The $25k car is going extinct?

unless there's illegal collusion, someone will see a market opporunity and step in to fill it.

That said, a quick search for new cars under $25k: Chevrolet Trax $20.5k, Nissan Versa $17.2k, Hyundai Venue $20.5k, Kia Soul $20.5k, and Nissan Kicks $22k. Other options include the Toyota Corolla $22.3k, Hyundai Elantra $22.1k, and Volkswagen Jetta $22.5k

I think maybe the article is BS?

There is market opportunity, China has found it, but the US won't allow them to be imported because it undercuts everyone else so thoroughly. The US automotive market is extremely far from being a free and open market. You can't just build a car to a set of standards and automatically be allowed to sell them, there are substantial legal and political barriers that cost tons of money to overcome, which doesn't make financial sense to anyone with that amount of money to just sell low margin vehicles.

I strongly agree with a generalization of the article - that cars have increased in price relative to their quality and value to the point that it's nationally problematic. There's a whole pile of cars that have gone from sub $20k to the high $20ks and above. Most of the cars you list will also have essentially non-optional packages, delivery charges, and more costs rolled into their price. At the same time it's not easy to find used cars that don't cost nearly as much as new cars unless they're pretty old and high mileage.

And it seems clear there's no rational reason that cars should subject to a higher rate of inflation than any other good.

It seems very clear that somehow the market is broken. Whether it's because new competition is impossible because only the established can achieve the necessary economies of scale, protectionist regulation,the dealership model, or something else, it's pretty clear something is broken. Just like with much of the rest of things in the US and maybe the world.

> unless there's illegal collusion

Illegal collusion is not the only thing that can prevent a competitive market. Large barriers to entry and imperfect information are two other textbook examples.

> somehow the market is broken

The market has changed and we are judging it with the old values.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/12/auto-industry.as...

It's not "illegal collusion" when you pay off your lobbyists to get them to legislate the status quo into place.

>> I think maybe the article is BS?

Totally. Cars are there available. The thing is consumers don't want small cheap basic cars.