Didn't used car prices go up even relatively more though? Just my anecdotal experience after peeping around for a different car the past year.

Even not-new cars are far more expensive than most people like to thing.

Yes, fuel and insurance.

Also maintenance.

And also depreciation of the asset.

New cars are obviously much higher, but the average car is also much closer to $10k than most people are willing to admit.

That is also ignoring:

• Cost of adding a garage to a home (~10% of the home cost).
• Taxes paid on property for roads (70%+ of road construction and maintenance).
• Deferred maintenance for car infrastructure not captured above (easily in the dozens or hundreds of billions, equivalent to thousands of dollars per adult).
• Increased cost of living due to parking minimums (and "free" parking in general - - $5000 a space * 3-8 per car).

TL;DR: Car ownership has a lot of hidden costs that people hate to admit to having to bear.

Right. The cost of owning a car is not the cost of buying a car.

I bought mine with cash in 2019. Pay about 900 in gas a year, 900 a year for insurance, 250 for oil and fluids replacement.

I would sell my vehicle in a heartbeat if it cost more 4k a year.

It's it just factoring in the cost of the vehicle basically?

In other words... live within your means.

FTFY