You forgot to mention that your car was $2,500 new back then. Cheapest cars today run around $10,000 for a base model.. Guess I could compare the Ford Pinto to the Ford Fiesta. The cost of the cars themselves have gone up exponentially even though they are almost entirely made by robots (someone has to pay for the CEO's, health insurance, and Uncle Sam)...

Anyways, my first car was a 1994 Dodge Stealth. I bought it in 2010 so it was already 16 years old. Paid $2,500 for it (same as you would have for a new Pinto). It was a great car for what it was, must have been a salvage at some point as the airbags weren't hooked up and it had windows from a different model. It also had a switch installed for the headlights as the light switch had burnt up. I kept it for 3 years, it deteriorated quite a bit over that time. Sold it for $1500 with mismatched tires and a dinged up passenger door. I'm on to my third car now and even though this one has lots of bells and whistles (including working headlights and airbags), I still miss the first one.