Ok, when was Tesla mentioned prior to your comment in this thread?
I responded to someone asking for cheap, basic cars. It has been tried and only worked in dictatorships. Just look at the Yugo sales in the US market. Where were all the people that wanted cheap, basic cars then?
People do not want cheap basic vehicles, the buy them because they have a limited budget.
I also don't remember Tesla being the benchmark for luxury cars.
Looking at the local car market here, the sales of luxury cars is up massively since the pandemic started, most of them being higher-end models from European brands. Admittedly Toyota is the biggest selling brand locally, but that's hardly unique and I wouldn't say they make simple and basic cars, outside of a couple of models. One of the most popular models is the Corolla Cross hybrid.
Yes, there's some hubris in the car market when it comes to technology right now, especially as car makers are trying to find alternative means of revenue, such as various paid for software related services, be it for assisted/automatic driving or something else.
I'm also not sure how it's possible to make a simple and basic electrical car, as they need a lot of technology or there simply won't function.
See above.
Also, almost all cars are going automatic in some way, so it's time to give up on the antiquated manual gearboxes, they don't really offer any benefits, except a feeling good factor. And yes, I know how to drive a manual car, on both the right and wrong side of the road...
I'm driving a VW ID3 right now... and the first thing I do getting into the car is disable the lane assist. Even though it does the job fine... its a system working by rules you never asked for - and it interferes with relaxed driving. Yes, we humans can't drive in a perfect center of the lane, but a car is just fine if it stays between the lines, and there are quite a few moments on the road where you actually want to cross the line a little bit to keep safe, because of other traffic or any such reason.
Similarly... adaptive cruise control. VW basically made it unusable because when camera detects an 80 km/h sign for another road next to mine, the ACC hard brakes to meet that limit. So you're driving the 100 you're supposed to on cruise, a sign appears, boom, you're creating an unexpected behavior, automated. It also keeps so much distance (even on the shortest setting) to the car ahead of yourself that overtaking with it is pretty much impossible, even if the car can accelerate pretty fast, it does it so gradually someone else is keen to jump right in front of you and stop you from going past. It gets even better if you're driving the allowed 130km/h on the same road in the evening. 50km/h of hard braking just like that. The first time I thought I had someone under the vehicle.
Basically if you're not practically asleep behind the wheel and prefer to drive faster than 80 or 100km/h you're leaving those systems disabled. Yay for technology and supposed safety when the measures used are so annoying you don't want them. Luckily the other automated features don't interfere. At the same time, these systems are
supposed to work as they do
Its not going to get better.
As for people wanting more than basic cars, I think you're right. It appears a majority is actually happy with lazy careless driving because they get more time to look at their phone. We're lazy, irresponsible assholes it seems and cars cater to it.
This man gets it. No one is happily driving a 20 years old car. We do because we have to.
Reading this thread is like reading from who is who from the boomer generation. Smart cars are what the consumers want.
Yeah having had my share of cars from 17 year old Mitsubishi Colt to a new Peugeot 108, then 208 and then to the ID3 I have now, I can only support this statement. Even with the status symbol thing discarded for good measure... the extra features are useful and bonus, but there is a limit to it, for me, and some things are crossing the line too. Another category of features is just things you need to get used to because they're different.
The Peugot 108 was a 'basic modern car'... the epitome of basic and cheap today, the seat was made of iron, the audio sounded worse than from a laptop, and the display to use it was unreachable from the driver's seat without leaning far forward, denying safe drive. Also, the dashboard was digital, offering a fuel meter consisting of FOUR fat blocks that would vanish as the tank emptied itself... The first block would be gone straight after driving away from the gas station... the second would vanish shortly after, and then the third would remain lit for ages, until you find the last block behaves as the first did... and then you get the light saying to fill up.
The 208... being Peugeot... 100% plastic of course, but the dashboard also had chromed (Plastic) elements that would handily be positioned such that any sun reflection would bounce of straight into your face. That's luxury! But the audio was still shit. Basically you get 2 extra doors in the back and an engine that can actually overtake trucks, unlike the 108 where you'd dial back to 4th gear to reach 100 at full throttle... And both cars actually felt like they had to be driven with some care, not exactly fixed & steady on the road as you'd like them to be.
So yeah. Happy camper with my non basic car right now, that actually has a design that works interior and exterior, decent audio, and some form of QoL inside it... and driving it at 160km/h feels just as stable as driving 40.
