Do you mean sell the cars to students? It's same problem: they will probably prefer very used cars from known brands over slightly used cars from an unknown brand.
Sell cars to people a few years out of college who are now trying to signal their membership in the middle class.
This comment just rings so true to the behavior of a bunch of my peers over the past few years.
Has it ever been different?
One advantage of selling people their first car is that they might be slightly less likely to have strong opinions on brands. Need every advantage you can get.
And yes they are more easily to fall pray to money pit brands.
They're already selling their cars at a loss, according to the article. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would buy a Vietnamese electric car if it was 25-50% less than a Japanese/American/European one. Thats certainly how Korean cars managed to break into the US market.