5K in 1969 is 32K today.
But a car today is driven, I don’t know; 15 years before it is scrapped. How many Pintos, Vegas, Granadas and Mavericks were still on the road 15 years later? This has to be factored in.
I have not replaced a car in 7 years. My fleet is 8, 13, 13 years old and I have no urge to replace any of it.
If kept in a garage and never wrecked, today’s car bodies could last a real long time. The engines will last 200K easily. Everything else will have to be replaced though. An automatic transmission is a death sentence for most cars. When they go it is 3-4K to fix. Not worth it.