CLEVELAND — The Greater Cleveland Auto Show, underway through Sunday at the IX Center, has always been a place to dream, envisioning how the brand-new models would look in your driveway. The problem is, these days, some new cars cost more than what shoppers like Randy Malmsberry of Kent paid years ago for his first house.
"I paid $35,000 for my first house,” Malmsberry said. “Yeah, if you’re not willing to come into probably close to at least $45,000 on up there’s not much you’re really gonna look at.”
With the average price of a new vehicle hovering around the $50,000 mark, it’s left new-car buyers like Ray Cavender of Perry longing for the days of old.
"It’s scary,” he said. “I’m driving a 2014 Chevy Silverado, paid I think $34,000 for it, and here we are.”
When asked what he’s expecting to spend to replace it, he said with a laugh, “I don’t know that yet.”
"Affordability is something we still have concerns about,” said Lou Vitantonio, President of the Greater Cleveland Auto Dealers Association. “Yeah, we can write off some loan interest, and the interest rates are slightly coming down, but I think we gotta continue to work to find a viable way, either through leasing or buying, extending terms to get people into vehicles.”
Auto makers are hearing it too, Jeep for one, knocking around $20,000 off the cost of their 2026 Grand Wagoneer, which in 2025 carried a price tag around $84,000.
"That's now starting under $65,000,” said Stellantis North America Vice President of Interior Design Ryan Nagged. “We've revamped that lineup, we done that as well with some of the other products as well, so we're really taking keys to affordability, and I think that's where you see some of the hybrid stuff come in to play."
"We have a lot of vehicles that start under that $30,000 price point. Quite a few, actually,” said Toyota Product Specialist Halle Borgfjord. "This one starts at right about $30,000, 31 and change to be exact, for the base level going up to the top end at about mid-40s, even with delivery, you're coming in under $50,000."
The wild card for manufacturers in 2025 pricing that carries over into 2026 is the ever-changing impact of tariffs.
"They're trying to manage it,” said Vitantonio of the auto manufacturers. “It's a combination of a couple of things. The manufacturers are either eating some of those tariffs, they're passing on a portion, so it all depends on what the manufacturers can do because price drives the consumer's attitude on what they're going to buy.”
