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The US auto industry is on two non sustainable paths. The first is internal combustion engines. The second is building fewer but more expensive cars.
by heisenbit 7y ago
The US auto industry is on two non sustainable paths. The first is internal combustion engines. The second is building fewer but more expensive cars.
- Mountain_Skies 7y agoThe second part is difficult because pretty much all cars last longer than they used to. People will grumble about plastic body panels and cheap interiors but overall the average car simply lasts longer than they would in the heyday of the Big 3. Even with a growing population, better built cars are creating less demand. There are other factors, such as ride sharing, remote work, and online socializing, but none of them point to the solution being to build more cars. Perhaps making less expensive entry level cars would get some non-owners to take the plunge but the durability of existing cars makes buying a new entry level model less desirable.
- Merrill 7y agoThe average age is up to 11.8 years for the 278 million car, SUVs and light trucks in the US. The market shift to SUVs was also a shift to more durable vehicles, as was the shift away from US cars to foreign cars. As more and more stringent government regulations make new vehicles less desirable and more expensive, drivers will maintain and retain their existing vehicles until we look like Havana. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/average-vehicle-age-increase-america/ https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/average-vehicle-age-incre...
- refurb 7y agoRelated to that, reliability is way up. Back in the 1980’s it wasn’t unusual at all to have your car breakdown every year or so and leave you stranded on the side of the road. Nowadays I’ll go months before seeing someone stranded on the side of the road. It’s actually quite amazing.