INFLATION CONVERTER

[Milkyway]

As a bit of fun, I like to compare car prices of old v what ithey would cost today.
Obviously, this is not set in stone, but it makes for some interesting comparisons.
So if you have a fairly good memory or dig out some old adverts. (Or good ol’ google)
Here is my contribution for starters;

1959 Mini: £500 v 12k...
(Basic BMW Mini approx 16k today)
Or... a Fiat 500 for around the same MINI price...if that makes sense.

1961 E - Type (Wiki): £2250 v 51K
‘86 MG Maestro EFI: 10K v 30K
‘90 Calibra (8V): 15K v 35K

....You get the idea.

https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1988?am...

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 18th August 12:48

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[Dapster]

Funnily enough we were discussing this 1990 Merc 300E advertised on eBay a few days ago on the barge thread



I have a period price list. I totted the cost of the car plus all the options and it came to £35k for the car and £10k worth of extras. £45k for a car in 1990 would equate to £99,000 today! That's a mid range exec saloon with a few extras for a hundred grand....

[Yertis]

I don't really trust that calculator. If I put in the original 1971 retail price of a TR6 – around £1300 – the 2021 price comes out at about £19,000. I'm pretty sure that a comparable car now (can't think what that would be) would cost about twice that.

[tapkaJohnD]

This calcuator is published by the Bank of England: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/in...
It agrees with your conversion, but a good TR6 today would get at least £5K more than that.
And comparing like with like is needed. A car comparable to the TR6, new today, would include all sorts of electronic flimflam, on the brakes, steering, engine etc.etc, as well as a much higher level of crash protection, barium steel posts etc.

John

[Yertis]

tapkaJohnD said:

This calcuator is published by the Bank of England: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/in...
It agrees with your conversion, but a good TR6 today would get at least £5K more than that.
And comparing like with like is needed. A car comparable to the TR6, new today, would include all sorts of electronic flimflam, on the brakes, steering, engine etc.etc, as well as a much higher level of crash protection, barium steel posts etc.

John

And the modern car would be slotted together beautifully, rather than be thrown together haphazardly with nuts, bolts, a splash of paint and some Evo-stik.

[Milkyway]

Milkyway]apster said:

Funnily enough we were discussing this 1990 Merc 300E advertised on eBay a few days ago on the barge thread



I have a period price list. I totted the cost of the car plus all the options and it came to £35k for the car and £10k worth of extras. £45k for a car in 1990 would equate to £99,000 today! That's a mid range exec saloon with a few extras for a hundred grand....

Interesting... so your ‘basic’ car = 35K v 81K today.
So, as a comparison with another top of the range ‘ basic’ Mercedes ;
1989 500 SEC... 51K v 131K today.

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 18th August 23:26

[InitialDave]

Interestingly, the BMW 3 series seems to have kept itself somewhat aligned with inflation.

I think an E30 325i was somewhere just under £20k back in the day, and that comes to approaching £50k now.

That's about bang on the price of a 340i, the modern "big petrol engine, non-M3" equivalent.

Obviously rather better equipped though.

[Mr Tidy]

InitialDave said:

Interestingly, the BMW 3 series seems to have kept itself somewhat aligned with inflation.

I think an E30 325i was somewhere just under £20k back in the day, and that comes to approaching £50k now.

That's about bang on the price of a 340i, the modern "big petrol engine, non-M3" equivalent.

Obviously rather better equipped though.

And sh*t-loads faster! Maybe progress isn't always bad.

[craigjm]

Inflation calculators give you a skewed view, especially when they have to deal with a change to decimalisation.

The best way of comparing prices is on affordability using average salary. Let’s take an example

Jaguar E-type in 1961 cost £2097. The average salary in the U.K. in 1961 was £700 so the car was three times average salary

In 2019 the average salary in the U.K. was just over 30k so 3 years of that would mean the E-type was 90k today if it was a new car.

[Dr Jekyll]

InitialDave said:

Interestingly, the BMW 3 series seems to have kept itself somewhat aligned with inflation.

I think an E30 325i was somewhere just under £20k back in the day, and that comes to approaching £50k now.

That's about bang on the price of a 340i, the modern "big petrol engine, non-M3" equivalent.

Obviously rather better equipped though.

Which is interesting because the 3 series now is more equivalent to the 5 series then. The 2 series is a closer comparison.

[Milkyway]

My choice for today is from 1981... & lovely little car.
Nippy, comfortable, good handling & well equipped.
What more could you want... (apart from a boot).
(Avon even bolted on a Turbo for good measure)

TRIUMPH ACCLAIM CD: £4700 (£18,500)

[craigjm]

Milkyway said:

My choice for today is from 1981... & lovely little car.
Nippy, comfortable, good handling & well equipped.
What more could you want... (apart from a boot).
(Avon even bolted on a Turbo for good measure)

TRIUMPH ACCLAIM CD: £4700 (£18,500)

Using the average salary calculation I was talking about earlier. The average salary in 1981 was £6000 so the £4700 Acclaim was 41 weeks wages. Current average salary or £30000 means 41 weeks wages is £23654. Pick a non premium small saloon / hatch like say the Skoda octavia and they are 21-24k so very similar.

