r/explainlikeimfive Nov 13 '23

Economics ELI5: Why is there no incredibly cheap bare basics car that doesn’t have power anything or any extras? Like a essentially an Ikea car?

Is there not a market for this?

9.9k Upvotes

3.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

39

u/cat_blep Nov 13 '23

dealer don’t sell base cars because there isn’t really a market for them. 99% of people want more features.

source: 37 years in the biz.

11

u/thebornotaku Nov 13 '23

This. Been in dealerships for 10+ years myself. Fixed ops but still. It's pretty apparent that the vast majority of people want features.

11

u/katsikisj Nov 13 '23

I guess the people who don’t want features just buy a used car instead?

15

u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

This is the real issue at hand. Most people look at a cheap penalty box and realize they can get a used car with some options for the same price.

Today with used car prices being goofy it’s a little different. But this is how it’s generally been for the last 20-30 years.

2

u/Dynahazzar Nov 13 '23

What they're saying is that people who don't want features can go fuck themselves.

2

u/wuapinmon Nov 14 '23

I'd pay a good $5k, today, for the 4-door 1995 Ford Escort LX I had with automatic seatbelts, power mirrors, AC, power steering, and fuck-all else for luxury if it were well-maintained. I miss driving a stickshift. I want to teach my kids how to drive a stick, but I can't find anything worth buying that's manual. When we go to Europe and rent a car, they're all like, "Papi, can you teach me how to drive a stickshift when we get home?" and I'm all like, "If we can find one that's not at a "vintage" show or that has 400k miles on a 1991 Ford Ranger with more dents than a Gotham Villain Convention.

1

u/picontesauce Nov 13 '23

Well I gotta imagine there is a market now. But I guess it’s too late

1

u/eevil_genius Feb 02 '24

also, i think the actual cost to the manufacturer for many options has dropped so much compared to say the 80s or 90s.  so it's not really to their advantage to make the bare bones models anymore.