Down down, prices are down...

Honda's Civic has turned over its 40th year in Australia and has never been more affordable, according to a press release issued by the importer last week.

Quoted in the release, Honda spokesman Lindsay Smalley explained that Civic — the longest-running nameplate in the Honda's passenger car history — first saw the light of day in 1972 and has sold "more than 20 million" since. Based on wages then and now, Mr Smalley argues that it is considerably easier to buy a new car now than it was in 1972.

“It is actually easier to purchase a car with today’s wages than it was back in 1972, demonstrating that the price of cars has fallen over time. This is great news for Australian consumers.”

Despite being cheaper to buy the new car is far safer, much more sophisticated and — not least of all — comfier. 

“Back in 1972, our customers enjoyed Honda Civic’s ‘luxury’ features such as single touch opening of the rear hatch, four-wheel independent suspension, a tough monocoque body and a standard side mirror. Air-con and a radio were optional extras!

“Today’s Civic sedan is a world away, with a range of modern day luxuries including power windows with driver’s auto up/down, USB and iPod connectivity, Bluetooth audio and Hands Free Telephone with steering-wheel mounted controls and the Intelligent Multi-Information Display (i-MID),” Mr Smalley said.

But how have the Honda's peers fared over the same period? Honda supplied the respective figures needed to run the same comparisons for other cars currently sold in Australia — with some sort of lineage back to 1972. According to the Honda press release, the Civic cost around $2300 on its launch in 1972 and the median (male) wage at the time was $96 a week. This year the average weekly wage is $1345 and the Civic VTi of 2012 costs $20,490. The 1972 Civic required 24 weeks of saving, based on the median wage, to buy outright. In 2012 the Civic VTi costs the family just 15 weeks of pay.

Drawing on the power of spreadsheet magic — and historic data supplied by the RedBook — we applied the same formulae to eight cars sold in 1972, all of which have modern-day counterparts. As far as possible we compared like for like, based on footprint/lineage, engine displacement, body style and automatic transmission.

As Honda found with the Civic, every single 2012 model is cheaper than its 40-year old ancestor, in varying degrees. Locally manufactured cars back in the 1970s, even with imported parts fitted, were very cheap when compared with the fully imported cars.

All the 2012 descendants of the fully imported cars from 1972 have almost certainly benefited from the local market's revised taxation structure, a drastically reduced import tariff and a much stronger Aussie dollar in recent years. 10 or 15 years ago the difference in affordability might not have been anywhere near as pronounced, with the value of the Australian dollar against the greenback much lower than it is today — and both the Japanese Yen and the Euro worth significantly more.

Much of the improved affordability of the modern car can also be laid at the door of such advances as manufacturing efficiencies, higher sales volumes and shared technology. The cost of designing a car has come down with the advent of increased computerisation, just as robots have reduced the labour costs of building a car too. 

Two Fords were selected from 1972 and one, the TC Cortina L sedan with 2.0-litre engine, is a predecessor to the current Mondeo LX hatch with 2.3-litre engine. Both cars were designed in Europe, although the Cortina was assembled here from CKD kits and featured a significant level of local content. As a car that would currently be considered a medium segment vehicle, based on its dimensions, the Cortina was cheaper than the Mazda 1300, which would be a light-segment car if it were still on sale today. The only model of the eight cheaper than the Cortina was the Honda Civic. The other Ford was the Ford Falcon 500 (XA) 4.1, which we pitched against the current FG MkII G6. Both cars are/were built in Australia, but the 2012 Falcon reportedly incorporates a lot more imported parts than the XA did.

Holden's HQ Kingswood with the 202 red motor is, we believe, a fair facsimile for today's VE II Berlina, whereas the 2012 descendant for the Mazda 1300 is contestable. Both in terms of its engine displacement and external footprint the 1300 would be closer to the Mazda2 these days, but its direct lineage makes it a forebear of the Mazda3. For much the same reason, we chose the Mercedes-Benz E250 CGI as the 2012 equivalent to the 220 Compact of 1972, even though the old car is close in size to the current C-Class.

Peugeot's 504, in 1972, was being assembled at Renault's Heidelberg (Victoria) plant. For whatever reason, the comparative price of the latest 508 Active is far and away better value than the 504 was. The final car of the eight is the Toyota (Corona) Mk II, which was closer to the modern Lexus IS250 in its specification, but we've matched it up with the current Aurion AT-X, despite the Aurion boasting much more interior space, nearly twice the engine capacity and front-wheel drive rather than rear drive. Figures for the IS250 have been included however, and it's interesting to note that the Lexus is still (marginally) cheaper to buy now than the Mk II was.

Properly speaking, for that matter, today's Honda Jazz is a closer fit to the Civic of 1972.

The table of results follows...

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