Posted on 11/13/2024 7:57:49 AM PST by RomanSoldier19
Cars once represented a pillar of the American dream — mobility and independence. But they've become something of a luxury product, and customers and auto dealers are growing frustrated.
The average price for a car in the U.S. is nearly $50,000, an increase of close to 30% in the past five years, according to Kelley Blue Book. Monthly payments are also near an all-time high. A record number of owners are underwater — paying more than the vehicle is worth — according to Edmunds.
Despite record profits in 2023, automakers face challenges: the need to invest billions into software and electrification as well as a global landscape where Chinese and other foreign automakers can produce cars much cheaper.
Some Chinese startups that make EVs and plug-in hybrids have a 30% cost advantage over established global automakers, even without government support, according to research firm AlixPartners.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbclosangeles.com ...
the government wont let them build a cheap car anymore, same with houses.
eliminate the regulations and someone will start making cheap cars again
Unions.
Overregulation and the UAW.
I once asked a car salesman why don’t the automakers make the beautiful car bodies like they did in the 50s.
He told me, and I don’t know if this is correct but I think he probably knew, that Obama passed something that is called ‘Cafe Standards’ and that is why.
Exactly
We can thank California for high price cars.
The premise of the article is OK, but being a crap MSM organ, its simplistic and low IQ content only provides a cheap political slogan in the exposition.
“Car makers need to invest $billions to compete with Chinese EVs”
There’s something like 5 or 6 (probably higher!) retired auto workers for every actual autoworker. Union contracts have to pay for these retirees, so they have to be high dollar.
Why American automakers can’t make cheap cars”
two reasons, very simple. CAFE and Unions.
If only the elite are intended to drive, what’s the point in making cheap cars?
Sad to say but I don’t see myself buying another American made vehicle.
Too many other inexpensive higher quality options out there IMO.
Wasn’t Obama…
“ Congress first enacted Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in 1975. The standards were established in response to the 1973 oil embargo, which made the US economy dependent on foreign oil. The purpose of CAFE standards is to increase the fuel economy of cars and light trucks to reduce energy consumption.”
Obama was 17 when CAFE was introduced in 1978. They were tweaked in 2011 and other years though.
So why didn’t auto manufacturers consider this when they came up with the agreement?
That’s not the union’s fault!
Here’s a clue - the government prevents it and ‘we the People’ allow it to happen.
The government sets safety standards that are expensive to meet. NHTSA gives NCAP ratings (non-binding but influential) and also sets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which also are costly to meet. Those in turn influence the non-governmental IIHS standards (which insurers base rates on). And of course all concerned parties including the auto industry have legions of lobbyists.
And then there are the government’s “CAFE” gas mileage requirements, which require all kinds of techologies to meet. Keeping in mind that CAFE standards were introduced to help with energy independence and then got coopted to fight carbon dioxide, a benign gas that the Commies use to Fake Science to claim is a “pollutant”
they can, they don’t want to...
Then 'We the People" can change it. We just proved it to ourselves on the 5th. Nothing is impossible, or are we going to decide to ignore our lying eyes? The tide has turned. Push them back under their rocks. Call your representatives and senators and start demanding these regulations be undone and unchain the American auto industry.
unions and autoworkers are overpaid
it does not take that much intelligence to put a screw in.
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