Guys, I heard on NTV yesterday that the car market has completely flipped, bro. A 5 million lira car is selling like hotcakes for 1.5 million. 😱 Is this because of inflation, the banks' interest rates, or are people just like, "I don't wanna deal with this anymore"? What do you think this will do to the real estate market? Back in 2021, we bought a house for 100k TL and now we can't even sell it for 500k TL, but a car is dropping to a third of its price... What are your thoughts? 🧐
5 million-dollar cars are selling for 1.5 million? What does that tell you? 🤑
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Honestly, just last month I was saying my car was worth 5–6 million TL, and then prices started dropping in the market. When interest rates fell, I checked the second‑hand listings at the banks and it was exactly like that. I bought a 2018 C‑Class Mercedes for 5.2 million TL back then, and when I tried to sell it for 1.8 million TL, people were like, “We can’t even find 5 million.” I replied, “Man, seriously, would anyone even pay 3 million for it?” but then I actually sold it, and one of the buyers even paid 1.5 million.
In my opinion, the main reason isn’t that people have switched to a “keep my money” mindset; it’s that better loan terms have boosted demand for used cars. Your reasoning makes sense too—while real‑estate prices are soaring, car prices are doing the opposite, so people think, “I’ve got enough cash, why take on debt?” That’s why I sold my car pretty early and put the money in the bank, at least to protect a bit against inflation.
In my opinion, the best example of this is the exploding smartphone market in the 2010s, bro. For instance, you weren’t buying an iPhone 4S for 2,000 TL in 2011; it was close to 4,000 TL, but then the original price eventually fell to around 800‑1,000 TL. The same thing is happening with cars, actually.
People have started seeing a car more as a means of transport than a luxury item, especially when inflation is being talked about in the trillions—so buying a 1.5 million‑TL car instead of a 5‑million‑TL one just makes more sense. When banks raise interest rates and credit costs go up, it’s normal to go for cheaper second‑hand models. Real estate doesn’t work that way because a house’s value isn’t just about price, it’s also about location, whereas with cars, once the price drops, the market adapts quickly just like everything else that goes out of fashion.
Man, honestly, I think the main reason for this situation is the shift in consumer preferences. We never used to care about a car “maintaining its value,” right? But when inflation exploded over the past two years, people started turning to cars instead of foreign currency or durable goods. With that sudden surge in the lira, a 5‑million‑lira car dropped to around 1.5 million TL, and everyone switched to the “I need something that protects me from inflation” mode. When banks also cut interest rates, getting a loan became easier, and demand just blew up. People are borrowing to invest in cars—does that even make sense?
As for the real‑estate market, it’s a whole different story. Your prices didn’t jump from 100 k to 500 k, but cars fell to one‑third of their previous price, which is weird. The real danger here is seeing real estate as a “static asset.” People are putting their money into cars that offer quick liquidity instead of property. That, of course, puts pressure on housing prices. The government wants to boost consumption by lowering rates, but that ends up creating asset bubbles. How the state manages that balance is crucial, or else we could see crashes later on. Don’t you think so?