If they did, they’d be buying $10,000 cars with 90s-level technology.
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No, they’d be buying hotwheels knockoff sets at the dollar store
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but not new. we’d buy them after they were used a little so the cliff of depreciation is some other sucker’s burden!
I’m not sure if the OP intends sarcasm. I believe the statement is true.
Over the years, car companies have dropped their simple cars and concentrated on more features. If people wanted simpler cars, the companies could make decent profits selling them. They would still be available.
(Maybe I should mention that my wife still drives her 2001 Toyota Echo)
Aren’t a lot of those features safety related and legislated? Like back up cameras.
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Of the cars I have bought without a back up camera in the last 25 years, I have added them to all except the pickup truck. I started that practice after my kids started driving. Seems like a good trade off ($ for this safety item) to me.
I do wonder: How much would basic automobiles cost with current US safety requirements in place if Chinese and Indian auto manufacturers were participating in the US market at scale, without import duty concerns.
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As long as the thing doesn’t try to drive me off the next cliff every time I say things like “Taiwan is an independent nation” or “the Tiananmen Square Massacre happened” 
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Yeah, I’ve lost the ability to parallel park without it (and struggle even with!)
Same. In my earlier years, I had a 1966 Ford Galaxie for my daily driver. It was like 21’ long and didn’t have a side mirror on the passenger side, and I learned how to stab that into a parallel parking spot in one go. Now, with multiple cameras and a smaller car, I usually need to make adjustments after the first go.
Read up on the Flock cameras. I hear some of them have microphones and Flock’s security is not the best.
Back up cameras, tire pressure monitoring, automatic emergency braking, LATCH system, and rear seat belt notification are all new requirements since 2000.
However, convenience features like power windows, power/remote door locks, power seats, power steering, automatic transmissions, cruise control, air conditioning, color backup cameras with guidelines, carpeting, steering wheel mounted controls, or any type of sound system, are not required. Also safety features like side airbags, most of the electronic driver’s aids, are not required.
Most of us have driven cars that lack all those things. I think my wife’s car has none (not sure about radio and power steering). I expect that Toyota still sells cars in some markets that don’t have most of them. I’m sure the Echo was not designed for the US.
I never heard about this. Looked it up. It’s not required until 2029.
Cars are status symbols. My parents buy two of them every three years. They also have a golf cart, which cost over 10k. That’s also a status symbol now in their town. It has blinkers, a radio, and mirrors on it.
So yes, people actually do want something basic to drive around.
My impression is they’d cost less than US cars would cost given the urgency with which the US is trying to keep them out and the prices I’m hearing of in Australia.
Yeah, people want lots of big fat fancy cars.
Not sure if it’s status or identity or what, but I find it annoying as I’m currently subsidizing someone else’s car expenditure.
Yeah, I think I included two things that aren’t actually required for 2026 models. I figure most 2026 models already have them because manufacturers plan ahead.
I thought about this but if people didn’t want those features they’d vote for deregulating in the same way they decided to vote for perpetuating our oil dependence.
Here’s a tangent. I remember when I was a teen hearing an uncle complain about “Those [black] people driving fancy cars that you know they can’t afford”. My dad said that it seemed to him that anyone with any amount of free money will buy something that is “extra nice”. Exactly what depends on your income level. Teens and adults with just a little money may splurge on some clothing item, or in those days, a nice watch. Move up the ladder, and it’s a car. Higher up, a house. Then a second house, …, eventually over-the-top charity ball. (aka Met Gala) Now we have an example of centi-billionaires building private rockets.
Later, I was a grad student sharing an office with guy from Taiwan who was operating on a very slim budget. I recall him saying “I don’t get it. The American students here have more money than I have. But, I have a nice Parker pen and they write with Bics???”
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