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The US don't have cheap cars because dealers and automakers prefer the high margins of more expensive cars. In basically any other market in the world, the Nis
by elzbardico 2y ago
The US don't have cheap cars because dealers and automakers prefer the high margins of more expensive cars.
In basically any other market in the world, the Nissan Versa is definitelly beyond the entry level and not the cheapest and smallest car.
- WheatMillington 2y agoIt's also because American consumers, on average, absolutely without question prefer larger vehicles.
- elzbardico 2y agoI know, but the american market is gigantic, there is probably a sizable niche for economical vehicles. And if nobody is selling cheap cars, how can we be so sure they won't sell?
- kevin_thibedeau 2y agoThey would sell, but there is less profit in them so the manufacturers have optimized for a market where they preferably service the wealthy and those willing to overextend themselves on an expensive loan or lease. The bottom end of the market is left to used vehicles.
- infecto 2y agoYou frame it like manufacturers have never sold cheap cars. They have and they don't sell anywhere as much as you think they would. Right now the entry point across most manufacturers is ~$20-23k for a brand new vehicle. 9% of vehicle transactions are accounted for by these cars. The market for them is not large, people want crossover suvs and trucks.
- hnuser123456 2y agoAnd fuel economy regulations encourage larger vehicles with relatively more lenient emissions standards (moreso than the additional size would require) than is applied to smaller cars.
- rqtwteye 2y agoIt’s safe to assume that these regulations have largely been shaped by car manufacturers.
- ponector 2y agoI doubt there are tighter regulation than in the EU. Americans just don't want to buy small vehicles with small motors. They want V8 with 300+hp to sit in the traffic jams. For example there is a good inexpensive Reanult Clio with 1l 3-cylinder 90hp engine. I doubt any meaningful number of US customers want to buy such car, even if it is less than 20k USD.
- wil421 2y agoYou can’t drive a larger car on Medieval streets. US doesn’t have that problem. We also don’t like towing things like caravans and trailers behind sedans with bottomed out suspensions. BMW won’t even sell the EU stealth hitches in the US.
- mrguyorama 2y agoOn the contrary, new england has plenty of tiny city streets, and assholes like my dad will still insist on driving their F350 (really) through the heart of downtown. Hell, we had the local cybertruck do it earlier this year. They will spend all day griping about how hard it is to park in the city, and how much they hate the city.
- rjsw 2y agoYou used to be able to buy the Ford Fiesta with a similar engine in the US.
- Insanity 2y agoAlso, even if Europeans would like the look of larger cars, our roads are not built for it lol. Definitely not in cities.
- yourusername 2y agoAlmost every European road can fit cars up to 2.5 meters wide and about 6 meters long. Parking spaces not so much.
- magicalhippo 2y agoThe garage we have, as part of a coop, was built for a 60s European car. Think good old VW Beetle. While there are a fair number of cars we could park, like the VW ID.4, we couldn't get out of them while parked.
- alex_suzuki 2y agoSame here, our house was built in the early 80s and has a tiny garage. Theoretically you could fit our Skoda Octavia (2 kids) in it, but getting out would prove challenging, even if everybody exited on the same side. Also you wouldn’t be able to use the garage for anything else, like storing gardening tools, bicycles, skateboards, etc.
- markvdb 2y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QksqWRqEfy0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QksqWRqEfy0
- magicalhippo 2y agoNot quite that bad, but close. I have to park slightly at an angle and offset, so I can can get out. Any passenger wouldn't be able to get out due to this. And I don't have a big car, it's basically the same size as a Kia Niro EV or Hyundai Kona.
- rusticpenn 2y ago
- forgotoldacc 2y agoPart is due to people being fearful of buying something smaller since there are so many colossal vehicles on the road that would be considered military-tier equipment in other countries. Safety ratings are nice and all, but when faced with the very real possibility that a vehicle 3 times the mass of yours will someday hit you at 80+ miles per hour, you just have to accept the fact that Newton's second law is something that is hard to win against.
- sudopluto 2y agoamerican pickup trucks are literally as large or larger than ww2 tanks: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9823577/Road-warriors-American-trucks-SUVs-longer-tanks-fought-World-War-II.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9823577/Road-warrio...
- grahamj 2y agoIt's also because American consumers, on average, are large
- MonkeyClub 2y agoOn average they're only average - unless you're comparing them with another consumer dataset.
- Cumpiler69 2y agoThey're larger than people from Asian countries.
- speedgoose 2y ago43% obesity rate in 2024 according to the WHO.
- mlhpdx 2y agoOr the same data set over time.
- grahamj 2y ago"The average American is large" doesn't require another dataset however clearly the implication is comparison with the rest of the world.
- thephyber 2y agoPartially true. Consumers don’t want tiny cheap cars. In the past few years, people have financed progressively more expensive cars over much longer periods, suggesting they don’t want the cheapest options. Americans view cars as status symbols, not just transport. Hence, car companies sell cars as status symbols, not just utilitarian commodities.
