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Comment by JamesBarney | Hacker News Reader

We have the same problem with the car market. I can only afford a $5,000 car, but the car manufacturers make all their money building $20,000 cars. I just can't see how Honda making another $20,000 fit is going to help me afford a $5,000 car.

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The problem from the manufacturers' perspective is that the gear required to meet 2021 safety, emissions, and fleet efficiency standards by itself almost pushes a new car's price over $5000, and that's without leaving any budget left over to make it a car anybody would want to buy.

They do sell vehicles at that price which get around all of those standards, but they lose two wheels in the process.

You can still easily buy a decent used car for $5k.

Try buying a half-decent used home for 25% of its initial sticker price.

You used to be able to buy a decent used car for $5k but as of recent you can't find any without connections. I've been telling folks interested in Japanese cars that it's $10k at this time to buy used with low mileage for a sedan and $15k to buy used with low mileage for an SUV.

Is is true that the used car market has gone way up, but it is nowhere near that bad yet.

Tons of perfectly good used cars for under 5K on CL. And this is SF Bay area where prices tend to higher.

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/cto?purveyor-input=owner...

I mean VW makes $100,000 Porsches and $20,000 Jettas. At some point it’s not economical to make cheaper cars due to materials and workmanship. You can certainly buy an e-bike for half that, I did.

The cost of construction in America is $150/sqft. We’re not even close in cities. Off by an order of magnitude.

Sorry I guess I was more obtuse than I intended. My point was I can buy a used car for $5,000, and Honda building new cars allows that even if the new cars are out of my price range.

Ah I see, that makes sense, I misread!

Some analysts believe that in another 5-10 years in the US, you'll get if not quite a $5K USD car off the Internet, a $10K USD car from a Chinese manufacturer, and the Detroit automakers will reprise their arrogance-into-bankruptcy role from the 70's again when Japanese cars entered the US market, when they famously remarked the new entrants can have that cheap unit market.

Watching the Detroit product roadmaps, I'm inclined to agree with that analysis at this time.

Are you forgetting that used housing and cars are cheaper? Nobody is forcing you to buy a brand new car.

This was my point, that like cars, luxury homes and apts turn into affordable housing over time.

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