Comment on VW introduces monthly subscription to increase car power
dinckelman@lemmy.world 1 month ago
At this point, companies will do literally fucking anything, just to pad the numbers for the shareholder reports. The Volkswagen group can screw itself. When we start decent seeing vehicles to a decent price again, maybe we can resume this conversation. Everyone’s tired of plastic garbage for top dollar
When we start decent seeing vehicles at a decent price again
These exist, they’re just not in the USA. Look at what companies like BYD and Xiaomi are doing in practically every developed country except the USA. The entry-level BYD Dolphin is just under AU$30k (US$19k) in Australia. Xiaomi have a sports car for around US$40k.
I don’t know about the Volkswagen ID.3, but in general, I think that car prices have tended to come down slightly over the years. I was in a conversation earlier about car prices earlier (talking about how truck prices had greatly increased).
If you go back 20 years, take a pretty plain-Jane standby, the Toyota Camry:
www.kbb.com/toyota/camry/2005/
2005 Toyota Camry pricing starts at $4,091 for the Camry LE Sedan 4D, which had a starting MSRP of $20,515 when new.
That’d be $33,934.10 in 2025 dollars.
A 2025 Camry has an MSRP of $28,700.
Pickup trucks — which are considerably more expensive now in the US — are an exception to this, but there are other factors going on there.
I don’t think this factors in things that have gone up significantly, such as cost of repair and maintenance. I think another easy thing to point to would be the amount of 84 month car loans, and how many people struggle to pay those. I will also point out in 2005 that wage inflation was much closer to keeping pace with overall inflation. It’s easy to point to the one thing you did, but that misses the full picture imo.
they aren’t even good cars anyway. they’re shit.
melroy@kbin.melroy.org 1 month ago
I will never buy a vw again, that is a fact.
victorz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Skip all of those brands. Škoda too.
dinckelman@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Škoda are a massive offender, in my eyes. No one here drives their cars, except for taxis, because they were cheap, comfortable enough, and no one cares if you beat one up. Now, they position themselves as some kind of a mid-range luxury brand, but the quality does not speak for itself whatsoever
victorz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yet people in my extended family keep buying them. They are people who are well off, too, so they could buy something nicer. They bought a trailer home for $30,000 to use for vacationing ffs, might as well invest in a nice car so they don’t have to buy a new one every 3–5 years because it rusts to shit.
This is partially my envy talking, but still, I don’t get it. I have a nicer car and my household makes less. Makes no sense.