Requiem for the cheap new car
If you want something smaller than a three-row crossover, you might be out of luck.
In the late sixties and early seventies, America’s “Big Three” automakers paid minimal attention to compact and economy models, bequeathing upon the world half-assed efforts like the Vega and the Pinto, while upstart Japanese companies made inroads with high-quality, affordable small cars. This strategy really paid off in 1973, when the oil crisis tanked the market for gas guzzlers and buyers soon discovered that Toyotas and Datsuns actually started when you turned the key.
Years later, the Big Three went all-in on trucks and sport-utility vehicles, resulting in big profits…until the Great Recession of 2008, and yada yada yada, Chrysler was eventually absorbed into a Voltron of famously unreliable car brands1 called “Stellantis.” GM also went bankrupt while Ford barely hung on, and though both remain major players, the days when they combined for something like 80% market share in the US are long gone.
Fast forward to 2023, and the American automakers are finally following the same strategy as their foreign competitors.
…that is, the Japanese have pretty much abandoned high-quality, low-priced entry-level models in the US market, too:
Automakers are abandoning entry-level vehicles, often called "starter cars" — and it's a problem not just for buyers looking for a less-expensive one amid today's sky-high interest rates, but all car shoppers.
New vehicles had an average transaction price of $47,713 in March, according to Edmunds. Five years ago, that number was $35,794.
Though those figures are averages, it's clear that lower-end vehicles are more costly than they used to be — a direction automakers have been moving in for years.
In 2018, 44% of new vehicles sold were under $30,000, per an Edmunds release. By last month, that number was only 17%. Edmunds called this the "rise of the $60,000 new vehicle."
Some of the more stark price increases include those for full-size trucks, 50% of which were over $60,000 last month compared to 5% five years ago; large SUVs, 94% of which sold for over $60,000 last month, up from 54% five years ago; and luxury midsize SUVs, 70% of which were above that price point, compared with just 31% five years ago. And it's hurting all types of consumers.
It's "profit-maximizing behavior due to the supply chain crisis," Tyson Jominy, J.D. Power VP of data and analytics, told Insider. "It's not indicative of demand, which is very strong below $30,000."
Paradoxically, the persistent computer chip shortage has resulted in carmakers abandoning economy cars in favor of expensive crossovers and trucks:
There are a few reasons automakers have gone this route. Part of it is related to the pandemic-induced inventory challenges brought on by the chip shortage.
"They shifted their focus of chips onto the things that the customers wanted the most," Whitney Yates-Woods, dealer principal of Yates Buick GMC in Goodyear, Arizona, said of automakers like GM — which includes larger vehicles and trucks. "But that meant that some of the cheaper stuff went by the wayside."
Some of this has been going on since before COVID, especially as many automakers discontinued sedans several years earlier. Low interest rates plus longer loan terms had car-buyers embracing tech-equipped luxury trucks and SUVs.
Profit, as Jominy pointed out, is also a key factor — and automakers are even willing to sacrifice market share for it.
"The more economical vehicle market they're exiting as they find that profits are much greater on these higher dollar heavier units," Scott Kunes, COO of Kunes Auto and RV Group, which owns more than 40 dealerships in the Midwest, told Insider earlier this year.
"There is definitely a void happening in the market for those vehicles," Kunes added.
Small cars aren’t extinct, exactly - the Nissan Versa and Thai-built Mitsubishi Mirage are still around - but the salesman will likely resort to everything short of hypnosis to talk you into a Rogue or an Eclipse Cross instead. And even the starting price for these entry-level models has passed the $15,000.00 mark.
It kind of makes me sad, because I learned to drive on a car so basic it didn’t even come with a radio or power steering. Seriously.
My red 1990 Pontiac Firefly (well, actually my parents’ Pontiac Firefly, but it pretty much became my own) was a rebadged Canada-only version of the Geo Metro with a three-cylinder engine and a stick-shift. It also had an old Datsun AM radio for a while until I got a cheap tape deck at Radio Shack.
And it rarely let me down from my final year of high school until my first job after law school, when I finally graduated to a Honda Civic. Maybe that’s why I respect cheap, reliable cars that do nothing more than what is asked of them, that is getting the owner from A to B with minimal fuss and expense.
It’s not that no one wants them anymore (the much-maligned Mirage actually saved Mitsubishi’s tenuous position in the North American market) but that carmakers can’t or won’t sell them. Even Hyundai now has a luxury brand while discontinuing the venerable Accent.
Every gap in the marketplace will be filled eventually, and if American, Japanese, Korean and German manufacturers won’t do it, Chinese car companies might finally - after years of rumors and false starts and failed joint ventures with the guy who imported Yugos to America - see an opening and finally start selling entry-level cars in North America. Will they be any good? Probably not, at least at first, but the first Kias were nothing special, either.
There remains the computer chip shortage, which I presume has affected China as much as everyone else, but if the CCP has its way with Taiwan that might not be their problem anymore. Just everyone else’s problem. But that’s for another post.
Many better writers than I, like Allahpundit Nick Cattogio and Damon Linker, have savaged Texas Governor Greg Abbott over his promise to grant a thoroughly undeserved pardon to convicted murderer Daniel Perry.
But I want to draw your attention to this piece, in particular, for three reasons:
It’s a good rundown of the case, the trial, the relevant law, and why the murder conviction was justified.
