I notice that producing a 74 grocery-getter, that the cost was way higher than what they would have sold for. Maybe I tweaked things a little too much, but it is still far off the price point.
Currently all prices in automation are at 2012(?) Levels and do not adjust relative to the year in which the car is being produced.
If I recall correctly this will be addressed later
I use this to find my “true cost” based on the year, just use 2012 in the top box and your vehicle year in the bottom box.
Please note that these numbers presented by the linked site are completely off because they don’t use a consistent standard to measure inflation. True purchasing power has declined more than indicated by the official numbers. This is due to the numerous changes to how inflation is calculated over the years (since the 1980s, if government doesn’t like the number, they change the calculation to make it look better). So take it with a big grain of salt or low estimate. 
In the game we measure value in constant money units, not in a specific currency per se, even though we put a $ sign on the values.
And right you are about that, in another sense it is also very inaccurate since it bases inflation off of just the USA and not anything else, you can not use this for estimating a UK/AUS car. In the end I use it to give me a rough idea of if my car is way too expensive for the era or not.
I was wondering about that. $3,000 seemed pretty steep for a car in 1940.
$3,000 was pretty steep for some homes in 1940, no joke.
Median home price in the county was ~$2,900 in 1940, with plenty of southern and western states selling that three-bedroom for high 1k prices. Average New Mexican home prices didn’t break a grand in 1940.
Why not use Cr.(credits) as a monetary unit? Like GranTurismo.