It’s OK, we’ll just rent vehicles per journey, and in order to make things more efficient, put extra seats in and run bigger cars between popular destinations. Maybe even use rails for really popular places.
Maybe they’ll think of a name for this in the future.
Maybe if they had a line of them hooked together? A train of some sort?
No what if we sold everyone a new car, and then bored tunnels under the cities to run them super fast with computer control
Oh wait no that’s the dumbest thing ever sorry
only if we can call them “pods”!
That would never work!
Almost like Capitalism isn’t sustainable, right?
Cars are luxuries.
Without public transportation they aren’t. When you live 20 miles from your job in Bumfuck, USA how do you get there without a vehicle?
Dude, I’m in the San Diego area. And if I had to rely on the bus, a simple grocery shopping trip would take at least 3 hours, not counting a mile and a half walk to and from the nearest stop. I did take a train and an express bus to work, because it happened to stop directly at my workplace.
No, they still are. You can always turn a luxury into a relative need by stretching out resource intensity. I could easily make the case for commuting with rockets from the Moon to Earth and back, or for some billionaire commuting with a private jet. Doesn’t make it not a luxury.
If you hate it, protest against the car system and suburbia, and for dense urban development with public transit. There is no alternative.
The auto industry is worried
I mean, they have the power to reduce the price. 🤷♂️
But then the line won’t go up as much and the CEO won’t get his bonus :(
And it would just be uncouth if the CEO couldn’t buy another yacht to go with his new mansion this year.
He has been thinking about replacing his 2020 Ford F-150 pickup truck
Just… wtf… Your car is only 6 years old and it’s just so old that you really think to need to replace it? And your story is so relatable it lands in an article? How much difference can you even see between that 2020 and a 2026 model really?
I suspect it’s media lying again, in order to normalize replacing vehicles more often.
I don’t think it’s lying, I was in a lot in 2022 looking at a used 2021 with like 8k miles on it and wondered what they got bought after trading in. The guy said that he actually bought a 2022 of the exact same model, because he didn’t want to be seen driving anything but the current years model.
They certainly exist and can be found to quote, just seems out of touch to treat the situation as somehow “worrying” enough to make the cut. Figured you probably could have found someone with at least a decade old car to comment…
“I don’t want to be seen driving last years model” Rolls the $36k he still owns on that old truck into the $100k loan on the new one.
Nah, the guy is probably badly upside down on the loan, and the truck is depreciating so fast he won’t be able to roll the loan/trade-in over into another truck.
He needs more surveillance in his truck.
If they are a frequent driver, they could be putting 20k-25k a year on their truck. Like yeah I wouldn’t want a Ford with 120k miles on it either.
Yeah in 15 months I’ve put 35k on my car 😭😭 let’s not talk about what I’ve put on my work truck…
I mean, it’s a Ford tho.
Surprisingly, a majority of Fords made in the 90’s are still on the road today!
…It’s simply not worth the expense to haul them away. XD
Jk
How much difference can you even see between that 2020 and a 2026 model really?
I wonder if it was manufactured in that weird sweet (bitter?) spot where “supply chain issues” made everyone use cheaper parts and forego many chip-based components entirely.
Then maybe the auto industry should stop donating to Republicans.
The numbers don’t lie. Republicans are bad for our economy. Bad economy means people don’t buy the 1st or 2nd most expensive thing they’ll ever buy (since many will never be homeowners).
maybe stop making everything an apartment on wheels with ipads everywhere. 🤷
Maybe it is time to switch to communities built not around cars?
Maybe we could have 4 days weeks and more work-at-home to save gas?
cries in walkable cities with public transportation
Nobody asked for a 100k pickup truck. Who wants to throw boards and chains in that?
You want a V8, air suspension and 10 speed auto - you’re paying $100k.
I don’t want air ride and I don’t want 10 speed auto. My father got a 2020 F350 with a 10 speed auto and it turned itself to gravel. It’s a POS that I’m hounding him to sell once it’s payed off. Who the fuck thought a press on timing gear was a good idea?
My father is a boomer and can be shamed into vanity purchases. That’s who’s speeding 100k on trucks.
I do not understand buying a truck unless you need to haul shit for work. As a passenger vehicle, trucks are idiotic.
I haul shit for work.
Then it’s a tool for business. Hope you’re writing that shit off too.
