I’m not sure this is it at all, personally. From what I’ve observed, it seems like the focus on leasing has driven average selling prices up. In recent years the car industry seems to have loved using leases to up-sell customers to vehicles they otherwise couldn’t afford on other purchase methods. Dealers appear to encourage this too, I’ve frequently had the “look at the model you could be driving if you leased instead” etc while trying to get a good deal on a purchase method that results in owning the car.

Increasingly many manufacturers apparently don’t really care about the final on the road price staying as low as possible all that much within reason; it’s more about how expensive a car can we push on people at lease rates their wallet will stretch to. The “you can drive this for just $xxx a month!” is the conversation the dealer typically focuses on, probably to obfuscate the true cost as much as anything else. This admittedly applies more to say luxury European brands, where many model lines have (adjusting for inflation) gotten more luxurious and expensive as the focus has primarily shifted to leasing in many markets. There’s similar issues with the truck market as well, and America still buys lots of these every year.