With an average U.S. new-vehicle selling price of just over $45,000 last month, many can’t afford to buy new — even though prices are down more than $2,000 from the peak in December of 2022, according to J.D. Power.
The automotive lobby is pretty intense as they shape the regulatory framework applied to all modern cars, and I don’t see it happening from a conventional carmaker, really, but I do wonder if, say, something like aptera, which can kind of attempt to skirt those regulations, will be able to breach the mass, undeserved market in the same way the gen 1 prius was maybe able to. Or, something like the toyota echo, you know, that class of new cars that we used to have 20 years ago which was supposed to appeal to younger people who weren’t as financially well off. Or, is it just the case that the middle class has totally evaporated, and so the vast majority of americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and straight up just can’t afford a car even with increasingly predatory auto loans?
The automotive lobby is pretty intense as they shape the regulatory framework applied to all modern cars, and I don’t see it happening from a conventional carmaker, really, but I do wonder if, say, something like aptera, which can kind of attempt to skirt those regulations, will be able to breach the mass, undeserved market in the same way the gen 1 prius was maybe able to. Or, something like the toyota echo, you know, that class of new cars that we used to have 20 years ago which was supposed to appeal to younger people who weren’t as financially well off. Or, is it just the case that the middle class has totally evaporated, and so the vast majority of americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and straight up just can’t afford a car even with increasingly predatory auto loans?