The overall affordability of cars has not really changed. What has changed is access to funds as you can now get consumer credit you couldn’t in the 80s and earlier so people can afford a much better car than they would have been able to back then because they are paying monthlies

[Milkyway]

craigjm said:

Using the average salary calculation I was talking about earlier. The average salary in 1981 was £6000 so the £4700 Acclaim was 41 weeks wages. Current average salary or £30000 means 41 weeks wages is £23654. Pick a non premium small saloon / hatch like say the Skoda octavia and they are 21-24k so very similar.

The overall affordability of cars has not really changed. What has changed is access to funds as you can now get consumer credit you couldn’t in the 80s and earlier so people can afford a much better car than they would have been able to back then because they are paying monthlies

Thanks bud.... with your calculations it’s even higher.
I thought that 18+ K seemed rather high.
Out of interest, I compared my 86 MG Maestro EFI (30k) against a modern Golf GTI ( no sniggering at the back).... 32k
I’m going to invest in a new Abacus.

Edited by Milkyway on Thursday 19th August 08:05

[InitialDave]

Dr Jekyll said:

Which is interesting because the 3 series now is more equivalent to the 5 series then. The 2 series is a closer comparison.

That's a different kind of inflation!

[Stuart70]

InitialDave said:

Dr Jekyll said:

Which is interesting because the 3 series now is more equivalent to the 5 series then. The 2 series is a closer comparison.

That's a different kind of inflation!

Like my waistline over the same period!

[Dr Jekyll]

Average salaries have gone up faster than price inflation. But I don't know how much of that is wage inflation and how much due to the changing nature of work. Back in the 60s and 70s low skilled jobs were almost the norm and unskilled work widely available.

It would be interesting to compare the pay of particular jobs over the period.

[craigjm]

Dr Jekyll said:

Average salaries have gone up faster than price inflation. But I don't know how much of that is wage inflation and how much due to the changing nature of work. Back in the 60s and 70s low skilled jobs were almost the norm and unskilled work widely available.

It would be interesting to compare the pay of particular jobs over the period.

Yes indeed. To make a truly comparable calculation you need to look at average salaries along with availability of funds. Oh my calculations above a 1961 E-type was about equivalent in price to a decent spec v8 F-type based on list prices. As a consumer you would never have got finance for most of that chunk in 1961 and you wouldn’t have got a discount, manufacturer contribution and all that.

A massive percentage of people buying new cars these days would have been firmly stuck in the cheap used market even 30 years ago never mind earlier.

[Dr Jekyll]

craigjm said:

Yes indeed. To make a truly comparable calculation you need to look at average salaries along with availability of funds. Oh my calculations above a 1961 E-type was about equivalent in price to a decent spec v8 F-type based on list prices. As a consumer you would never have got finance for most of that chunk in 1961 and you wouldn’t have got a discount, manufacturer contribution and all that.

A massive percentage of people buying new cars these days would have been firmly stuck in the cheap used market even 30 years ago never mind earlier.

Or would have had company cars.

[craigjm]

Dr Jekyll said:

Or would have had company cars.

Yes but even with that the vast majority would have been low ranking beige stuff. We have people in their early 20s turning their nose up at anything less than a BMW or a Mercedes on lease. Imagine these people being told they can have a base Escort and if they get promoted it could be upgraded to a GL

[Dapster]

Milkyway said:

Milkyway]apster said:

Funnily enough we were discussing this 1990 Merc 300E advertised on eBay a few days ago on the barge thread



I have a period price list. I totted the cost of the car plus all the options and it came to £35k for the car and £10k worth of extras. £45k for a car in 1990 would equate to £99,000 today! That's a mid range exec saloon with a few extras for a hundred grand....

Interesting... so your ‘basic’ car = 35K v 81K today.
So, as a comparison with another top of the range ‘ basic’ Mercedes ;
1989 500 SEC... 51K v 131K today.

Edited by Milkyway on Wednesday 18th August 23:26

I have an "all models" price list from 1991. A bog standard 190E with no extras (and this car really had no extras - manual windows, no radio, solid paint, steel wheels...) was £16,500 (£36k today) which is less than the (far better equipped) entry level C Class of today which is closer to £40k. On the other end of the scale, the top of the range 560SEC was £70k, equivalent to £153k today which is the same as the just discontinued S63 AMG Premium Coupe.

Go forward 2 years and the 1993 S600 Coupe would have set you back £97,500, equivalent of more than £200,000 today!

The biggest issue with German cars of the 80's and 90's was the punishing exchange rate - the pre Euro DM was extremely strong and made all the GBP priced cars in the UK really expensive. Cars seem to be better value today.

Edited by Dapster on Thursday 19th August 12:12