It contains a detail I hadn’t seen reported: that the Governor of Texas actually doesn’t have the unfettered power to issue a pardon, and can only do so if a review board approves it.
Where the piece was posted.
I expect NeverTrumpers and liberals and libertarians to be up in arms about this case. I did not expect the MAGA-adjacent blog Legal Insurrection to join them:
Certainly, if the jury believed that Perry fired only after Foster pointed his rifle at him, there could hardly be a clearer case of self-defense. Indeed, as someone who personally carries a firearm for self-defense on a regular basis, anyone who unlawfully points a rifle at me ought to have a high expectation of getting shot in self-defense.
Immediately following the announcement of the guilty verdict, social media rather exploded with outrage at a guilty verdict so insanely inconsistent with Perry’s narrative of shooting in self-defense only after facing the muzzle of Foster’s rifle.
The problem with this outrage, however, is that it presumes as an indisputable fact that Foster initiated the deadly force confrontation by pointing his rifle at Perry.
That “fact,” however, is not indisputable. Indeed, that fact was aggressively disputed by the prosecution, which argued to the jury that Foster never pointed his rifle at Perry, and so Perry’s claimed legal grounds for shooting Foster in self-defense simply doesn’t exist.
In support of this narrative of guilt the prosecution presented the testimony of multiple witnesses who told the jury that Foster never pointed his rifle at Perry. The confrontation itself was captured on poor quality video, from which screen captures were secured, and neither video nor stills ever show Foster pointing his gun at Perry.
Indeed, the only evidence to support Perry’s claim of Foster pointing his rifle at him are Perry’s own self-serving statements following the shooting.
If the jury concluded that Foster had not, in fact, pointed his rifle at Perry, then it must also conclude that it was Perry who was the initial deadly force aggressor in this confrontation when he shot Foster—and, as the initial deadly force aggressor Perry cannot justify his use of force as self-defense.
Lawyer/writer Andrew Branca is a right-wing gun enthusiast, so his article does include references to a Soros-backed (drink!) DA and the “political” prosecutions of Kyle Rittenhouse and George Zimmerman.2 But I have to respect anyone brave enough to tell the truth, as he sees it, to a readership that may not want to hear it.
Of course, left-wingers have their own campaigns for convicted murderers. But, last time I checked, Mumia Abu-Jamal was still behind bars despite Hollywood’s protestations of innocence. (And deservedly so, because Abu-Jamal is guilty, but that’s for another post.)
As a Bears fan, let me offer my editorial comment on Aaron Rodgers endorsing Robert Kennedy, Jr. for President of the United States:
[deep breath]
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
[another deep breath]
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign got a boost Tuesday night from Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers wrote '#kennedy2024' and included two bicep and two heart emojis on an Instagram story, sharing a reel promoting an upcoming podcast interview with Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaxxer.
Last week, Kennedy - the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Robert F. Kennedy - announced he planned to run against President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. Kennedy will make a campaign kick-off speech next Wednesday in Boston.
[…]
In January 2022, Rodgers lashed out at 'this fake White House' for suggesting the coronavirus pandemic was a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
'When the president of the United States says, 'This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,' it's because him and his constituents, which, I don't know how there are any if you watch any of his attempts at public speaking, but I guess he got 81 million votes. But when you say stuff like that, and then you have the CDC, which, how do you even trust them, but then they come out and talk about 75% of the COVID deaths have at least four comorbidities. And you still have this fake White House set saying that this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated, that's not helping the conversation,' Rodgers said in an interview with ESPN.
On Tuesday night, Rodgers shared a promo for his friend Aubrey Marcus' podcast interview with Kennedy.
Marcus is also a vaccine skeptic and sat down with Kennedy before the Democrat announced his presidential bid.
'I believe he's going to continue to continue the legacy of his uncle, John F. Kennedy, and his father Robert Kennedy, and we talk about that a bit on this podcast,' Marcus said in the clip Rodgers shared.
Just as long as he doesn’t continue the legacy of his Uncle Ted. As for Rodgers, well, I hope the New York Jets - the team that makes us Chicago fans say, “could be worse, I guess” - know what they’re getting themselves into. Signing former Packers quarterbacks tends to not work out too well for anyone involved. But that’s for another post.
Fiat, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Opel, Vauxhall…Chrysler might actually be the most reliable brand out of the bunch, and that’s accounting for the transmission on my Dodge Grand Caravan that committed suicide after four years.
The warranty was for three years.
I think Rittenhouse was correctly acquitted - as soon as one of the alleged victims admitted to pointing a gun at him, it was all over - and while I’m less agreeable to Zimmerman’s acquittal, I don’t think it was so unjustifiable as to result in a miscarriage of justice. Proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, when there is at least a plausible claim of self-defense, is a heavy lift for any prosecutor, and the defendant being a scumbag is totally irrelevant to the case.
The Big Three and the rest of the auto makers are missing a spectacular chance to market simple little sub-compacts on a massive and profitable scale, since the GOP's need for large fleets of clown cars appears bottomless and likely to continue for, well, ever?
The most hi-tech option needed on these vehicles might be just a *quick retrieve* roof-mounted rifle rack of some kind. Hard to pack all those clowns *and* their ARs into such a small space. Wouldn't want any accidental discharges while they fumble around in there trying to protect themselves, would we?