Its refreshing to see this thread seem to hit the nail on the head over and over about how its simple consumers and market greed that have driven costs higher and nothing from politics. The economy is strong and people have money/debt to spend.
I find people often forget that if they want a higher wage, they have to sell their product at a higher cost. Its just a cycle although it has exploded more recently.
As long as people want to buy new things and creditors lend them stupid amounts of money to do so, they'll keep buying new stuff. I'm definitely on the train of keeping my paid off current vehicles and "low" mortgaged home for longer than initially intended.
I paid $41k for my 2016 Rubicon in 2016. The closest comparable model is now $62k. To get the upgraded Alpine audio and Nav like mine has, apparently I'd have to now also get 4G Wifi, Apple Car-Play, and Off-road cameras. Plus Rubicons also now come standard with LED headlights and taillights, additional airbags, full-float rear axle, pre-wired aux switches, trailer sway dampening, back-up camera, 12.3-in center screen, and a 7-in driver screen display instead of gauges....
The list goes on but over the cost of greed or inflation, the standard/included features with options is driving costs up. Not that I'm saying these features are bad, but their costs add up quickly. Maybe that's a large part of the extra $20k.
