The car examples are particularly misleading because the same brands are moving upmarket over time. A Honda Accord is targeting a much more premium market segment today than in 1985.
Except that a current year Honda Fit is a great car, and is probably bigger than a 1970s Civic. I'll concede that it's not quite an apples to apples comparison (for a variety of reasons) but the availability of quality, cheap cars nowadays is nearly unmatched.
