Americans Are Spending More Money to Drive Worse Cars

fortran77

Gift link: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/10/americans-not...

thefz

"X are spending more money to Y worse Z" is really the distillation of life under capitalism.

jeffbee

High gas prices do persuade people. Look at the vehicle fleet in California compared to the other states. It is very different and the gas is only slightly more expensive.

jarjoura

I want an electric car that has tactile buttons, an instrument cluster and doesn't put the entire brain of a car in a mobile app controlled by a remote server. That car costs $200k in the US. Outside of North America, the cars are really good and affordable. So it's out there. We are clearly doing something wrong here.

sien

The transformation in Australia has been remarkable. Chinese electric vehicles are now everywhere. https://evdbau.com/market-stats In Australia Chinese cars had 4% of the market in 2020. They now have 35% and Chinese cars have the greatest share of any country. https://www.anz.com/institutional/insights/articles/2026/07/... Just as an aside, Australia is odd in that it has positive trade balance with China because Australia sells so much iron ore and coal there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_trading_pa...

anovikov

They do it because they can. Country is rich and money is really no object to most consumers, so they buy what they subjectively "want", a car does not need to be "optimal" for them. And they want ICE cars because average age of a new car buyer is 53, they are buying what they are used to. That simple.