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
Factoring in inflation the average new car in 1960 cost roughly $23k in today's money.
Problem is, in the US safety features like airbags, anti-lock brakes and now backup cameras are required by law, so there's no selling a new car without those added costs of the center screen, computers and sensors required to run them.
Then you have things like crank windows that went away because volume production eventually made it cheaper to build cars with electric windows over cranks.
But as someone who's old and drove shitboxes when he was young and also has a car built in 1968 sitting in his garage, I can tell you those old cars are sloppy as fuck to drive, the seats are uncomfortable as hell and driving a car without things like power steering gets old.
The centre screen costs less than the buttons would, it's why they all tried to put everything through the screen.
Modern safety (more than just things like airbags, the whole design of the vehicle is much different) and emissions standards make things a lot more expensive, and you can't really get around it.
I suspect that if you put the bare minimum legal requirements in it wouldn't save as much as you think.
Yes but the life expectancy of those buttons is generally closer to what the life expectancy of the car should be. Name me one mobile electronic device that still functions flawlessly after 5-10 years without any maintenance whatsoever, while simultaneously being exposed to large temperature swings amd constant vibrations.
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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