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The $25k car is going extinct?

(media.hubspot.com)
319 points pseudolus | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0.862s | source
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puzzlingcaptcha ◴[] No.44420041[source]
You can still buy a new subcompact car (like a Renault Clio or Skoda Fabia) in Europe for under 20k EUR.

The more interesting question is why these cars disappeared in the US. And while many of the factors discussed here are true for both EU and US (inflation, interest rates, manufacturer profit margins etc) I am surprised no one mentioned the 'SUV loophole' of US regulations that effectively boosted the SUVs (off-road vehicles are classified as non-passenger automobiles with everything that entails, notably much less stringent emission standards) and made the small cars unprofitable to make in comparison.

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Dig1t ◴[] No.44420527[source]
Isn’t your argument basically saying that people choose to buy larger cars when the government doesn’t step in and penalize people for doing so? European regulators basically just forcing people to buy smaller cars is what that sounds like.

Also Europeans make less money, pay more taxes, and have less access to credit, so they can’t afford more expensive cars like many Americans. Hence the market catering more to people less willing to spend a lot of money on a car.

The poorest American state, Mississippi, is richer per-capita than most European countries, including France.

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1. oreilles ◴[] No.44420843[source]
> The poorest American state, Mississippi, is richer per-capita than most European countries, including France.

The state, maybe. The missisipian, not so much - considering their Human Development Index is right in between that of Hungary and Bulgaria, at the very bottom of the EU. How great is it to be able to buy expansive cars if you can't get access to education, healthcare, retirement, and will find yourself in the street if you lose your job.

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2. Amezarak ◴[] No.44421288[source]
Mississippi, like all US states, has free K12 education. It also offers free college education at public universities to anyone who scores well on college admittance tests. (In many countries, people can't access college at all if they didn't perform academically.)

About 25% of Mississippians are on free government healthcare (Medicaid/CHIP). About 21% are on very-cheap government healthcare (Medicare.) Additionally, many hospital systems in the state are owned by state and local governments, and offer free services (roundaboutly) to residents.

Mississippians, like others Americans, are eligible for Social Security in retirement, and have access to unemployment insurance.

Of course Mississippi is not some sort of welfare state paradise, but it's tiresome polemic and exaggeration to claim that people "can't get access to education, healthcare, retirement, and will find [themselves] out on the street if [they] lose [their] job."

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3. lostlogin ◴[] No.44421345[source]
> expansive cars

Probably a typo, but accurate. Gotta have my truck.

4. cpursley ◴[] No.44421681[source]
HN folks get their kicks from insulting the southern US states. I blame stereotypes perpetuated by Hollywood.
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5. selimthegrim ◴[] No.44422256{3}[source]
Some of us even live there.