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It’s that point of the yr once more—the top— after we take a second to look again on all of the automobiles, worth tags, in addition to your feedback and votes that made up Good Value or No Cube for 2023. As they are saying, “Wrap it up, I’ll take it!”
Whereas a little bit of a Goldilocks yr—not too dangerous and never too nice—2023 provided up tons when it got here to purchasing different folks’s outdated automobiles. That’s as a result of most of the elements—provide chain points, GM substituting a Temu-sourced infotainment system for CarPlay, and many others.—have continued to drive down gross sales of latest automobiles.
In distinction, the used automobile market, even for traditional automobiles and vans, appears to have stabilized this yr. And whereas costs continued to be greater than many people would possibly like, we didn’t see fairly the batshitcrazpants costs that befouled the market through the top of the pandemic.
After all, all of us spent the final yr smugly sitting again, passing judgment on the hopes and desires of automobile sellers and seekers alike. Not solely did we kibbitz, however we voted. And we commented. All of that work went right into a spreadsheet. Out of that spreadsheet, a bunch of factoids, charts, and not-so-stray observations had been compiled.
It needs to be famous that had been guidelines utilized. It’s not all willy-nilly right here. Once I calculated issues like nation of origin, I did so based mostly on the producer’s nation, not the automobile’s. Meaning a Volkswagen in-built Mexico would nonetheless be labeled as a German automobile. Additionally, this takes me some time to compile, so whereas it’s information from many of the yr, I’ve needed to exclude the final two weeks.
All in all, although, this needs to be a reasonably good snapshot of essentially the most salient (and some much less salient) information factors. So, with out additional ado, let’s get all statistical on the yr that simply was.
Spherical 1: The Nations
This yr, the compilation of the contender’s nation of origin is probably most notable for the nations not represented. Korea, makers of fantastic automobiles, didn’t get a slot this yr. Nor did Canada, regardless of one automobile on our record (the Bricklin SV1) having been constructed there. Ooh, so shut, Canada.
The united statesA. and Germany took the highest spots for the nations that did make the reduce, with Japan coming in sizzling for third place. England, Sweden, and Italy all had respectable illustration, whereas France, Australia—and even Spain, of all locations—confirmed us that, when cool used automobiles are involved, every of these nations has obtained recreation.
Spherical 2: How Did Every Nation Truthful?
Simply as on the Olympics, there’s a way of nationwide pleasure at stake with our contest. Curiously, out of all our taking part nations, solely Italy and Sweden had wins that exceeded their losses. The largest losers—if you’ll—had been Germany and the U.S., every of which suffered greater than twice as many No Cube losses as Good Value wins. Maybe on account of it being our largest contributing nation and therefore providing the best alternative, the U.S. moreover ended up with two ties.
What does all this imply? I don’t know, however I believe it’s attention-grabbing how intently balanced our contest was this previous yr.
Spherical 3: The Many years
The time period decade has been round for, properly… centuries. Deriving from the Latin decādum it means a set of ten. Fairly startlingly, we checked out a full 9 units of ten value of automobiles, vans, and different autos. That’s our broadest span ever.
Out of these, the ’90s proved the most important draw, with the early aughts coming in a detailed second. The ’80s confirmed a powerful third, with the ’70s respiration down its neck. Considerably surprisingly, the ’50s outperformed the ’60s this yr.
In all probability the best takeaway out of this for almost all of us is now when somebody asks how massive a slice of tasty pie we’d like, we will reply that we’d very very like a ’90s slice, please.
Spherical 4: Baller’s {Dollars}
The automobiles aren’t the one purpose we’re right here. We’re additionally right here for the costs of these automobiles. I imply, that’s just about the meat to the automobiles’ potatoes on our communal plate. On daily basis, we’ve a roll of the cube (see what I did there?) as as to if we will likely be communally excited, appalled, or just nonplussed concerning the worth tags offered to us.
At $250,000, the costliest automobile we checked out final yr was the 1995 Chevy Camaro Z28 that the vendor claimed to have as soon as been owned by astronaut Alan B. Shepard. As good because it regarded, and with that out-of-this-world provenance, few of you had been having any of that. A 95 % No Cube loss ensued.
