Bigger numbers does not necessarily mean wealth. Inflation literally makes the numbers bigger, but does not help buying power.
Gas prices are only easing because of election year smoke and mirrors. There is only so much in strategic reserves and the e15 move is a joke. Until or unless they make a commitment to pipelines and other domestic oil production rule changes, it is not worth it for the companies to produce much more. To them, the policy is like this: Politician "we want to kill you"...oil producers "darn, we will have to pull back and evaluate" Politicians: " umm, yeah, so we need you to keep producing for now, but later we will still kill you" oil producers "no thanks, if we are going to die anyway, why would we make it easier on our killers?" Politicians "it is all the greedy oil companies fault"
As for used car prices, those are mostly used trucks and others with low gas mileage. Prices dipped a little, a few hundred on 20k+. Responded to uptick in gas prices. Not seeing much real movement...my 21 y/o is looking for his 1st (used) car, so we have been watching closely.
There are still a lot of people trying to buy before the rates and prices both get really high. Eventually, the two going up will stall out the economy and we get recession. Unfortunately, the decision makers don't understand how it works, or they don't care. It will not be pretty.