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I would love to see Chinese cars drive the cost of vehicles down significantly. I've been semi-looking for a new car for a year now (now rush since I walk to wo

by xenihn 8y ago

I would love to see Chinese cars drive the cost of vehicles down significantly. I've been semi-looking for a new car for a year now (now rush since I walk to work), and it's ridiculous how expensive everything is. After taxes and fees, I haven't found anything that I'd be happy with for less than $20k used or $25k new. It would be amazing to reach a point where you could get a decent new car for around $15,000.

jdietrich 8y ago
Europe has a decent choice of basic, cheap cars. Dacia are well known for selling outdated but reliable cars at silly prices - their Duster crossover SUV starts at $13,000 (including 20% Value Added Tax) and their Sandero subcompact starts at $9,200. https://www.dacia.co.uk/vehicles/our-range.html https://www.dacia.co.uk/vehicles/our-range.html
- beezischillin 8y ago
  I drive a 13 year old Dacia, simply because I paid for it with a single paycheck and if anything goes wrong, replacement parts are around $30. First owner, mint condition, both mechanically and visually. Sure, it sucks from a feature standpoint but I just installed an iPhone compatible media player and use my iPad for most of what I want. And at least I didn’t feel too bad when a moron dinged it the first week I took it out on the road. And I can mess around with it by installing things, drilling into it without feeling bad for ruining an expensive purchase. Tax on it was $15 for 2018 and it barely uses any gas. I’m fine with buying a luxury car until after I buy my own house.
tjoff 8y ago
Why not buy a used car? I would never dream of buying a new car. It comes with greater risk but a 3 year old car does not have significant risk attached to it, but it is significantly cheaper.
- pishpash 8y ago
  There is a reason why the prices are different, warranty being one. Are you suggesting the market in cars is inefficient?
  - jazoom 8y ago
    I've only ever bought used Corollas and Yarises. Cheap to buy. Cheap to maintain. Cheap to run. Always reliable. What's not to love?
  - lottin 8y ago
    Let's say that the difference between a used car and a brand-new car is the lack of warranty (and some amount of physical depreciation, which for the purposes of this discussion we can ignore). Then for the prices to be equal it means that the price of a used car must be equal to the price of a brand new car minus the "value" of the warranty, which depends on the reliability of the car and the repairing costs. It seems perfectly possible that consumers, say, overestimate the probability of the car breaking down, which would lead to a difference in prices. Whether we can call this a market inefficiency, I don't know.
    - pishpash 8y ago
      Re: warranty, I think you're leaving out the value of loss of economic productivity of using the car in the case of an out-of-warranty breakdown. If this warranty is priced incorrectly, then you should be able to buy a used car along with a bumper to bumper insurance add on for less than the price of a new car. The only exploit I see is that this is probably priced under near-100% utilization scenarios a la rental cars fleets, and your personal economic value on the car is lower, i.e. you have other means of transport, or you drive occasionally. My point is, uninformed individuals may misprice this, but transport industry purchasers won't, and I don't see them doing what I'm suggesting. Instead, they buy new cars and offload at three years.
      - tjoff 8y ago
        You assume that the transport industry pays the same price. Also need to factor in the extreme inconvenience of buying a massive amount of used cars, which everyone will attempt to exploit. Through leasing, rental etc. is how a lot of cars are delivered to the market. It is beneficial for a manufacturer to have the opportunity to sell a new car and know that there will be lots of pretty-new in great condition cars on the second hand market after a while. Which will help drive brand perception.
IshKebab 8y ago
It's not an unreasonable price when you think about the enormous amount of technology, materials and manufacturing processes that go into a car. Nothing else we normally buy comes close. Just buy a used car like everyone else.
- speedplane 8y ago
  > It's not an unreasonable price when you think about the enormous amount of technology, materials and manufacturing processes that go into a car. Nothing else we normally buy comes close. Commercial jets come pretty close. They have such ridiculous safety standards and regulations, I'd be happy to bet that we'll Chinese consumer cars before we see Chinese commercial jets.
  - IshKebab 8y ago
    You normally buy commercial jets?

by xenihn 8y ago

jdietrich 8y ago

Europe has a decent choice of basic, cheap cars. Dacia are well known for selling outdated but reliable cars at silly prices - their Duster crossover SUV starts at $13,000 (including 20% Value Added Tax) and their Sandero subcompact starts at $9,200. https://www.dacia.co.uk/vehicles/our-range.html https://www.dacia.co.uk/vehicles/our-range.html

beezischillin 8y ago
I drive a 13 year old Dacia, simply because I paid for it with a single paycheck and if anything goes wrong, replacement parts are around $30. First owner, mint condition, both mechanically and visually. Sure, it sucks from a feature standpoint but I just installed an iPhone compatible media player and use my iPad for most of what I want. And at least I didn’t feel too bad when a moron dinged it the first week I took it out on the road. And I can mess around with it by installing things, drilling into it without feeling bad for ruining an expensive purchase. Tax on it was $15 for 2018 and it barely uses any gas. I’m fine with buying a luxury car until after I buy my own house.

tjoff 8y ago

Why not buy a used car? I would never dream of buying a new car. It comes with greater risk but a 3 year old car does not have significant risk attached to it, but it is significantly cheaper.

pishpash 8y ago
There is a reason why the prices are different, warranty being one. Are you suggesting the market in cars is inefficient?
- jazoom 8y ago
  I've only ever bought used Corollas and Yarises. Cheap to buy. Cheap to maintain. Cheap to run. Always reliable. What's not to love?
- lottin 8y ago
  Let's say that the difference between a used car and a brand-new car is the lack of warranty (and some amount of physical depreciation, which for the purposes of this discussion we can ignore). Then for the prices to be equal it means that the price of a used car must be equal to the price of a brand new car minus the "value" of the warranty, which depends on the reliability of the car and the repairing costs. It seems perfectly possible that consumers, say, overestimate the probability of the car breaking down, which would lead to a difference in prices. Whether we can call this a market inefficiency, I don't know.
  - pishpash 8y ago
    Re: warranty, I think you're leaving out the value of loss of economic productivity of using the car in the case of an out-of-warranty breakdown. If this warranty is priced incorrectly, then you should be able to buy a used car along with a bumper to bumper insurance add on for less than the price of a new car. The only exploit I see is that this is probably priced under near-100% utilization scenarios a la rental cars fleets, and your personal economic value on the car is lower, i.e. you have other means of transport, or you drive occasionally. My point is, uninformed individuals may misprice this, but transport industry purchasers won't, and I don't see them doing what I'm suggesting. Instead, they buy new cars and offload at three years.
    - tjoff 8y ago
      You assume that the transport industry pays the same price. Also need to factor in the extreme inconvenience of buying a massive amount of used cars, which everyone will attempt to exploit. Through leasing, rental etc. is how a lot of cars are delivered to the market. It is beneficial for a manufacturer to have the opportunity to sell a new car and know that there will be lots of pretty-new in great condition cars on the second hand market after a while. Which will help drive brand perception.

IshKebab 8y ago

It's not an unreasonable price when you think about the enormous amount of technology, materials and manufacturing processes that go into a car. Nothing else we normally buy comes close. Just buy a used car like everyone else.

speedplane 8y ago
> It's not an unreasonable price when you think about the enormous amount of technology, materials and manufacturing processes that go into a car. Nothing else we normally buy comes close. Commercial jets come pretty close. They have such ridiculous safety standards and regulations, I'd be happy to bet that we'll Chinese consumer cars before we see Chinese commercial jets.
- IshKebab 8y ago
  You normally buy commercial jets?