https://www.npr.org/2022/07/02/1109105779/monthly-car-payments-record-700

In both housing and cars, a fair bit of this is "code creep." But a lot is also just demand for luxury. When the guy says "every car today is a luxury car" he seems to mean the price, but even a simple car today is luxurious compared to a car from 40 years ago.

Quote$5 a gallon recently and are still hovering near these record levels.

We are now double that in the UK....

This is a bomb waiting to go off.  Apparently half of all cat loans are under water.  The used car market has had cost rise double the rate of inflation.

>go off

Car Repos Are Exploding. That's a Bad Omen. | Barron's
https://www.barrons.com/articles/recession-cars-bank-repos-51657316562

The Subaru Crosstrek is probably the closest thing in the current lineup to the Forester we have. Arguably, it might be the Impreza - the Forester was their bottom-end car at the time and is now more mid-range and much bigger.

We paid $18,500, but MSRP was about $20,000. An online inflation calculator tells me that MSRP is the equivalent $31,000 today.

Assuming you can find one, though, the MSRP on a Crosstrek is $23K and on the Impreza is under $20K. Even the larger, fancier Forester is $26K. Anyway, the point is that an entry-level Subaru is the same price today in nominal dollars as it was in 2004 and it is a nicer car in almost every respect.

So we are seeing real-term deflation in car prices over the long-term, while seeing actual inflation in what people are paying. So that puts it in a new light when the guy says "every car is a luxury car."