Now I would get a notarized and signed purchase agreement clearly stating the price.

Calm down, Lewis Hamilton. 7 seconds is more than fine to get around town and life. You have been red pilled by the horsepower wars.

I would argue that with electric drive, it doesn’t feel slow, at least not around town. My brother has a Bolt, and it’s slower than this, but in typical city driving it feels quick. However, I will completely agree with you that if you aren’t going to offer (and market) the “cake and eat it to” point, it needs to be…

I think the bigger looming issue is student loan debt. Borrowers have enjoyed 0% interest and deferred minimum payments for 2+ years. Of those borrowers, how many have continued to pay their loans, hoping to get ahead? How many have splurged on needless other items assuming the windfall is going to last forever? I…

If you have suggestions for markups.org, perhaps you should submit them at markups.org/contact.html instead of the Jalopnik kinja blackhole.

The Santa Cruz looks like something out of a Transformers movie. It’s god-awful gaudy and cheap looking to me.

Exactly.

I don’t understand this take. Someone makes a small fuel efficient pickup and that’s a problem? We should only buy Brodoziers and Civics?  I see lot’s of people who have a commuter car and a beater pickup for weekend projects or sports stuff. Why is combining the two an issue? I still don’t understand why GM never…

Not really, but nobody would do that anyway.  You’d either just toss that stuff in the back seat or have a cover of some sort for the bed, like a Tonneau or something.  

Car makers: ‘Merica only wants Trucks and SUVs, so that’s what we make

This is a fair assessment, but who in their right mind would buy a fiesta or focus over a maverick? I owned a “14 1.0 ecoboost fiesta and it averaged 38-40 mpg depending on the time of year. The maverick I bought 3 months ago is consistently getting 40-44 mpg. It gets better mileage, has WAAAYYYY more space and cost…

Blame Wall Street for the panicked behavior you describe. Publicly traded companies will do stupid things in order to meet quarterly expectations.

3-5% price increase during a year of ~8% inflation is price gouging? You’re an idiot.

Adjusting to higher production costs due to inflation is not price gouging.

Simple, with shortages why would a manufacturer shift from a car that they make only a few $ (and I do mean like single/double digit profit) or worse, lose money per vehicle soold vs a high margin “SUV”/car with hundreds.

Not that I’m a huge fan of this industry, but I think the furniture business might be the model manufactures could follow.  Have a few in a small strip mall store, put one on order, get it in 6-8 weeks.  

The MSRP is set knowing that a dealer and typical haggle situation exists. How do you know that MSRP will consider the same final margins? You’re entire argument seems to be built upon this entire assumption.

I’d love to go to a Model-E store and not have to deal with the sales vultures at the traditional Ford side.

Good car content folks. Autopian will eat your lunch

But that is the trick. If you keep up with the maintenance (no small accomplishment), you can still hit that “unwinnable” high-cost, expensive maintenance/repair with the Germans and simple repairs are no such thing. Completely different than both domestics and japanese. Sure they might keep the maintenance cost low…