I'm surprised the figure is so high because an economy car is closer to the $23k figure and if you go up to like 35 you're well into what I'd consider pretty nice territory. Obviously one can spend much more but I'd say you're getting to the point of diminishing returns already at that average price.
But this is new cars, and you do get a lot -- collision detection, blind spots, adaptive cruise control, etc. And this includes all the SUVs as well as luxury cars, all going into "average".
