4 ms·

Depends on the car… there are still some extremely cheap options out there that do a surprising amount of stuff.

macintux 4y ago
I think that depends on what you classify as "extremely cheap". The cheapest car in the U.S. market is the Spark at under $14k, but it's been discontinued. The Versa and Mirage both start around $16k. I'm unaware of anything else under $20k, although the Ford Maverick is impressively reasonable at $21k.
somenameforme 4y ago
In 1916 a barebones model-T cost $360 [1]. That's $8400 in 2019 dollars, and $9800 in 2022 dollars. This is actually what led to the normalization of planned obsolescence. [2] The widespread availability of reliable and cheap vehicles posed a problem for manufacturers which had, to that date, primarily just competed on quality and price. What do do when you can't create something more cheaply, or of a higher quality? Curve some edges, strap a layer of chrome on it, and market it endlessly to get people to buy the fundamentally identical product over and over and over again. Progress! "Oh god, I can't believe you're still driving a 1916 - that's soooo last year." [1] - https://modeltfordfix.com/the-1916-model-t-ford/ https://modeltfordfix.com/the-1916-model-t-ford/ [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Planned_obsolescence#History https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Planned_obsolescence#History
- mlyle 4y ago
  > In 1916 a barebones model-T cost $360 [1]. That's $8400 in 2019 dollars, and $9800 in 2022 dollars. Not too much like a modern car to compare, though. Still no electric starting, and not a lot of capacity, creature comforts, or speed. Time between major overhauls was ~15,000 miles. Overall lifespan of the car was estimated as 100,000. > What do do when you can't create something more cheaply, or of a higher quality? Curve some edges, strap a layer of chrome on it, and market it endlessly to get people to buy the fundamentally identical product over and over and over again. Progress! When we're comparing to vehicles with anything like modern speeds and capacities,... average vehicle age / longevity is higher than its ever been. (It's a bit more difficult to compare before the mid-1960s because vehicles were rebuilt and overhauled so much before then...)
  - somenameforme 4y ago
    I don't think technology improving over long time scales runs contrary to the nature of the question, or answers it. The first computer, the ENIAC, required a small building of space, cost about $6 million, and ran at around 500 FLOPs. Today a modern GPU is several inches long, costs a couple of hundred dollars for a pretty decent one, uses minimal electricity, and will run literally tens of billions times faster than the ENIAC.
    - mlyle 4y ago
      Well, overall hedonistic adjustments to price are complicated and controversial. I'm just saying: there's not really any cars like a model T anymore. Not just because of increased technology, but because of improved underlying technology: customers expect more (volume, mass capacity, interior comforts, ancillary features, speed, etc) and that increases cost. We could probably make something a lot like a model T pretty cheaply still, if there were a big market for it.
      - baggy_trough 4y ago
        Also, the government makes it illegal to make cars like a model T now.
        anticensor 4y ago
        Insecure cars are not road legal, but reliable cars are perfectly road legal.

I think that depends on what you classify as "extremely cheap". The cheapest car in the U.S. market is the Spark at under $14k, but it's been discontinued. The Versa and Mirage both start around $16k. I'm unaware of anything else under $20k, although the Ford Maverick is impressively reasonable at $21k.

somenameforme 4y ago

In 1916 a barebones model-T cost $360 [1]. That's $8400 in 2019 dollars, and $9800 in 2022 dollars. This is actually what led to the normalization of planned obsolescence. [2] The widespread availability of reliable and cheap vehicles posed a problem for manufacturers which had, to that date, primarily just competed on quality and price. What do do when you can't create something more cheaply, or of a higher quality? Curve some edges, strap a layer of chrome on it, and market it endlessly to get people to buy the fundamentally identical product over and over and over again. Progress! "Oh god, I can't believe you're still driving a 1916 - that's soooo last year." [1] - https://modeltfordfix.com/the-1916-model-t-ford/ https://modeltfordfix.com/the-1916-model-t-ford/ [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Planned_obsolescence#History https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Planned_obsolescence#History

mlyle 4y ago
> In 1916 a barebones model-T cost $360 [1]. That's $8400 in 2019 dollars, and $9800 in 2022 dollars. Not too much like a modern car to compare, though. Still no electric starting, and not a lot of capacity, creature comforts, or speed. Time between major overhauls was ~15,000 miles. Overall lifespan of the car was estimated as 100,000. > What do do when you can't create something more cheaply, or of a higher quality? Curve some edges, strap a layer of chrome on it, and market it endlessly to get people to buy the fundamentally identical product over and over and over again. Progress! When we're comparing to vehicles with anything like modern speeds and capacities,... average vehicle age / longevity is higher than its ever been. (It's a bit more difficult to compare before the mid-1960s because vehicles were rebuilt and overhauled so much before then...)
- somenameforme 4y ago
  I don't think technology improving over long time scales runs contrary to the nature of the question, or answers it. The first computer, the ENIAC, required a small building of space, cost about $6 million, and ran at around 500 FLOPs. Today a modern GPU is several inches long, costs a couple of hundred dollars for a pretty decent one, uses minimal electricity, and will run literally tens of billions times faster than the ENIAC.
  - mlyle 4y ago
    Well, overall hedonistic adjustments to price are complicated and controversial. I'm just saying: there's not really any cars like a model T anymore. Not just because of increased technology, but because of improved underlying technology: customers expect more (volume, mass capacity, interior comforts, ancillary features, speed, etc) and that increases cost. We could probably make something a lot like a model T pretty cheaply still, if there were a big market for it.
    - baggy_trough 4y ago
      Also, the government makes it illegal to make cars like a model T now.
      - anticensor 4y ago
        Insecure cars are not road legal, but reliable cars are perfectly road legal.