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Comment by rocket_surgeron | Hacker News Reader

> Are cars cheaper today?

Cars are AVAILABLE for pretty much the same price.

People WANT more expensive cars.

The Volkswagen Beetle was pretty much the least expensive car on the market for its entire sales run in the United States.

The inflation-adjusted price of a Beetle in 1973 was around $12,000.

The price of a Chevrolet Spark in 2022? $13,000.

Nobody wants a Spark, though. They want an SUV. So Chevy killed the Spark.

Before Chevy discontinued the Spark you could walk onto a lot and drive away in one of the dozen or so Sparks they had rotting away in the corner for less than the price of a VW Beetle in 1973-- and the Spark was superior in every measurable way.

2023's cheapest car is the Nissan Versa. You can 100% find dealers who will part with one for less than the cost of a Beetle. It is also better than the Beetle.

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Carmakers want to sell expensive cars.

Back in the 1970s my dad had plenty of stories about how American car dealers had all kinds of excuses why they couldn't, wouldn't or shouldn't sell you a small car.

Now the Japanese car dealers do the same thing.

A few years I went to a Honda dealer looking for a new Fit, found they didn't have any because "the factory washed out in a flood" but they had 50 CR-Vs which are made in the same factory which were somehow not affected by the flood.

They really ought to put up or shut up: when they have a $7000 sales incentive on that monster vehicle that is not a sign that people want to buy a monster vehicle but it is a sign they want to sell you a monster vehicle.

The only reason for a manufacturer to want to produce a cheap car is to sell a ton of them at a low margin. If not enough people are buying them, then there's no reason to continue selling them. At sub-$20,000, you're going to be better off buying a used car than a new, bare bones car. This wasn't the case decades ago when cars were a lot less reliable and generational improvements were much larger.

>when they have a $7000 sales incentive on that monster vehicle that is not a sign that people want to buy a monster vehicle

What cars are you talking about? It's generally the "monster vehicles" that have the greatest markup (e.g. Bronco Raptor)

> People WANT more expensive cars.

Because it's very easy to get financing for a car, that's why. If they had to pay it out of pocket you bet they'd choose the cheaper car.

The car today that costs the same as the price of a car yesterday. But your car of today provides airbags, ABS brakes, much better crash protection, backup cameras, power windows, automatic transmissions, the list goes on and on. You are getting way more for the same dollar you paid in the past for cars

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