Inflation affects automobile prices just as it does everything else—by making the price go up. But unlike things such as bread or eggs, which undergo very little technological advancement, cars, like cell phones, are continuously improving. Today’s cars have features that the earliest drivers would have considered science fiction; safety standards have improved, as has the mechanics, materials, and methods used to put the cars together. Just how much have car prices increased? Let’s take a look at a few examples and see.
ASTON-MARTIN
DB5 (1963-65)
The DB5 is most famous for being the “James Bond car”, because although it was not the first car the suave spy ever drove, it was and is the most iconic, making its debut in 1964’s Goldfinger. It was manufactured from 1963 to 1965 and is one of Aston-Martin’s most popular models.
- Original price: £4,175 (Saloon); £4,490 (Convertible)
- Adjusted for inflation: £80,577 (Saloon); £86657 (Convertible). Converting that to dollars, we’d get $113,005.21 for the Saloon and $121,532.11 for the Convertible.
DB9 (2004-present)
The DB9, which has been manufactured since 2004, is one of Aston-Martin’s most popular recent models. Since its birth, there has also been a DB10, but only 10 were made and they were all specifically for a James Bond film, and the company has announced that it has a DB11 model in the works, but information on that is still being kept under wraps.
- Current price for 2016 DB9: starts at $198,250 for the coupe version and $213,250 for the convertible.
BMW
BMW 507 (1956-1960)
The BMW 507 is considered to be one of the most beautiful BMWs ever produced, but that beauty came with a pretty sizeable price tag. In the late 1950s, BMW was still a small company and relied on hand-built designs, which jacked the cost of the car up high. Like…really high, to the tune of $11,000. When production ceased in 1960, only 252 cars had been made, but despite this, it remains a favorite of BMW fans today. It is also notable for being one of Elvis’s cars; he leased both a red one and white one from BMW Glockler.
- Original price: $11,000
- Adjusted for inflation: $95,811.62
BMW Z8 (1999-2003)
The BMW Z8 was the company’s imagining of what the gorgeous, but ill-fated 507 would have looked like if it had been built after the 1950s, and you can definitely see the similarities. Like the Aston-Martin mentioned above, the Z8 is also associated with James Bond, due to its appearance in The World is Not Enough. Despite having only been around for 16 years, the Z8 is already a collectible, and since only 5,703 were ever built, the price can be incredible. A used Z8 can start at $150,000, but it can climb as high as $378,000.
- Original price (2000 BMW Z8): $128,000
- Adjusted for inflation: $176,104.81
Cadillac
Cadillac Runabout (1903-1904)
This little guy, which looks like the lovechild of a carriage and a go-cart, was the first car ever produced by Cadillac. It was considered a technological masterpiece due to the use of variable intake valves and rack-and-pinion steering, and the public’s response to it was quite enthusiastic—at the 1903 New York Automobile Show, 2,286 of them were ordered, which caused the sales manager to declare that the Runabout was “sold out”. In 2012, a Runabout sold for $134,750.
- Original price: $750
- Adjusted for inflation: around or over $20,270.27
Chevrolet
Chevy Corvette Stingray (1963-1967)
Decades after its release, the Corvette Stingray remains an iconic, classic piece of automotive history. The public went wild over the 1963 model, but Chevy spent the next five years honing and streamlining the design until 1967, which was the last year it was produced. The most popular model is the 1967 version of the Stingray. In fact, in 2013, a 1967 L88 Corvette was sold for $3.4 million (the L88 was a high-performance version of the regular Stingray and only 20 were ever made).
- Original price (1967 model): $4,240.75
- Adjusted for inflation: $30,080.88
Chevy Corvette Stingray Z51
Fifty years later, the Stingray is still going strong. The 2014 Performance Package iteration was in such high demand that there was actually a year-long wait for many buyers, as Chevrolet was not expecting that particular model to be as popular as it was and the company simply could not make them fast enough to fill their orders in a timely fashion.
