But that’s great news, if there’s truly a gap in the famously difficult automotive market, maybe a scrappy new player can break through with a simple, small sedan—one that can be made cheaply, and sold affordably—and then their supply chain can be forced into a series of buy outs and hostile takeovers, creating the next generation of wealthy donors to political action groups. It’s the ciiiirrcle of liiiife etc..
The majority of people buy their cars used, but the car makers make the cars they can sell to the minority who buy new cars - and they have very different tastes. New car buyers like gadgets and they like SUVs.
Compare my Mazda 6 wagon to the Mazda CX-9 crossover. My wagon is almost 25% more fuel efficient (7L/100km vs 9L/100km) but also has MUCH more space. Minimum cargo space of 506L vs 230L. Maximum cargo space of 1648L vs 810L. It has a shorter wheelbase and smaller turning radius. It does have worse towing 550kg vs 750kg but I almost never see anyone towing anything.
In Toyota's lineup the RAV4 is basically a tall Camry, and in Subaru's lineup the Outback kind of just got a bit taller and reclassified as a crossover alternative to the Legacy. Of course these companies all have larger and smaller options, but in general it seems like the adoption of larger vehicles is not because smaller ones aren't available, it's because for various reasons customers want to buy them. In any case worrying about exactly what vehicle mix is selling to me feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.