Computer Chip Shortage Drives Up Prices of Used Cars, Now You Can Finally Cash In Your Parent’s Sentra You’ve Been Saving

If you’ve been in the market for a new car lately, you may have noticed something odd about the prices. They’ve gone higher than Charlie Sheen at a children’s birthday party. Thanks to Covid-19 disrupting silicon supply chains, global auto production decreased by 20 percent last year resulting in a market price gouge that’s inflating the value of anything on four wheels, especially cars.

Advertised prices are no longer honored at dealerships, where market shortage price-ups are currently hovering around $6,000. Today, even a Toyota Rav4 with a trim package ripped straight out of a Motel 6 will cost you what a Lexus 450h cost in the before-time when masks were for bank robbers and no human had ever uttered the phrase social distancing.

Meanwhile, scrolling the endless used car lot of the internet turned up a 2003 Acura some dude was trying to pawn off for $33,000. It’s like runaway capitalism hopped into a sporty crossover and punched it down the interstate.

Which brings us to your shitty Nissan Sentra.

What better time to make a killing off arguably the worst car ever made than right now, when Americans are feeling down and out from the ongoing pandemic and need a car to drive them to the cheapest bar and back? According to Edmund’s, you can get upwards of $8,000 for your 2010 Sentra, despite the large stain in the passenger seat from the time you wore a Cubs hat to a White Sox game and ordered a hotdog.

While now is undoubtedly a great time to get rid of your ugly Sentra, the word on the street is that sand, a major ingredient in just about everything we build (including semiconductors), is slowly running out. With sand at a premium, the price of computer chips will continue to climb, meaning someday your parent’s used Sentra will almost be worth enough to buy you a new smartphone. Now that’s investment advice you can bank on.

Cover Photo: JGI/Jamie Grill (Getty Images)

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