1978 C 172 price: $ 128,000 (original price adjusted for inflation to 2015)
2015 C 172 price: $ 415,000
Interestingly, I have the original bill of sale for my aircraft. It is worth (according to a well-known valuation book), in pure money terms, twice what it was purchased for. It is worth, adjusted for inflation to 2015 values, half what that purchase price is worth in 2015.
EASA might be making it easier to maintain and SEP aircraft (MEP and turbines are, in my experience, becoming more regulated in terms of maintenance) but they aren’t making it any easier to build aircraft. Nor, to be honest, are the Yanks.
Making maintenance easy but manufacturer hard will just encourage the average age of the fleet to keep on increasing until that 1960-70’s blip disappears. In pure risk terms, is it not better to have a newer fleet built to a less regulated standard than it is an aging fleet maintained to a less regulated standard???