Prices - Then & Now

<span style="font-size: 10pt">I found this amusing. Based on a 1959 TR brochure, these were the prices for the options offered, listed along with equivalent 2009 dollars. The Alfin brake drums are particularly dear!</span>



Additional interesting facts.

Yearly Inflation Rate USA 1.01%
Average Cost of new house $12,400.00
Average Yearly Wages $5,010.00 or $2.41/hr
Cost of a gallon of Gas 25 cents
Average Cost of a new car $2,200.00
Movie Ticket $1.00
Loaf of Bread 20 cents
Kodak Movie camera $67.50
Ladies Stockings $1.00

And today...for $2500 you can buy a pile of rust! Gil

Where have you (or anyone else) seen an alloy sump for a mere $191.31 lately??? IIRC, everyone wants over $400 for those in 2009...

I was always amazed at how expensive AM radios were.
If I remember,the sticker was $75 in 1968.

- Doug

who's selling their aeroscreens for todays prices...I'll buy all I can get...

The '59 prices look good, unfortunately my allowance then was 25 cents per week. I'm better off trying to buy this stuff now.

Best deal today is the skid plate! Though after all I've been through with this car I'm not going to take it where I need a skid plate!

Interesting comparison Frank, thanks, Tinkerman

GilsTR said:

And today...for $2500 you can buy a pile of rust! Gil

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All I know is my GT6 cost $2300 in 1967 and that's exactly what I paid for it in 2009.

What's interesting is calulating inflation and discovering that the amount you get is the same if you were to buy a frame off restored GT6 today.

I also remember when gas cost less than a dollar a gallon... ...and that was this century. Interesting how the camaro, challenger, and charger return to a world of $2-4 gas.

UmmYeahOk said:

I also remember when gas cost less than a dollar a gallon... ...and that was this century.

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It was? The last time I remember sub $1.00 gas was the early 1990's.

Just to date myself - gas was 24.9cents/gallon in 1972.
It took almost $5.00 to fill my '64 Galaxie 500!

- Doug

The day of 9/11 prices skyrocketed into the never seen before $3 range. I got gas 9/10 so I didn't notice. But I heard the stations got in huge trouble over it and prices dropped to under a dollar. I'm guessing since they couldn't issue refunds. Anyway when gas is that cheap, all stations have to lower theirs just to keep business. It stayed under a dollar for several months and just slightly over a dollar several months later. It's a shame gasbuddy only keeps records of prices 6 years ago. I remember when gas peaked at $4 a gallon I would make charts with 2001 prices included.

I don't know if the whole 9/11 thing is true or not, since it was just something I heard. Seems odd for the government to step in then, punishing station owners when several years later the gas suppliers themselves end up doing the exact same thing. They end up becoming the biggest profiting companies, making billions, and as a result, cause this entire economy mess.

That's right! It's not the people who bought way more than they could afford. It's not the banks that gave them the credit knowing they could never pay it off. It's the gas companies. Think about it, gas could be $10 a gallon and we'd all still drive everywhere. Most places have no mass transit system. We'd have to or we can't go to work or buy food. This means that with the extra cost we can't go on vacation every possible break there is. We can't but a new vehicle every year. We can't eat out every single day. And if we still can't afford our mortgage, everything will be paid on credit untill that runs out. Of course because everyone spending habits changed, Now companies are laying off workers, which doesn't help their income any...

...bail out the banks... ...make gas $1 a gallon and the money will trickle up.

UmmYeahOk said:

...bail out the banks... ...make gas $1 a gallon and the money will trickle up.

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You, sir, think exactly like I do.

Gas never dropped below a gallon in Colorado following the post 9/11 drop, never hit $4/gallon either. Must be a regional thing.

Our money (taxes) has trickled up to the banks, but it is staying there.

swift6 said:

It was? The last time I remember sub $1.00 gas was the early 1990's.

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When gasoline was at it's all-time inflation adjusted low (1999), the national average was almost exactly $1/gal. in 1999 dollars. During that time prices dipped lower than a dollar in some places, while they were slight higher in other places. Here I once saw 82 cent/gal. at that time, and was routinely buying gas for 89-95 cents/gal. for the better part of a year.

Here's a neat little inflation calculator. You enter a dollar amount and can choose any two years up to 2009 and it will tell you how the value of the amount would be.
For example it calculates that:
$1.00 in 1960 had about the same buying power as $7.15 in 2009.
Annual inflation over this period was about 4.1%.

https://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

swift6 said:

Gas never dropped below a gallon in Colorado following the post 9/11 drop, never hit $4/gallon either. Must be a regional thing.

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https://www.ColoradoGasPrices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx?city1=Colorado&city2=USA Average&city3=&crude=n&tme=72&units=us

doesn't go back that far but if you goggle 9/11 gas prices you'll find many places that dropped below a dollar. This is TX. We have oil right under our feet. We're always below the US average, but it seems that CO is pretty close, with the exception of when the average peaked at $4.12. Some local stations sold at $4 but not many. They know the 99 cent secret. No one will pat $4 a gallon when they can keep paying $3.99. Poor CA. If the average peaked at $4.12, it must of been $5 or $6 there.

When it reached $4 I considered how benifitial a brand new hybrid would if. If gas stayed at $4 and never ever changed, it would take me 24 years for the gas savings to pay for the car. But if you calculate replacing 2 batteries, it may take another decade and by then I would need a 3rd battery. darn hippies. I'll buy a zero emmissions electric vehicle that was built right here in America by Americans as soon as they make the tesla affordable to your average Joe.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Our money (taxes) has trickled up to the banks, but it is staying there.
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I laughed when Bush gave us a refund. It was the biggest I ever saw. That was supposed to boost the economy? If you give $600 to someone who can no longer afford their lifestyle, what ate they going to do? Put it towards their debt. Those who aren't in debt are going to save it, especially since there was so much job uncertaincy.

I spent mine just cuz that's was the whole point of the refund. Unfortunately $50 stayed local. $50 went somewhere else in the country. And the rest went to Canada. I tried really hard to keep it here but the price difference was huge! We're nor talking about buying walnart generic because the name brand is 20 cents more. We're talking abot $400 difference. Prices were roughly the same everywhere but the only person in the country selling one would not be talk down on prices. Oh well, vote with your dollar. The auto industry wouldnt be in this mess if they didn't cost so much to make.

That expalins it. I was living in Italy during that period. :wink: