[moconnor]

No. Inflation is what we call the value of money going down. As evidenced by needing to part with more of it in exchange for a standard basket goods.

It is fundamentally different to ask whether cars cost more because money is worth less, or whether cars cost more because we are making them less efficiently.

The ancestor comment points out that most of the change can be attributed to the former and as cars are only a small percentage of the inflation basket then it is reasonable to conclude that this is indeed the prime reason for the price rise.

The fundamentals of civilization would be a lot clearer if we measured the value of things in energy instead of a floating currency.

[roenxi]

Or, to put it another way, going by the thread ancestor we expect the price of cars to have risen around 26.2% due to currency devaluation. If the price of cars has risen 29.2% it is more or less pointless to look at the car industry for an explanation. The price has risen by roughly what we'd expect if they were doing what they've been doing with no real changes.