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To be fair, this was in a recession during the great depression. The unemployment rate was 19% in June 1938.
To add to this, a new car in 1938 was $860 according to this, but essential information was left out. What that actually converted to in today's money $18,709.33 which is a lot less than what I'm paying today but only by about half. I don't disagree with wanting to get back to this point or better. But the picture seems to assume the reader already knows this?
More important, some quick googling says that the average per-capita income for 1938 was $515 (new york per-capita was $822, Mississippi was $205), which another search says was just under $11k. That car would cost an atomic family close to 2 years' wages.
my Corolla was less than $18k so I don't even think that's unreasonable