What was the cost of a sherman tank in World War 2 dollars?

Answer 1

Refiguring the estimates, Chrysler put a cost per tank of $33,500. The corporation was protected by an escalator clause which would offset this price should labor and material costs go up. Chrysler then issued a letter of intent back to the government that said it would be able to furnish 1,000 tanks by August of 1942.

www.allpar.com/history/military/arsenal-of-democracy.HTML

OpinionThe price of military equipment, especially modern equipment, is usually very high and can be misleading. When you buy a car, you pay only for the car and maybe a warranty and some maintenance. When the Government purchases a tank, it pays for complete drawings and manuals, training for not 1 but many operators, maintenance support and some guarantees or warranties. That is why military equipment is valued higher than an equivalent item in civilian life.

Also note that military items are highly specialized, and frequently have a very limited production run. In particular, since research must be done to determine if the desired product can even be created, let alone turned into a functioning weapon, military weapons tend to have much larger design costs than comperable civilian ones. For instance, a family car made in the 1940s would have cost somewhere around $1000. But remember, over 100,000 cars per year were being made in the late 1940s, while a grand total of 50,000 M4 shermans were made during all of WW2.