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Wow, I recently saw some old car catalogues from similar era, cars and computers used to be so so expensive!

by ioseph 3y ago

ghaff 3y ago
Were cars really? Hard to do an apples to apples comparison but there are so many safety and other features in cars that didn't mostly exist then. Cars do tend to last longer today, especially in areas with salt on the roads in the winter, but I'd be surprised if their purchase prices were less today in general. Computers certainly. In the mid-80s, a very middle of the road PC or PC clone would probably be close to $10K in today's dollars. (Of course, the Lisa was known for being--overly--expensive and engineering workstations were pricey as well. Individuals mostly wouldn't have bought either.)
- technothrasher 3y ago
  > In the mid-80s, a very middle of the road PC or PC clone would probably be close to $10K in today's dollars. In 1988, you could get an XT clone for about $1000-$1500 in today's dollars or a really nice 386 clone for the equivalent of about $5000. A fully loaded fast 386 clone with monitor, 1 Meg of RAM, and hard drive would be about $7000. (See this old Computer Shopper: https://archive.org/details/computershopperataridecember1988/page/n11/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/computershopperataridecember1988...)
jcims 3y ago
$1k in 1988 is ~$2600 today. https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
darkr 3y ago
Computers definitely were. Cars not so much. Jaguar E-Type (1968): £2,250 (~£32,000 today) Mustang (1968): $2,602 (~$23k today) Mini (1959): $1,340 (~$14k today)
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  As a kid in 1983, I knew exactly what Mazda's truck cost, although it had inexorably increased to $5,995 by the time I had this jingle memorized. https://youtu.be/SOjL-3oJlCM https://youtu.be/SOjL-3oJlCM
  - gedy 3y ago
    Without watching the video, "Sakes Alive!" has been floating in my head for 40 years.

Wow, I recently saw some old car catalogues from similar era, cars and computers used to be so so expensive!

by ioseph 3y ago

Wow, I recently saw some old car catalogues from similar era, cars and computers used to be so so expensive!

Were cars really? Hard to do an apples to apples comparison but there are so many safety and other features in cars that didn't mostly exist then. Cars do tend to last longer today, especially in areas with salt on the roads in the winter, but I'd be surprised if their purchase prices were less today in general. Computers certainly. In the mid-80s, a very middle of the road PC or PC clone would probably be close to $10K in today's dollars. (Of course, the Lisa was known for being--overly--expensive and engineering workstations were pricey as well. Individuals mostly wouldn't have bought either.)

technothrasher 3y ago
> In the mid-80s, a very middle of the road PC or PC clone would probably be close to $10K in today's dollars. In 1988, you could get an XT clone for about $1000-$1500 in today's dollars or a really nice 386 clone for the equivalent of about $5000. A fully loaded fast 386 clone with monitor, 1 Meg of RAM, and hard drive would be about $7000. (See this old Computer Shopper: https://archive.org/details/computershopperataridecember1988/page/n11/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/computershopperataridecember1988...)

jcims 3y ago

$1k in 1988 is ~$2600 today. https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

darkr 3y ago

Computers definitely were. Cars not so much. Jaguar E-Type (1968): £2,250 (~£32,000 today) Mustang (1968): $2,602 (~$23k today) Mini (1959): $1,340 (~$14k today)

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
As a kid in 1983, I knew exactly what Mazda's truck cost, although it had inexorably increased to $5,995 by the time I had this jingle memorized. https://youtu.be/SOjL-3oJlCM https://youtu.be/SOjL-3oJlCM
- gedy 3y ago
  Without watching the video, "Sakes Alive!" has been floating in my head for 40 years.