That doesn't seem so bad though, right? Just looked up the MSRPs: 2016 Civic Sedan: $18,640 1996 Civic Sedan: $10,350 So average increase has been 3.0% per

That doesn't seem so bad though, right? Just looked up the MSRPs: 2016 Civic Sedan: $18,640 1996 Civic Sedan: $10,350 So average increase has been 3.0% per year over the period (CAGR). Inflation over the same period has been 2.2%, so it's a somewhat more expensive in constant dollars than it was 20 years ago (~$2500) but also comes with much better features. There also are cheaper cars today than the Civic (i.e. 2016 Nissan Versa MSRP is $11,990, and you almost certainly negotiate down past MSRP).