Edit: You people need to compare MSRPs and check out what adorns the driveways of "nice" places before you tell me Toyota is the people's car.
Not something I've ever associated with the brand. Are you referring to Lexus? (made by Toyota).
Kia: Picanto - €15000
Toyota: New Yaris - €20000
Citroen: C3 - €20000
Nissan: Micra - €20700
Mazda: Mazda2 - €21000
Ford: Makes you go through a configurator, so assuming here this is the cheapest model: Fiesta - €22000
Volkswagen: Polo - €22000
Honda: Civic - €25000
Fiat: Call us or visit a dealer
BMW: i3/X1 - €44000
Kia being the cheapest is no surprise, but Toyota is joint for second place.
Of course, no new car is "the people's car", rather that's usually whichever car from the lower end of the market sold the most 5-10 years ago to be cheap now on the used market. Which ends up mostly being Ford focuses, Toyota corollas and various Nissan and Kia models.
A Toyota? Think you're mistaking with a Land Rover or something.
In other countries with either lower income or lower income to car price ratio due to import taxes and road taxes on vehicles I can definitely see a Toyota possibility being a middle class symbol.
The Honda Accord was one in the late 90’s and early 2000’s in quite a few places around the world so the Camry which is quite comparable to the Accord might have been just that too.
Also the Land Cruiser might fill the same niche as the Land Rover does in some places (especially in countries where Land Rover doesn’t have good market penetration or it’s priced way above what the middle class can afford), whilst not a premium SUV per say it too shabby and it ain’t cheap the 5 door version is around £60K in the UK…
And regardless of price of the car the Prius was very popular with the middle class and upper middle class in its early years when it served essentially as an easy virtue signaling for many. At least until plenty of other hybrids/plug-in hybrids came out and ofc Teslas…
Now the Prius is pretty much relegated to Uber and Co. and even that would shift soon enough to full on EV’s at least until governments around the word would start taxing EV charging to compensate for drop in income from fuel duties.
I would say that in say Romania or Poland circa 2007 owning a new Camry would definitely make you an upper middle class, owning a Volvo or a BMW Series 5 would you make you quite rich…
What costs $30K in the US can easily cost double as many countries levy high taxes on imported vehicles and that while $30K in the US puts you near the bottom it’s upper middle class salary in many places around the world still.
The average gross wages across many EU members are still below what a new Camry costs…
Looking at hey.car a 2019 Camry Executive with 33K km on it goes for €30K in Germany… The Camry isn’t available in Greece but the Prius Plug-in is and it starts at €40K.
Considering that the average yearly gross income in Greece in 2020 was just under €17K even owning a new Yaris might make you middle class…
Most mid class or smaller SUVs, local or locally assembled (like Toyota or Ford) are around 10-15k dollars, brand new.
Interestingly, the Ford I bought in US was made & assembled in India..