- mattigames 2y agoI'm sure the advertisement done by those companies have nothing to do with them being seen as status symbols (and preferring bigger cars in general)
- jimt1234 2y agoIt's also because the used car market in the US is strong.
- thephyber 2y agoScion and Saturn were both recent entry level brands for major car manufacturers. Both of them were subsumed into their parent companies and most of their models were discontinued. If the models were good for business, those would have continued.
- fwip 2y agoNot being "good for business" doesn't mean customers don't want them.
- infecto 2y agoI believe the idea of compact cars being popular in America is more of a Hacker News trope. Over the years, we've repeatedly seen subcompact cars, both EV and ICE, enter the market only to fade away. The reality is that they aren't particularly popular—most Americans simply don't want them.
- switch007 2y ago
- Animats 2y ago> The US don't have cheap cars because dealers and automakers prefer the high margins of more expensive cars. While BYD is quietly taking over in every country that doesn't have a domestic auto industry. When BYD starts selling their $10,000 car Seagull car [1] in the US, even with a 100% tariff, it will be cheaper than anything Detroit makes. [1] https://electrek.co/2024/05/22/byds-10000-seagull-ev-worrying-rivals-hits-new-markets/ https://electrek.co/2024/05/22/byds-10000-seagull-ev-worryin...
- Cumpiler69 2y ago> even with a 100% tariff You're making it sounds like 100% is the highest possible ceiling for a tariff, when it's a number arbitrarily set to fulfill a specific agenda and can be infinitely adjusted. Of course if you protect your domestic car industry too much it will slowly become uncompetitive and irelevant on the international free market.
- sofixa 2y ago> You're making it sounds like 100% is the highest possible ceiling for a tariff, when it's a number arbitrarily set to fulfill a specific agenda and can be infinitely adjusted. Yep, the tariffs Boeing got on Bombardier's C-Series that were the final nail in the coffin of that program and Bombardier as a serious player, and gifted a great new jet to Airbus, were 300%.
- willio58 2y agoI hate how true this is. The US might as well peg the tarrif to infinity on any cars coming from China because at this rate that's essentially what we're doing.
- yorwba 2y agoAs your article points out, it sells for about $20k in Mexico and Brazil. They're dumping at $10k in China to destroy other Chinese car manufacturers and profitability is not required until subsidies run out. But in other countries those other Chinese manufacturers are mostly not even competing, allowing BYD to price higher and turn a decent profit. If a 100% tariff means they only make Chinese-level profit from US sales, it might not be worth it.
- laweijfmvo 2y agoI recently got a deal (under $100 for 5 days) on a car rental. After turning down all the offers to upgrade, they gave me a Versa. I loved it. It actually felt like a car again, not a computer on wheels, and I could actually see out the windows on all four sides.
- sephamorr 2y agoI had a similar experience in a rental. The one feature I missed was a wireless key fob, which is not included in the base trim. I understand the relentless cost pressure in automotive mfg, but that seems like it would have been $2 worth spending.
- BLKNSLVR 2y agoSo it had a normal key, for unlocking the doors and turning the ignition?
- sephamorr 2y agoYes, a boring mechanical key for both.
- karamanolev 2y agoProbably a remote with buttons to unlock the car (no keyless entry) and a key to insert into an ignition lock to turn it - that's what I've seen in today's entry-level cars.
- graemep 2y agoI prefer that (and its what my fairly old car has). Smaller attack surface. There have been lots of issues with keyless.
- clavigne 2y agoCar thieves have been using antennas to remotely trigger the keyless entry to great success here in Canada. Many people leave their keys on their doors so you just need to put a range extender against the door and scan cars in front until one of them opens.
- jimt1234 2y agoFor the last 40 years, cars sold in the US have really been a way to profit from high-margin auto loans.
- dingaling 2y ago> The US don't have cheap cars They absolutely do. The cheapest Nissan in the UK is a Juke at $29,775 ( per xe.com conversion rate ). A US-market Nissan Versa starts at $17,995. Even removing taxes the Juke costs around $24,800.
- adhamsalama 2y agoBut it's a Juke. https://youtu.be/PWHYZrnxJmQ https://youtu.be/PWHYZrnxJmQ
- highwaylights 2y agoHe’s so right though. They’re almost as poorly thought out as the RR Evoque. The visibility is bad, the clearance for entering and exiting in the rear seats is unnecessarily cramped, and it offers no more storage space than a Clio. It’s a caricature of a toy 4x4 with all of the compromises that implies. Ecck.
- lmm 2y agoThat Versa is the cheapest new car in the US, from any manufacturer. The comparison would be the Citroën C3 Origin at £14,150, so a smidge cheaper than that Versa. (I don't know why Nissan isn't selling small cars in the UK any more - the Micra was very popular up until about a decade ago)
- clavigne 2y agoThe Nissan versa is like the last cheap car. The Chevy Spark is dead. The Mitsubishi Mirage is dead. etc.
- elzbardico 2y agoThe UK has become a completely disfunctional toy economy and it is not a useful parameter.