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There are plenty of cheap cars.
You can walk onto any Nissan dealer's lot anywhere in the country and drive off in a brand new Nissan Versa for just about the same inflation-adjusted price of a Volkswagen Beetle from the 60s and 70s and the Beetle was the lowest-priced new car you could buy back then for almost its entire production run.
The Versa is better in every measurable way-- it even gets better gas mileage despite weight of all of the extra safety equipment, air conditioning, and camera.
A base optionless Beetle cost $12,000 in 2023 dollars, a Super Beetle (a slightly larger model with brakes that wouldn't kill you, a better suspension, and optional extras like a locking glovebox, map pocket, and day/night mirror) cost $16,500.
A Versa costs $15,500 but you can get $1,000-3,000 off based on how desperate the dealer is to get rid of it.
Nissan dealers won't even try to steer you towards a more expensive car. Dealers want to sell them because they're just sitting on their lots taking up space not selling.
If you don't like Nissan there are plenty of other options in the "what grandma and grandpa paid for your mom's first car when she went off to college 50 years ago" price range.
People don't want cheap cars.
Customers aren't being tricked, or hoodwinked, or gadzooked, or pressured into buying larger SUVs with heated seats, sunroofs, huge infotainment displays, wireless charging, and wifi hotspots. They want them and can afford them.
They'll walk right past all of the Versas and buy an SUV.
A Versa costs 20000 and won't be here until March.
https://www.melloynissan.com/new-vehicles/versa/
The lightly used one is also 20000 but at least I could drive it off the lot.
https://www.melloynissan.com/used-vehicles/?q=versa&_dFR%5Bt...
Don't get me wrong the Versa is a hell of a value and all but the car market might not be what you think it is right now
According to the windows sticker, the $19,045 price is after options and a delivery charge, both of which would have been added to the MSRP of any VW Beetle "back in the day".
According to this windows sticker a 1963 beetle cost $16,500 in today's dollars.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/931335.jpg
That's 1963. A 1973 optioned, delivered, Beetle (again, the cheapest car you could buy at the time) would have been closer to $18k, much higher than its MSRP of ~$12k. Not far off from the $19k of 2023 for an inexpensive automobile. But markups vary so much from state-to-state and dealer-to-dealer you can't compare and can only use MSRP as a "good enough" basis of comparison.
$16,500 -> $19,045 is a 15.4% increase and you get airbags, a backup camera, better gas mileage, and more reliability for your 15.4%.
Also, today MOST PEOPLE are paying 3-6% on a car loan. In "the good old days" it was 10-20%, depending on the year.
In 1972: "a bank charges roughly 10 percent annual interest to lend money on a new car bought over a three‐year period. A finance company, on the other hand, charges about 11.84 per cent over a similar period." https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/28/archives/personal-finance...
That's not, as the article puts it, "for the rich".
I think the goalposts here have shifted a bit.
> That's not, as the article puts it, "for the rich".
I agree with that statement. But
> You can walk onto any Nissan dealer's lot anywhere in the country and drive off in a brand new Nissan Versa…
Does not support the first statement. Avshalom posted a link to a Nissan dealer where new Nissan Versas are not available to drive off the lot at all. I looked at my local dealership and it also does not have any new Versas available. As both of these dealerships are indeed in the country and neither have new Versas available, the assertion just isn’t true. I think you’re overestimating how well Nissan is stocking their affordable models and trims.
But to your point about new cars being solely for the rich, I could drive off my local Hyundai dealer’s lot with a new Elantra for something like $23k which I also consider within reach for those not rich. I also looked at my local Honda dealer, but they apparently want to play games and refuse to show prices on the web without jumping through additional hoops.
Regardless, I would probably buy a lightly used car again.
MSRP is base at 16k according to their site:
https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/cars/versa-sedan/specs/co...
> the same inflation-adjusted price
Unfortunately salaries have not been inflation adjusted for decades.
> The Versa is better in every measurable way-- it even gets better gas mileage despite weight of all of the extra safety equipment, air conditioning, and camera.
The Versa has a notoriously unreliable CVT. I was about to buy one until I realized just how bad it is. It will be interesting to see how many Versas are still on the road in 50 or 60 years compared to old Beatles today.
idk why anybody thinks tesla is a car brand that's trying to solve climate change when obviously they're trying to be luxury car brand and nothing else.
Tesla took the textbook 'disruptive innovation' strategy, of starting with a niche product with performance characteristics very different from the conventional options, and targeted towards a small section of the market, then working towards larger user groups. They started with electric sports cars, and have moved into electric luxury cars, but they're not done yet.