I want a 200hp 4x4 with sealed beam headlights.
I have a 65 HP 4x4 with sealed beam headlights…
Corporations pay stagnant wages, raise prices, funnel money out of the economy to shareholders who hoard wealth, and then get worried when there’s no one left who can buy their products?
Tell me again why we think C-Suite folks are smart?
Right, because they’ll get bailed out again and stay rich. That’s why.
It’s a god damn disgrace.
I’m sure someone will come around and tell me how complicated economics is and why we should trust business and industry leaders who went to school for this sort of thing, like basic pattern recognition and common sense couldn’t have predicted that people who can barely afford groceries would stop buying cars…
Fuck.
Tell me again why we think C-Suite folks are smart?
Some weird fetiziation that financial accumen is somehow the ultimate mark of intelligence above all else.
Thanks the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993
Think you pretty much nailed it.
If I’m buying a car it would be a BYD, not some gas guzzler by an overpriced American manufacturer which are laughing stocks all over the world.
I’ll take a fifteen year old car with a manual transmission.
Without a network of super expensive proprietary sensors that need replacing every time it rains? How on earth will you manage?
MAYBE if they Fired MORE Workers and RAISE Prices of their Cars all those Unemployed People can Purchase their Vehicles? Have they tried THAT yet?
Stellantis will remember this.
Not just that it’s unaffordable but I’m not paying 60k for a car with a porcelain transmission that needs monthly software updates that might just brick the thing.
“Porcelain transmission” sent me.
Don’t forget the oil pumps driven by rubber belts that need half the engine disassembled to replace it.
This! When I was 16 I bought a P.O.S. Buick for 600 bucks. I did all the normal maintenance myself in my driveway. Oil, pads, filters, belts… Seems like you need a special tool for each part on new cars if you can even get to the part to replace without taking half the engine out.
Even the fuckin battery was bolted down with a long bracket that needed a special 18 inch socket extension to unfasten. Wtf
Wait till you hear about the BMW proprietary screws
It depends on the new car, I’ve found. A Mitsubishi Mirage is considerably easier to deal with than a BMW anything, because the people who designed the mirage had an eye toward maintenance because of the type of car it is. The BMW will go to the shop, while the Mirage will get it’s clutch changed in the driveway.
They all sit on each others’ boards. There is no real competition.
This isn’t just a car problem. The problem is they won’t pay us enough, they know it, we know it. They’ll do anything to keep from paying us more than the absolute minimum they must. Inflation is just another word for greed. They’re going to keep pushing until the entire thing collapses, and then they’re going to go hide in their bunkers.
They’re going to keep pushing until the entire thing collapses, and then they’re going to go hide in their bunkers.
Which is SO weird. Because even if your bunker is luxurious as heck, why the heck would you prefer that over a functioning world to run amok in?
Especially if, worst case, all that wealth turns into nothing because it doesn’t readily convert to bottlecaps or something lol.
So they’re responding by making more affordable, efficient vehicles, right? Adopting new technology, right? Right?
Seriously, all they have to do is make an EV or hybrid under $20k and not try to push subscription BS.
But how will they make money next quarter if you spend money on them this quarter only???
People need to understand that money sitting around in a savings account is bad for the economy. You owe it to your country to be in debt. /s
businessman try not to peddle subscriptions challenge (level impossible)
No. Buy a ferd f150000 to stomp your neighbors and make liberals cry! Go on TOUGH mountain trails with 18 row seating and 13000 lbs of Karen fuelled road rage!
*note can only carry 1 person 99% of the time. Cannot touch a non asphalt road or warranty void. Must kill at least 3 cyclists/children monthly due to 0 visibility.
Just sign up for this $1,800 per month loan for the next 90 months.
Houses were more affordable than this when I was a kid.
No, they want everyone to have more money to give to them…
Reminded me of a UAW spokesperson being interviewed on tariffs…
When asked why he had advocated for auto tariffs before the tariffs came on, and now why was he complaining that the tariffs were unaffordable, his explanation was simple, he wanted tariffs only on the things that competed with them, and the rest of the economy left alone so that everything can be more affordable except the stuff they did.
They want to sell those high margin high priced cars and are grousing because the rest of the economy isn’t fueling the consumer budget enough to fulfill their ambitions.
So let in the 10,000$ Toyota EV1 and the like.