- Pricing: The cost of a 2016 Stingray starts at $55,400.
Dodge
Dodge Challenger (First Generation)
The Dodge Challenger is one of the most iconic cars in existence, especially in the United States, where its name is synonymous with “American muscle”. (Image source). The first generation Challenger (those built from 1970 to 1974) is one of the most popular classic cars for collectors today, with rarer models, like the hemi-powered convertible, selling for anywhere from $200,000 to over $1 million.
- Original price (1970 2-door hardtop with a V8 engine): $2,953
- Adjusted for inflation: $18,031.26
- Original price (1970 R/T 2-door hardtop Special Edition): $3,498
- Adjusted for inflation: $21,359.08
2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat SRT
With a name like “Hellcat”, you know this car is going to be one powerful, slightly terrifying, beast to handle. If the 1970 version was a “muscle” car, then the Hellcat is the automotive equivalent to those dudes at bodybuilding competitions who look like they eat steroids for breakfast. It’s a superpowered driving machine that exceeds the standards set by the original—and that includes its price as well as its features and specifications.
- Price: $58,295 (manual); $60,290 (automatic)
GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
These entries are from companies that have since closed shop, so let’s see how their prices compare to that of companies that are still around today.
Duesenberg
This is an example of a Duesenberg Model J, specifically, the 1932 iteration. Duesenberg’s goal was to create cars that would compete with most powerful and luxurious cars on the planet. The Model J was released one year before the Great Depression (fantastic timing) and cost several times more than what the average doctor made. Despite that, the car was extremely popular and served as a status symbol. Owners of Model Js included King Alfonso XIII of Spain, Al Capone, Greta Garbo, Queen Maria of Yugoslavia, Clark Gable, and Mae West, just to name a few. However, their popularity wasn’t enough to save the business, and Duesuenberg closed its doors in 1937.
- Original price: between $13,000 and $19,000 on average
- Adjusted for inflation: between $224,810.80 and $328,569.64
Oakland
The Oakland Motor Car Company was born in 1907, bought by GMC in 1909, and absorbed into Pontiac in 1931. Oakland focused on manufacturing modestly-priced cars. This particular automobile is a 1929 Oakland All-American Six.
- Original price (1929 All-American Six): $1,245
- Adjusted for inflation: $17,249.15
Plymouth
Plymouth shut down in 2001 and one of its last offerings before its death was the Plymouth Prowler, a retro-styled roadster that helped start a design trend, with several other car companies adopting modified versions of earlier decades’ designs for their new automobiles. The Chrysler PT Cruiser, the Thunderbird (2002), and the Mustang (2005) are all examples of cars that followed the Prowler’s example.
- Original price (1997 model): $38,300
- Adjusted for inflation: $56,535.10
References
- “Elvis Presley’s BMW 507: December 21, 1958” from Elvispresleymusic.com
- “Model Overview” from Hagerty
- “BMW 507 Roadster: A Design Icon But Priced Too High” from BMW Blog
- “BMW Z8 Review” from Edmunds
- “BMW Z8 models for sale starting at $360,000” from BMW Blog
- “BMW Z8 Prices Are Going Through the Roof” From Autoevolution.com
- “2001 BMW Z8” from Hagerty
- “1903 Cadilllac Model A news, pictures, specification, and information” from Conceptcarz.com
- “Cadillac Runabout 1903-1904” from Autoevolution.com
- “Classic Corvette sells for $3.4 million” from CNN
- “Chevrolet Corvette History” from Edmunds
- “2014 Chevrolet Corvette on Year-Long Wait With Z51 Package” from Autotrader.com
- “A history of horsepower: 10 iconic Dodge performance cars of the last 50 years” from New York Daily News
- “1970 Challenger Models & Prices” from Dodge
- “Dodge Challenger History” from Edmunds
- “Duesenberg Model J” from Wikipedia
- “1929 Oakland All-American Six” from Conceptcarz.com
- “Plymouth Prowler” from Wikipedia