Yet one more Chevy stands on the excessive different finish of the tallywacker. The 1984 Chevy C4 Corvette venture automobile we judged again in August had a buy-in worth of simply $2,200. Plenty of sweat fairness and possibly a ton of components and paint can be required to convey that ’Vette as much as snuff, however sufficient of you discovered it a sufficiently stable place to begin for it to earn a 55 % Good Value win.
General, we checked out a tremendous $4,849,124 value of {hardware} final yr. That’s not too large a leap from the $4,159,838 we noticed in 2022 and works out to a mean quantity of $19,396.49. That quantity is properly under the $27,077 common reported for the final used automobile market final yr. I assume our communal style for below-average costs may very well be thought of above-average.
Spherical 5: Physique Fashion Breakout
Yearly, I pop my head out of my hidey gap, ala Punxsutawney Phil, to see if we’re going to have six extra years of crossovers. And yearly, I’m saddened a bit to see little to no change within the motion of the market.
We, nevertheless, are reduce from completely different material than the final populace. We’re Automotive Lovers, and therefore we’ve far broader tastes than these expressed by the good unwashed. As such, we didn’t see an overabundance of Crossovers and SUVs in our candidate collective. As an alternative, we leaned closely into the cool stuff.
As is the yearly, most of our candidates come out of your strategies, and once more, this yr, your suggestions went deep into sports activities automobile territory. Not solely that, however the variety of wagons outpaced SUVs in our candidate clique by greater than 50%. The one actually odd factor to notice concerning the breakout is that just one bike made the reduce this yr, whereas, remarkably, there have been three trikes. I’m sensing a pattern.
Spherical 6: The Firm We Saved
In 2023, we checked out autos from an astounding 61 completely different makers. That’s nearly double the quantity from final yr and, therefore, a reasonably large flex. Thanks for that goes to the advertisements you all discovered and shared, lots of which introduced some actually bizarre minor manufacturers out of the woodwork. Let’s take a gander on the lengthy, lengthy record.
Yeah, sorry about all that scrolling, Fam.
Spherical 7: Your Votes
Good Value or No Cube wouldn’t be as a lot enjoyable as it’s with out the day by day ballot. This previous yr, that resulted in a complete of 577,381 votes, each thumbs up and thumbs down. Of these, you all went for Good Value 87 instances, tied the vote twice, and No Diced the remaining 160.
Our largest winner, coming in with a 91.8 % upvote, was the 2003 Saturn SW300 we checked out in August. Its $3,995 asking would in all probability show a winner it doesn’t matter what the automobile, however the Saturn did current as particularly good
The opposite finish of the spectrum was occupied by the weirdo 2021 Electramechanica Solo electrical trike that confirmed up on these pages again in March. That was privately provided and notable for being singularly distinctive, seeing as all different editions had undergone a buy-back by the producer on account of an unrepairable driveability problem. At its $25,000 asking, nearly all of you took problem with the automobile’s troubling standing, sending the Solo spiraling in a 97 % No Cube loss.
Spherical 8: Winnah, Winnah, Hen Dinner
This yr’s hottest candidate, as indicated by the variety of votes, was the 2005 Honda S2000 that we thought of all the way in which again in March. At 4,256 complete votes, it simply edged out the 2011 BMW 750iL Alpina B7 that got here our approach in Could. A $19,800 asking worth helped with that and earned the Honda a slender however stable 57.5 % Good Value win.
Properly, there we go. One other yr within the can, and much more automobiles, votes, and shenanigans than final yr.
Earlier than we bid one another and this yr adieu, nevertheless, I’d wish to take the chance to thank each one in every of you for coming right here and hanging out with me for some time every weekday all year long. I do know I say this yearly, nevertheless it’s true—I vastly recognize all of you and the contributions you make to the enjoyable we’ve collectively. I hope it’s simply as rewarding to you.
Okay, now we will put a fork in 2023. I hope you all preserve out of bother celebrating New 12 months’s so you possibly can be a part of us again right here for extra enjoyable in 2024. Be protected, and cheers to you Jalops, every one!
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