I think there's room in the market for a back to basics car company that takes out all this bs, goes back to crank windows and all that crap and sells new vehicles for an affordable cost with a good warranty.
It would probably crush today.
Edit: I got like 400 responses saying "slate" ok I get it you can stop
The problem is, cars have to have backup cameras, per law, so they have to have screens. It's not expensive to produce a car with a infotainment system, and without one, but still use a screen.
Lights cost next to nothing. So do most of the other features of post complains about.
There are about of reasons the cars cost more, but really those quality of life things help justify the price, not really drive it up.
The real reason cars are so expensive is because the dolts who spent 4x a car's value during COVID showed manufacturers they could get away with charging a lot more.
This is nothing new. I remember when the PT Cruiser came out. My grandma kind of wanted one, she thought it was cute, so we went and looked at one. They had a $5k markup. Imagine paying an extra five grand for one of those rolling heaps of shit.
The problem is, cars have to have backup cameras, per law, so they have to have screens. It's not expensive to produce a car with a infotainment system, and without one, but still use a screen.
And those cameras cost nothing. I like the idea behind the post, but these features are not why prices are skyrocketing. Prices are skyrocketing because they can.
My 2023 chevy express has no screens. Back up camera is in the rear view mirror and maybe about 3 inches. No Bluetooth other than phone calls need aux cord to play music.
That's two gumballs I can't be having no gumballs and one aux port. I need no aux port and two gumballs
Nah I'm just sniffing my own farts about how I don't need this newfangled tech damn it give me lead paint and a radio. But honestly I've never once bought an aux cord I wouldn't know where to plug it in. It honestly never has occured to me to DJ the music in my car beyond whipping out the old CD case and stopping way too long at a stop sign digging through it. Plus radio is just where I hear new music
Everybody's got a different idea of what's a feature that's absolutely needed or could be done without though in their own ideal design
I have a cassette deck that uses a monster tape to connect to my iPhone to play music in my 2005 Lexus RX 330. Works fine. And I don’t need to connect to the internet for any reason at all. The nav works, the DVD player works, the backup camera works, the remote trunk works.
I love it. it was built before the iPhone existed, so no apps. Hate my husband’s 2022 Lexus RX 350.
No displacement on demand, no variable displacement oil pump. Not having to worry about mpgs or emissions as much does wonders for simplicity/durability.
Slate (a pre production BEV compact truck) gets around having a center infotainment screen by displaying the backup camera in the digital gauge cluster.
But yeah, I agree. None of those things are costing the manufacturer much. Slate is going to cost 25k. Ford says they’re working on a 28k truck. I’m sure that Ford will be including all of the things that Slate isn’t, for 3k more, and they’re going to paint the truck, too.
Slate annoys me because they're avoiding using obvious cheap standards for their more expensive proprietary versions.
Every accessory possible should have come from the design of a cheap 90s car where 3rd parties are still selling parts, like some old Camry, the headlights should have been LED versions of the standard round or square lense used for 60 years, the dash should have a double DIN slot for the many, many DIN compatible radios still manufactured.
The Changii has a backup camera, and it's illegal to drive on the street in many places.
If I can drive a motorcycle without a helmet down the street, I should be able to drive a cheap Chinese electric car, like the Changli, or a kei truck down that same street.
You don't have to have the Tesla sized screens. you can go back to the 2010s era where they were basically small touch screen controls and the size of a notebook.
25k, it's really bare bones (no entertainment/radio, manual crank windows, no paint etc. At least it has heat/ cool). But yeah, it won't work for everyone (can't charge at home, need more than 2 seats or 4 seats)
The problem is, cars have to have backup cameras, per law, so they have to have screens. It's not expensive to produce a car with a infotainment system, and without one, but still use a screen.
I mean not everywhere mind you, that's a US centric issue, there's also a lot of fancy stuff that gets build into today cars that's not needed...like sunglasses holders etc.
Not just backup cameras, read EU regulations on all cars, they need to have so many expensive features, that even track your face constantly and how you act. all the road controlls etc. all the mandatory garbage makes the cars 10+ thousands more expensive.
AND its because of dumbassed in EU parliament thinking that more authoritarian features will make roads safer. YET being too dumb to grasp that all these screens etc. in cars distract you more than a car with no modern features and simple buttons. How about ban the huge screens all over car and then you wont need cameras that constantly track your eyes.
Its impossible to make and sell a road legal car if it has same level of features as cars before 2018
BONUS
ALSO extra dumb thing that EU has forced on cars. Air circulation for all cars by default on. they think that you using fresh air intake to draw fresh cold air will harm the climate and its baaaad for climate, so your existing air in car gets recycled constantly.
RESULT? put a CO2 and air quality measurement device in car at face level and you will see extremely dangerous levels of co2 like not just minor but readers at such level its literally in red and blinking hard.
This explains why people get tired and get into accidents when driving prolonged distances.
I watched my local news car show measure it in cars brand new and older, some new cars literally hit over 3000 ppm.
They literally said to always disable it for your health and safety, i do that now every time i drive car and i can now easily drive 4 hours without feeling tired. before i knew this i would get tired after an hour already
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u/burge4150 9h ago edited 3h ago
I think there's room in the market for a back to basics car company that takes out all this bs, goes back to crank windows and all that crap and sells new vehicles for an affordable cost with a good warranty.
It would probably crush today.
Edit: I got like 400 responses saying "slate" ok I get it you can stop