The $25k car is going extinct? • Hacker News Board

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#931

Post by umbra07 » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 8:40 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #812

polski-g wrote: post #800

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny story about this. There was a woman who backed over her own kid in the driveway. For some reason, she was not imprisoned for vehicular manslaughter. So instead of not being in prison, she spent the next half decade lobbying congress to make backup cameras mandatory. And it happened. So now everyone's car costs $3k more. It would have been cheaper to put her imprison than impose a $3k cost per every car sold in…

https://www.cars.com/articles/lawmakers-to-jump-start-backup... > A 2012 Harris poll suggests that the public agress with the mandate despite the technology’s costs. NHTSA says adding a backup camera to a car without an existing display screen will cost around $159 to $203 per vehicle, shrinking to between $58 and $88 for vehicles that already use display screens. The Harris poll found that consumers care more about…

People don't understand and appreciate additional costs until they actually have to pay them. You can see this play out over and over again with additional tax increases jn response for new and improved public services - or customers asking businesses to do a "Made in America" product line, but then not putting their money where their mouth is and actually paying the upcharge for a MiA product.

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#932

Post by tomrod » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 8:46 PM UTC

BanterTrouble wrote: post #654

tomrod wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an old and tired argument. There is no secret cabal at the wheel trying to make cars unaffordable for the purposes of social control. There is an old and tired cabal of manufacturers wanting to generate a moat and push prices up high.

Nobody says it is a secret cabal. It is very frustrating when people misstate other people's beliefs There are politicians and activists that have been pushing for lower car ownership and they do it openly. Motivations for this vary. > There is an old and tired cabal of manufacturers wanting to generate a moat and push prices up high. Two things can be true at once.

> It is very frustrating when people misstate other people's beliefs

I agree. It is also frustrating when people don't recognize or cry foul when their personal beliefs are restated within homotopy equivalence, perhaps (I speculate) because they think it weakens an already weak argument. Perhaps even moreso for those stating the equivalence because there is not argumentative advantage to be gained by expressing said frustration regarding said response.

Or at least it could be. I'm actually feeling indifferent on the topic.

> There are politicians and activists that have been pushing for lower car ownership and they do it openly.

Words are cheap, words and rallys and activist productions moreso, show the policy that impacts national and international production.

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#933

Post by a_c » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 9:01 PM UTC

elif wrote: post #478

a_c wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any recommendation how to start learning repairing a car? I have absolutely zero experience. A friend of mine said just learn to change a tyre first and I have been procrastinating since.

I went down this route in the early 2010's. In preparation for an over landing expedition I wanted to have mechanical knowledge to be a sort of "mechanic" on the trip so I bought a bunch of "project cars" and began tinkering. While it WAS a lot of fun and I feel smarter, it was a total waste of time. To save you all the trouble of all I went through, it was fun debugging mechanical stuff, but ultimately there is no "…

I have the book around for several years. Time to flip it open before my children do lol Thanks for the wise words!

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#934

Post by jvanderbot » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 9:04 PM UTC

chis wrote: post #684

jvanderbot wrote: post #531

Is anyone following Slate auto? They claim to be making a suburban pickup in the Ford Ranger size for ~20k. I've been cautiously optimistic about my reservation. They apparently optimized for cost and molecularity, most notably by removing the infotainment system, which apparently is the biggest warranty / "feature" cost center.

It's a pretty car but I feel like they are mostly just selling a story about cost savings. Third party carplay screens can be bought for $150 so that just can't be very meaningful. The real cost savings is that it's a cheaply built EV with a small battery. Plus it's hard to get excited talking about the price a startup is claiming to sell cars at, before any have made it to consumers. That being said the car looks sw…

Apparently (and I'm paraphrasing), the cost of the screen is not much. There's the cost of controls integration, at least, but also feature segmentation and warranty servicing. Apparently that's a lot of work to provide / cover and infotainment is one of the top warranty items. So it makes it a lot cheaper to just add a rack for your off the shelf bluetooth speaker.

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#935

Post by tharkun__ » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 9:05 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #829

Der_Einzige wrote: post #767

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, good! I am so tired of these insane "I want nothing but an engine" spiritual boomers. They are making the road far more dangerous for everyone. Yes, I will force you to have automatic emergency breaking in your Model T hotrod. Yes, you will be mad. Yes, the road will be a lot safer. No I don't care about your boomer rage about technology. No you don't want to live with India tier road laws/standards - even…

FWIW, I’m one of those people but geared (ha) towards reliability. I’ll take the ABS and TPMS, but I don’t want “bells and whistles“ of touch screens and air conditioned seats. I’m after safety and reliability more than creature comforts.

