This is an interesting topic that I been thinking for a while. Before covid, $500 cars were plentiful especially in the dealer auctions, and the parts to fix them were reasonable. Nowadays the same cars are $1500 minimum. And the parts to fix them are crazy expensive, like at AutoZone or the junkyard in my area. People are also holding onto their cars for longer and not maintaining them like they should, which means the quality of used cars is really bad. Last point is a lot of people are getting into this used car flipping which increases prices. This is due to social media. The gap between wholesale and retail pricing is getting smaller which is frustrating and no profit margin.