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The trend in recent years has been more luxurious interiors at a lower cost. Prior to COVID, I was using a car pool app to get to work. I’ve rode in Audi A4s a

The trend in recent years has been more luxurious interiors at a lower cost. Prior to COVID, I was using a car pool app to get to work. I’ve rode in Audi A4s and A5s, BMW 3 series, Accords, Civics, and even a Model 3. A buddy of mine picked up a new Mazda3. The interior felt pretty much equivalent to a BMW 3 series or A5. I don’t know much about car performance and so presumably the major difference is just the brand name and engine power. Personally I don’t own a car and view cars as a utility to get from point A to point B. I can see spending a bit more on a car if you commute or drive a lot. The vehicle industry blows my mind — not only the buying process itself but also the pricing model. It’s crazy how Americans are willing to drop $30-40K (that’s average?) for a vehicle. But I digress.

bsder 6y ago
> It’s crazy how Americans are willing to drop $30-40K (that’s average?) for a vehicle. But I digress. Market segmentation means you don't have a lot of choice. A Toyota Camry (a quite basic mid-size car) starts at $25K. Even some of the cheapest cars sit at almost $20K and their safety ratings at US freeway speeds are often not great combined with being underpowered. The fact that people have to drive on US freeways a lot means that you can't just engineer a small, slower speed car and call it a day.
- EricE 6y ago
  $25K over 10 years isn’t terrible. People who feel they have to buy a new car every 2 to 4 years only have themselves to blame. Then again, god bless them. If it wasn’t for all of them there wouldn’t be so many good used cars for me to choose from :)
EricE 6y ago
Mazda is indeed one of the sleeper brands. Not only do they have excellent interiors for their price, if you had driven that 3 you would have discovered they are extremely sporty and fun cars to drive too! In America I’d only lease any of the European brands. Parts are harder to come by, fewer people want to mess with/repair them (you can always get shafted at the dealer, but that’s pretty much universal) and reliability on them is not the best. Give me a good used Japanese car (except for Mitsubishi) any day.
ramraj07 6y ago
Oh man you should visit India. Much denser concentration of Audi's, BMWs, etc than anything I've seen in the US. Especially in the past few years.
- natmaka 6y ago
  This is also true in most cities in China, especially the huge ones. In Shanghai German-made middle-to-high end models form a surprisingly high fraction of the cars.
taurath 6y ago
Your vehicle is basically your living room. I don't fault anyone for wanting to be comfortable, especially in rural america where its literally an hour to get anywhere. In countries and cities with usable public transit and density its naturally far less of a thing.

bsder 6y ago

> It’s crazy how Americans are willing to drop $30-40K (that’s average?) for a vehicle. But I digress. Market segmentation means you don't have a lot of choice. A Toyota Camry (a quite basic mid-size car) starts at $25K. Even some of the cheapest cars sit at almost $20K and their safety ratings at US freeway speeds are often not great combined with being underpowered. The fact that people have to drive on US freeways a lot means that you can't just engineer a small, slower speed car and call it a day.

EricE 6y ago
$25K over 10 years isn’t terrible. People who feel they have to buy a new car every 2 to 4 years only have themselves to blame. Then again, god bless them. If it wasn’t for all of them there wouldn’t be so many good used cars for me to choose from :)

EricE 6y ago

Mazda is indeed one of the sleeper brands. Not only do they have excellent interiors for their price, if you had driven that 3 you would have discovered they are extremely sporty and fun cars to drive too! In America I’d only lease any of the European brands. Parts are harder to come by, fewer people want to mess with/repair them (you can always get shafted at the dealer, but that’s pretty much universal) and reliability on them is not the best. Give me a good used Japanese car (except for Mitsubishi) any day.

ramraj07 6y ago

Oh man you should visit India. Much denser concentration of Audi's, BMWs, etc than anything I've seen in the US. Especially in the past few years.

natmaka 6y ago
This is also true in most cities in China, especially the huge ones. In Shanghai German-made middle-to-high end models form a surprisingly high fraction of the cars.

taurath 6y ago

Your vehicle is basically your living room. I don't fault anyone for wanting to be comfortable, especially in rural america where its literally an hour to get anywhere. In countries and cities with usable public transit and density its naturally far less of a thing.