Yup. When I was growing up my Dad would talk about kids buying $300 cars as their first mode of transportation. I couldn't comprehend it. Now I talk about kids buying $3,000 cars and people look at my like I have two heads.
My first few cars, in 1969 - 1971 were in the $600 - $800 range. Thinking now about what I did back then, I should have paid a bit more and got a better or newer car. When I bought my first car, the '63 Olds Cutlass in July of 1969, I only paid $750 plus T & L. I had $1,500 in the bank.......
Different times. Invoice for the Fury was $2,950.00 Grandpa put $20.00 down to hold it. $20.00 was worth a lot more in 1965 than in 2023.
I believe that was like almost a week's pay for an unskilled blue collar worker back then. And yeah, seeing these terms and whatnot on older paperwork where the sales weasel took a $5 or $50 bill on a down payment, a 1959 Bonneville being worth $100 trade-in, waiting for delivery of an order, and seeing things like "paid" stamp a year or so later? WAY different times for financing cars and buying them than we are used to now.
Yeah. It's nuts. The boys and I will often do this exercise while watching episodes of the Andy Griffith show. Someone will mention a sum of money for something that seems ridiculous to us today, and we'll check the google machine to see the equivalent buying power in today's money. It can be shocking.
I just checked. According to the google machine, $20 in 1965 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $190.00 today.
