The withering dream of a cheap American electric car

Absolutely! The biggest problem is the average American allows themselves to be duped and challenged by advertising. New tech in cars is great, but spending $40K and up is stupid. I've said it before: my $27K base model Ram truck will go from point A to point B just as well as a $70K(!) model. Is it just as shiny? No, but the money I didn't spend on all that shine won't be wasted on depreciation.

My credit union recently sent me an email telling me I can be approved for up to $70K for an auto loan, this is insane! When we allow competitiveness or temptation to decide how much money we spend, we lose every time. The only way to get Tesla to offer that $25K car is to stop buying the more expensive ones.

And American prices are already insanely low. If I want to buy a RAM in Austria for $30k I get a used car with 150.000km. If I want a new one it's (much) over $100k.

All those options and appearance packages just become liabilities as the trucks age. None of it ages well.

I was nodding along with your post until you brought out your numbers (I agree fully with the broader point). For me, any car above 15k or so is very expensive - I've always bought used and drove them into the ground. I'd love an electric car but it's not in the cards for my family until the total cost of ownership gets down to 2-3k a year or so.

This is something I've always found fascinating about materialism (I can only speak to the US). The messaging and feelings are incredibly similar whether your budget is 10k or 100k. Very easy to slide up the scale slowly and feel like you're still living small with a bulging budget, or to choose options that are beyond your means and so stunt financial growth.

Is there a $27k base model ram truck? Seems like the base model on the ram website is $38k and when I tried to price a regular cab one from stellantis fleet those were like $46k, but I could have made a mistake on that site.

Sorry, no mistake on your part. I bought the Ram new in 2021. I live in the Tulsa, OK area, where prices are a little more reachable because of so many different dealerships.

Wow, is that because of tariffs or shipping costs from the US?

Your points are well taken. I only bought the Ram because I had to for personal reasons. It's the first new car/truck I've ever owned and I will drive it till it's worn out. I've always bought used/low mileage vehicles to avoid depreciation and the headache of the warranty period.

Car makers make a lot of money based on our egos to one up-our neighbors. Car salesmen are trained to create a competitive atmosphere at the dealership by exposing our vanity and it works!