The $25k car is going extinct?

Small cars are disappearing in the EU as well. E.g. Audi will discontinue (or have already discontinued) their A1 model (and it was the perfect little car).

The smallest class like the Daihatsu Cuore are already gone. The small cars that are left are significantly larger than the former version that shared the same nameplate. For example the Yaris is a SUV now. Can't really blame the manufacturers. The EU requires so much equipment on cars that you can't really turn a profit on a $10k car (like the Aygo/C1/107 was ~10 years ago). So if your car is going to cost $20k because of all the stuff it has to have it might as well be a bit bigger.

Renault at least are keeping the small car flame alive with the 5 and a new version of the Twingo. Audi's product strategy at the moment seems to be "try everything and pivot" so they might even end up relauching the A2 by accident.

VAG cars are weird, I've had both an Audi A1 and a VW Up (short lease for work); they are basically the same car, both had a 3 cylinder, 1 liter engine, similar interiors, etc. But the A1 had the sports look package and generally a fancier feel to it. But VAG uses the same base for a lot of models and brands (VW, Audi, Skoda, SEAT); quality wise there's not much difference between them, but price wise they are, with Skoda being the 'budget' brand and Audi the premium. They also own Porsche but I don't know if they use the same base, I presume not... even though with the amount of Cayennes you see on the road here they sell Porsches at similar rates as upmarket VW / Audi cars.

Yep. I think SEAT are the pick of the VAG brands. Their marketing isn't about being cheap, but they're aimed at the youngest market segment, who also have the least money, so in my experience have the best prices.

Pre-COVID we got a new Leon ST — essentially a Golf estate/station wagon — for about a third off the list price: £13K instead of £20K (I know: those prices sound semi-mythical now).

On the other end you have Audi, whose premise seems to be: "So you want a VW, but you want to pay hugely over the odds for it? Certainly sir, step right this way."

That's the VAG marketing strategy. Share most parts, have the customer pay for the brand.

Wait till you hear about the parts on a lamborghini

I’m not quite sure the safety equipment is to blame. Modern cars coming out of China go well beyond regulations, while still having great a price/features ratio.

Even very cheap cars like the “Dongfeng Box” have multiple airbags, emergency braking, lane keeping, etc, and safe to assume a lot of the components VW/Toyota use for these come from the same chinese suppliers.

With VAG, at least everyone knows the deal.

E.g. Mercedes uses Renault engines in the less-fancy models, but most customers are kept in the dark about that.

The Cayenne is a Touareg with Porsche bits and special options. Particularly the rear doors of the second gen of both models are interchangeable.

What’s funny is the VW parts used in Lambos are actually an improvement over what they used to be.