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There is a conflation of factors that have lead to this. 1. Stricter safety and emissions regulations that make new cars more expensive to make. 2. Supply cha
by jedberg 3y ago
There is a conflation of factors that have lead to this.
1. Stricter safety and emissions regulations that make new cars more expensive to make.
2. Supply chain issues making new cars more expensive.
3. New cars are expensive so people are holding onto their used cars longer, shrinking that market.
4. Cars are much more computerized than before, so it's hard to fix up old cars and make them work again.
5. Teens used to be able to take auto-shop and learn enough to fix up an old shitbox to use for their first few working years.
6. It's hard to find an old shitbox anymore, even one that is easy to fix, because people are holding onto them until they die.
I'm not sure what the solution is here. The safety and emissions regs are there for a reason, but those are what lead to all the other problems.
We just need to design our society for fewer cars, but that change will take a while.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- beaeglebeached 3y agoMany countries motorbike dominates. I only switched over due to infant safety restraint laws. Yes I lived somewhere in snow, motorcycle works in blizzards too. Really only find motorcycle and heavy trucks useful though. If smug fucks in legislature gon make me have a cage, at least gon get something I can haul large loads with. Car is a weird in-between that inefficiently does both.
- chromatin 3y ago> 6. It's hard to find an old shitbox anymore, even one that is easy to fix, because people are holding onto them until they die. It's also been made harder because of the insane Obama-era "Cash for Clunkers" [1] program that massive depleted supply of used vehicles in the US with the purported effect of an economic stimulus. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
- jedberg 3y agoIt was billed as a stimulus but it was really an environmental program to get people to exchange for more fuel efficient vehicles. See point 1. :)
- tomohawk 3y agoBig fail if you consider the energy it takes to build a car. All the wasted energy to prematurely destroy those cars that still had years of use in them is mind boggling.
- simfree 3y agoIt created an economic stimulus for auto manufacturers by forcing new vehicles to be sold.
- nullc 3y ago> are holding onto them until they die Also because of anti-features in newer cars, like buttonless soft cockpits, dangerous shifters with no positional feedback, keyfobs that make it easy-ish for unsupervised toddlers to start the car along with thieves with radio proxies... or the fact that small trucks don't exist anymore in favor if annoying to park gas guzzlers due to, ironically, fuel efficiency standards.
- sebazzz 3y agoNew cars are expensive because of feature inflation. We don't need all those features, we just want a basic cheap car.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 3y agoThis. A good reliable basic car without features just isn't a thing anymore. It's triple sunroofs and built-in arm-rest massagers and whatever crap they are putting into the "info-tainment" system.
- SAI_Peregrinus 3y agoAnd features are usually quite bundled. If you just want heated side-view mirrors you're probably stuck going up to a higher "trim" package level & also getting heated seats, etc.
- nradov 3y agoWho is "we"? There are basic cheap cars available but few consumers actually buy them. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g39175084/10-cheapest-new-cars-in-2022/ https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g39175084/10-cheapest-...
- breadbreadbread 3y agoIn my lifetime school stopped being about teaching life skills and started being about college prep. I never had home ec, wood shop, auto shop, any life skill class. Hell even drivers ed was privatized in my town. I understand that these programs are expensive to keep running but that slack was not picked up by other community resources like community colleges. (theres also a lot to be said about the stigmatization of community college and adult education courses) The decline in public funding of education and public transit in my lifetime have gotten us to this point