The $25k car is going extinct?

Last time I bought a car, my family kept pushing me to buy new, avoid used.

All new cars were crap and expensive. People wanted me to buy a Hyundai HB20 with a crappy engine that couldn't climb the hill where my house was located.

I ended buying a used Mitsubishi Lancer GT, the thing had same engine as Evo (minus the turbo), leather seats, roof window, rear camera and so on. For half of the price of the HB20.

Sadly Mitsubishi discontinued those and went on to join the SUVmania where your cheapest car is a big as a SUV externally, but that has cramped interior and none of SUV features.

You put to words what I intuitively feel about the auto industry.

Most brands have cost cut the crap out of their vehicles to the point where many used models seem to be better vehicles especially when talking interior quality.

One example that was striking to me was the interior quality of the MK4 Volkswagen Jetta compared to later models of Jetta and Golf.

My current vehicle has CarPlay/Android Auto, a “dumb” infotainment system with no ability to phone home or snitch on me to insurance companies, and it has physical controls for everything.

When it comes time to replace my vehicle, what am I going to find on the market that’s actually better than that? I’m going to be stuck with a gigantic touch screen and a bunch of glitchy safety suites that are beeping at me constantly.