Why the $25,000 car is going extinct

https://thehustle.co/originals/why-the-25000-car-is-going-extinct

5•paulpauper•7h ago

Comments

PaulHoule•7h ago

Kinda funny, but I've been noticing a lot of rednecks driving compact cars lately -- probably because that's what they can afford. This weekend one helped me move a turtle out of the road (I wasn't sure if it was a snapper, but he wasn't afraid, he just grabbed it by the tail) and another helped me jack up a 79 Thunderbird with a flat tire.

orionblastar•6h ago

My friend from India, Zubin, told me about the $500 to $1000 used car. It is cheaper to fix it up than it is to pay interest payments on a new car. It usually is a compact car like a Toyota that is easy to fix and doesn't have a computer to control the car. Just replace the stereo with a better one and keep fixing the car.

My son is the same way; he learned from YouTube videos on pickup trucks, earned his CDL, and learned how to fix diesel engines. He just welded his exhaust pipe on his truck today.

Rich people used to do this. Sam Walton had a Ford pickup truck from the 1960s that he kept getting repaired.

PaulHoule•6h ago

My son needed a car to drive to work about two years ago, we figured it should be in my name so I can get an adult insurance rate. We found a $3500 '96 Buick Park Avenue which has needed more than the purchase price in repairs to keep on the road but it sure beats a new car or a newer used car and if it fails completely tomorrow we got our money's worth.

My son wanted a car for fun and saw a $2500 '79 Thunderbird on the side of the road which we picked up a week and a half ago. You can't drive a car like that in Upstate NY in the winter because salt will eat it, but it is fun to drive around and be a bit of a celebrity.

My wife and I have been in the habit of buying new or almost new Asian cars but the way things are going our next car will be a sub-$10,000 used car because (1) they're not making the cars we want to buy and (2) prices are too damn high.

orionblastar•5h ago

Funny that they use robots and outsource factories to third-world nations, and the price is still too expensive.

My wife likes new cars, just got a Mazda 2025 with 1.9% interest, 2023 model is only a few hundred bucks cheaper but 8.9% interest. Cheaper to buy the new model and get warranty and service. My wife is a nurse and can afford it.

billy99k•6h ago

You are de-humanizing the two people that helped you by referring to them as 'rednecks' and using terms like 'one helped me ...".

Seems kind of racist.

a_vanderbilt•6h ago

Instead of getting offended on behalf of others, why not just ask one of those rednecks how they actually feel? Seems kind of like you are being inflammatory under the guise of concern.

PaulHoule•6h ago

Well they helped me so I thought they were cool. I mean, my "prod it with a stick" would get it to go right down the middle of the road but not off to the edges, I wasn't brave enough to pick it up by the tail. Maybe I had this on my mind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Redneck

It certainly breaks the stereotype that they all drive pickup trucks.

a_vanderbilt•5h ago

You're fine. As one of those "rednecks" my problem wasn't with what you were saying, it's obvious it wasn't malicious in intent. The person who replied to you with their accusations of racism (??) was clout-seeking/rage-baiting at your expense and I call those kinds of people out in an instant.

NaOH•6h ago

Duplicate:

The $25k car is going extinct? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44414115 - June 2025 (1122 comments)

a_vanderbilt•6h ago

The prices will continue to increase so long as buyers keep paying for them. In a car-centric country like the US, the demand isn't as elastic as it is elsewhere. People could buy more cost-effective vehicles, but they don't for a variety of reasons.

I foresee that car loans will contribute to the next market crash, as the abysmal LTVs trap people similar to the way vehicle loans originated during COVID did.

The OP is a poignant example. I have been in the market for an AWD Maverick, but I cannot find a vehicle on sale at a reasonable price. I see Mavericks with high milage selling for 80% as much as a brand new one MSRPs for. Dealers add to the fire by adding markups or tacking on insane windows prices. The outcome of the loan doesn't matter to them, just so long as they can get the initial sale.

I feel so much of this problem could be resolved be eliminating the middle man. Allow manufacturers to sell direct to consumer, and so much of the perverse incentive evaporates.

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