It's a two edged sword.

I love my camera but I've noticed that I tend to look around less, which is bad because a camera doesn't cover everything.

ABS is a no brainer. So is ASR.

TPMS is awesome coz face it, I have never and will never regularly check my tire pressure. Remember how they taught you to check the oil regularly? Who ever did that?

I want real knobs so I don't have to look away from the road and do climate controls and radio by feel on the side. Much safer.

But automatic braking is another one of those two edged swords. I almost had a car behind me crash into me recently because the car in front of me decided to abruptly slow down and turn left. I reacted and went slightly to the right to get around and the car in front of me was turning further away as well. But then the dang emergency breaking system hit the brakes and startled me. For a second I couldn't do anything then I hit the brakes too until a second later I realized it was BS and the car behind me was getting awfully close real fast and I instead hit the gas.

These systems are still quite bad in judging objects that go left-right or opposite. The cruise control slows down immensely for a car on front of me taking an exit for no reason. And on the other hand it reacts way too late if another car suddenly switches into your lane when you're about to overtake them. And that's for different cars from different manufacturers and different model years so I doubt it's a unique experience.

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#936

Post by LastTrain » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 9:06 PM UTC

reliabilityguy wrote: post #633

LastTrain wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait until you hear about US federal and state automaker subsidies!

Can you provide some information on this, please?

An example is the section 179 tax break for cars over 6000 pounds - the one your roofing contractor used for her F250 or your real estate agent used for his Suburban.

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#937

Post by kazinator » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 9:29 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #693

BanterTrouble wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also turn your body a bit as well.

I have tried this before but I have never been able to make the bumper transparent. The reason this law exists is because small children (e.g 3ft tall) were getting run over. Seriously, go put a large suitcase immediately behind your rear bumper and try to see it without a camera. You can't.

If you put a child size doll right under the rear wheel, can you see that in the camera? Or under a front wheel, for that matter?

Solve the problem completely or else admit that it's just for twits who can't parallel park.

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#938

Post by tlogan » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 9:48 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #570

tlogan wrote: post #566

Strange article based on incorrect information. My son and I are buying car and there are so many under 25k. In total there are 12 new models. Adjusted to inflation things did not change a lot in last 20 years (in 2005 there were 10 models less than 15k). - 2025 Nissan Versa – Starting at $18,330 - 2025 Hyundai Venue – Starting at $21,395 - 2025 Kia Soul – Starting at $20,490 - 2025 Nissan Sentra – Starting at $21,59…

-2025 Mazda 3 (sedan) - Starting at $24,150 -2025 Chevrolet Trax - Starting at $20,500

And a few more:

- Volkswagen Jetta - starting at $22,495

- Volkswagen Taos - starting at $24,995

- Hyundai Kona - staring at $24,550

- Honda Civic - starting at $24,250

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#939

Post by tmerc » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 10:28 PM UTC

a_c wrote: post #431

BanterTrouble wrote: post #382

I work on my own cars now (as a hobby really) and one of the reasons the new cars are so expensive is they are much more complicated. A lot of this seems to be over-engineering IMO. This is alluded to in the article, but not explicitly stated. The cars I work on are from the early 90s and everything is very simple to understand. e.g. Electronics are normally simple circuits that aren't much more complicated than what…

Any recommendation how to start learning repairing a car? I have absolutely zero experience. A friend of mine said just learn to change a tyre first and I have been procrastinating since.

Unless your car is very new, you have all the stuff you need to learn to change a tire in the trunk. Watch 2 short YouTube videos and go do it. It'll take you half an hour. You should use a torque wrench but if it was that critical, one would be in your trunk.

After that, look up your maintenance schedule, pick a job, then go figure out if you can.

When you get into bigger jobs, have a tow company and shop ready in case you run into problems. Mobile mechanics may also be an option.

Re: The $25k car is going extinct?

#940

Post by singleshot_ » Mon, Jun 30, 2025, 10:29 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #500

alerighi wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if they would make a basic car like in the past I would buy it. Everyone has to sell you too much, I want a simple car, I don't want either the stereo, I will add my own later (I can put it one that is better than the factory one for a cheaper price, but in a modern car replacing the stereo is almost impossible). There are a ton of useless sensors, the sensor that tells you if you have a flat tire (I think I can…

Some of those “useless” sensors like tire pressure or backup camera are required by law. Even if you get a bare bones hatchback (manual transmission, manual locks, manual windows etc.) they’ll be forced to include those.

Relevant search terms include “body-in-white”