Yeah, that is what I was thinking too but under 50K and a “reliable non-project” nixed it. A auto-AMG Merc might be easier at that price.

Norm wants a Unicorn. Manual, passenger-space, trunk, reliable, easy to care for... A manual wagon musclecar.... brown right?

“Tesla should probably just tell its customers that its cars are in perpetual beta.”

1st Gear - How did imported cars and foreign brands become popular here?

Just like the Koreans and Japanese did before them.

4. Nobody “buys” new cars any more. New cars gets leased for 2-3 years, then sold as CPOs with a dealer warranty. To some extent this is already where we are, especially in the luxury segment.

THIS^

The reality is that no matter how popular a thing may be with the poor, the wealthy who control the levers of power will resist it with all their might.

Nah, interest rates remain extremely low and cars last longer with better resale than ever.

It’s mostly just outrageously difficult and expensive to engineer and manufacture something as complex as an automobile, and trying to do so with only low-margin, inexpensive vehicles just increases the challenge.

As if we have the infrastructure and government support for mass transit in the USA. It’s a nice idea, though. 

do you think buyers are really going to seek out transit? It’s a nice thought but that’s not the reality of it. They will more likely seek out longer and longer finance terms to keep the monthly payment lower. 

They all already make smaller cars for other markets. They’ll bring them back to the US when and if it makes sense to.

1st: Car makers want to sell what people are willing to buy. If people actually wanted lower end cars, they could charge another $1k for them and get the profit back, and be happy to sell them. But yet again, Raph pretends like supply and demand isn’t real.

Eventually some plucky little car maker is going to figure out how to make a minimum viable product car that they can sell at a profit.

Then all the legacy car makers are going to come back to making the little cars again.

It is the 70's all over again. 

All I read was $100K to blow on 2 cars at the worst possible time to buy 2 cars and already has reliable car

You’ve got to admit the strategy is brilliant.

I used to bartend at what most considered a dive bar in a rich neighborhood. The owner kept prices high because rich people think they are getting something special when they pay too much for it.

This again?

3rd Gear: Of course they are. They’re going to have to rely on the government to force people into new EVs so that all of these insane investments they’re making are realized. 

I could probably sell the options that I have to unload this year and get one. But even a regular Bronco would be overkill.  My old Ranger handles gravel roads just fine and that’s the extent of what’s available.  Maybe if I lived in the SW.  Maybe one day after I get rid of some parasites aka family.