Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry…—Don McLean
I’s been more than three years since I sold my Mercedes CLA 250 and, to tell the truth, I don’t miss it very much. Evidently Mercedes Benz agrees with me: As first reported by Automotive News, the A-class sedan will depart the US market after 2022. Starting at $35,000, the A220 four-door was formerly the company’s price leader but it’s place will be taken over by the GLA-class crossover with a $37,450 price tag. No more CLA sedan, replaced by the more expensive crossover—so what else is new?
The average price that Americans paid for a new car spiked — reaching over $47,000 in December.—kbb.com
According to to CarGurus data, the average price of a used car is more $30,000. But according to iSeeCars, here in Colorado the average used car price was $34,273.
In a sad but true confluence of the pandemic and the implosion of the American magazine business (save organization sponsored titles) as they migrated on-line and started paying nothing or one-tenth of what they used to pay for writers like myself. It was clear to me that with rising car prices that I was not going to have my own car any time soon.
If you saw my video about Mary’s cars People Are Always Asking Me… you know that I’m not without wheels so if I need to go to Cars & Coffee there’s always a car available to me. Her employer’s rules prevents me from driving her company Ford Escape though—not that I would want to. This leaves the Subaru Crosstrek with its anemic, buzzy and under-powered engine and CVT that make for not very engaging driving. The new Crosstrek has the Forrester’s 2.5 liter engine but the consensus its that it’s not much of an improvement. I think the Crosstrek would be more interesting with a manual transmission but only eight percent of the vehicles are delivered that way. But let me clear on one thing: Mary loves this car.
When compared to the Subie, her VW Beetle convertible is far better made and offers a better driving experience even with its automatic transmission but it’s a real transmission with real gears and the peppy 1,8 liter turbocharged engine that make it quick and maneuverable in traffic. But it’s kind of small when driving on Colorado’s F150 and Escalade filled roads.
While I live in hope of getting my own car sometime, I’ve really got nothing to complain about, so I won’t…
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