Sub-$20,000 cars comprise about 12 percent of the market today compared to almost 50 percent in 2019

Vehicles under $15k are 1.6% of the market, and their share of the market has dropped over 90% since 2019. The old advice that you can get a beater and drive it in to the ground for $5k hasn’t been true for years but it still seems pervasive in personal finance spaces.