People say this, and I wish they could get one if they want it, but the sales figures don’t back it up. People buying new cars weren’t buying the base trims with no frills. The XLT outsells the XL on the F150, the EX-L outsells the LX on the CR-V. Even the Versa, which used to be the cheapest car, they started making fewer S trims because people didn’t buy them.
That's because people with less money aren't buying new cars. Because new cars are unaffordable. If they were affordable, then more regular folks would be buying them and they would be buying the base models too.
History is in the past. You're going by conditions pre-inflation, and more importantly pre cash-for-clunkers, which elimated the ~500 POS you could drive around for a year or five until it exploded or the wheels fell off, and drastically inflated the prices of actually-nice used vehicles.
Then you've got the fact that people just have less real buying power now than they have for most of that time, too.
I do not think that the assumptions you (and the American car industry) are operating under necessarily hold nowadays.
Why isn't Tata Motors falling over themselves to bring their cars to the US then, since you think they would sell so well?
Hint: because idiots just look at the monthly payment. Stretch the financing out far enough for a luxury tank to be the same monthly payment as a $10,000 Tata and they'll take the tank.
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u/freetotebag 10h ago
People say this, and I wish they could get one if they want it, but the sales figures don’t back it up. People buying new cars weren’t buying the base trims with no frills. The XLT outsells the XL on the F150, the EX-L outsells the LX on the CR-V. Even the Versa, which used to be the cheapest car, they started making fewer S trims because people didn’t buy them.