For a good anecdotal, non-American example: My grandmother lives in quite a hilly town. Her old car was from the mid-80s, with few airbags and basically zero c

For a good anecdotal, non-American example: My grandmother lives in quite a hilly town. Her old car was from the mid-80s, with few airbags and basically zero crumple zone, so at a certain point her kids (my mom and uncle) persuaded her to get a new one. Her worry was power - the old car was a pretty upcharged model to make it uphill to her house, and she was not looking forward to figuring out which new models had the same power-to-weight. Turns out she needn't have worried - you can't even find a car in her preferred (pretty small) size range with that little power anymore.