The average selling price of cars, uh, I mean SUV/CUVs is getting higher and higher. Pickup trucks average selling prices are practically in luxury sedan ranges

The average selling price of cars, uh, I mean SUV/CUVs is getting higher and higher. Pickup trucks average selling prices are practically in luxury sedan ranges. As stated in comments, cheap financing definitely helps this, as does the fact that current cars really are so much better than cars 20 years ago, to say nothing of cars from the 80s or (shudder) 70s. A lot is the luxury feature set, but a lot is just people buying very gaudy horsepower drivetrains. EV drivetrains will rapidly eclipse ICE drivetrains in price, and they are almost trivial to design for very good acceleration (which really is all that gets used daily for "sporty" cars). The joke is Americans buy horsepower but drive torque is very apropos. A simple EV drivetrain can deliver very high torque at the low end, while equivalent torque is really expensive for an engine. So that will leave software (which commoditizes quickly as well) and luxury features. But I think the average price will come back.