls, CAFÉ requirements and stricter safety laws have conspired to give us much better cars, but also much more expensive ones. Priced an airbag lately? How about steel intrusion door beams, an electronic engine management system or a direct fuel injection system? All are quite expensive, I can assure you.

To increase fuel economy requires some of the same technologies that are needed to improve emissions, such as fuel injection systems. Other expensive technologies employed in pursuit of better fuel economy are lightweight, composite materials and development time spent to reduce rolling and wind resistance.

All vehicle cost increase can not be laid at the feet of government mandated safety and emissions regulations or inflation, however. We consumers shoulder a substantial portion of that blame. After all, who’d buy a car today with, gasp, roll up windows? I sure as hell wouldn’t. Ditto everything else that used to optional on luxury vehicles that are now standard on even the most basic economy cars.

You have air conditioning or automatic climate control (some with multiple zones), power windows, heated seats, central locking, keyless entry, trip computers (which are actually very inexpensive to implement because they use the government mandated on board diagnostic system), power seats, leather upholstery, CD players with 6 – 10 speakers and powered subwoofers, auto dimming mirrors, Home-link transmitters, high power engines, and the list goes on and on. These features were unavailable or optional on even the most expensive vehicles 20 or so years ago. Now they are standard or very popular options on almost everything that rolls off the showroom floor, except the lot boy’s motorcycle.

So as consumer standards have risen, we simply demand more from our vehicles, much more. This level of content drives prices through the roof. Not only do we want our cars to have a plethora of features, we want them to be supremely safe, so we ensconce ourselves on a cocoon of air bags, in front, on the side, above, and below. The front and rear of our vehicles are delicately engineered crumple zones, designed to absorb the energy of a crash, and keep it from the high strength safety cage disguised with the cars’ sexy bodywork. We have fantastic anti-lock, 4 wheel, disc braking systems, with rotors the size of large dinner plates, clamping down on 18”, styled aluminum wheels. These stylish wheels are wrapped in low profile tires that would outperform almost anything we could imagine 20 years ago.

Not only do we want our cars to stop on a dime, we want them to have power, and lots of it too. 30 years ago the Chevy Corvette was the premium American performance vehicle. It had a paltry 180 horsepower. Now that amount of power is simply laughable on all but the most basic compact family sedan. The Corvette leaves the factory with 400 raging horses under its fiberglass bonnet, and a version is available with over 500HP! Even with the substantial horsepower increase, the Corvette of today gets twice the fuel economy as the Corvette did 30 years ago. A 300hp engine was found in the Corvette only 15 years ago, and it was a rarity. Now 300 hp vehicles are as common as rats in a New York City apartment building. You almost can’t leave the dealership without being shown at least one.

We also need this much power due to the porkers our new vehicles have become. Even with the liberal (hate that word) use of lightweight materials, the weight of our vehicles has risen dramatically. All those new, standard features not only cost money, they add weight. All the soundproofing, electric motors, computers, wiring, and so forth make our cars hundreds of pound heaver than an equivalent ride was 15 years ago. So, you need the extra power partially to safely and easily merge on to the freeway (something all too many people can’t do very well), and partially to overcome the hefty tonnage the engines must haul around.

This stuff all costs money, and lots of it. That’s why your car was so expensive.

If you want to fight back against the rising cost of vehicles, there are a number of ways you can do it. Here is a directory that will show you where to find expensive cars, but pay much less for them - Cheap Car Directory

Here is a really innovative way to eiuther drive your existing car, but have someone else pay for it, or get a new car, and have someone else pay for it Take a look at the Free Car Guide.