2015 dollars?

[Packbat]

I decided to see how hard it would be to make a proper pony-car in Automation, and one of the criteria in 1965 for these was "less than $2500 list price". I figure that means less than $1500 in total costs, but that seems either impossible (if I read game prices as era-specific currency) or very easy (if I read them as 2015 dollars). Any definitive rulings?

[Kubboz]

It's 2015 dollars.

Btw, your total cost figure is totally wrong. After you include factory overhead costs, engineering costs, factory tooling costs, the fact you want to make a profit, etc., it turns out the list price is not just 70% higher than total cost. I'd try aiming for 900 1965 dollars in total cost.

[Packbat]

It's 2015 dollars.

Btw, your total cost figure is totally wrong. After you include factory overhead costs, engineering costs, factory tooling costs, the fact you want to make a profit, etc., it turns out the list price is not just 70% higher than total cost. I'd try aiming for 900 1965 dollars in total cost.

The figure I last heard was that manufacturing costs were ~50% of MSRP and that the margin was tighter with low-end vehicles (which makes especial sense with the pony cars, which were made from off-the-shelf components as much as possible).

That said, $900 in 1965 is roughly $6677 in 2015 if you use the consumer-price index, and that's about how much the total cost ran to in my one experiment. So from a self-imposed challenge perspective, that's probably a good target.