When the smart car was released in the USA there was a 1 year waiting list because so many people wanted a cheap $7,000 car that they sold out everywhere. Then they stopped making small economy cars and forced the SUV down our throats.

People absolutely would buy a cheap economy car in the USA. There is sky-high demand. It’s just not fulfilled because our auto industry is a racket and they know that if only crazy expensive cars are sold in the USA people will have no choice but to buy them. Transportation is a need, not a luxury. It’s like pricing water at $100 a bottle when everyone lives in the desert and your $100 water is the only water.

CAFE regulations are based on vehclicle footprint as of 2012. That’s why all the small trucks suddenly disappeared from the market that year. They had stricter fuel-economy standards than a sedan. The giant vehicles we’re gettimg today is the result of regulations that make it easier to just keep making vehicles bigger than to make them more efficient.

People will pay good money for a 15yo Ranger because you can’t get an equivalent vehicle new. The marketing to make oversized cars trendy is to prevent competition for the new vehicles coming from the used market.

I respect your optimism. Just because the Smart sold out doesn’t mean it sold a lot, though. It’s amazing in areas where parking is scarce. But outside of that, people love driving their tanks. Unfortunately, many of them buy tanks because they feel like you need a tank to be safe at this point, because of all the other tanks, and there is some evidence they are correct. I live in an area full of Escalades and jacked up Man Trucks.

That tells you a bit about how fantastically well the “Invisible Hand” is working, isn’t it?

Have they stopped making the Escord, Focus and Fiesta? Those have always been incredibly popular cars in Europe.

But checking their website, I don’t see any of them. Now it’s the Puma, Kuga, Explorer, and apparently the Capri is back! Also an electric Mustang and the current van is called Tourneo. (And the Mustang is listed as an SUV.) (Maybe the Tourneo is an “SUV inspired car”, but there seem to be two completely different cars with that name.)

But Ford sells completely different cars in Europe than in the US. That’s why they’re the one American car company that’s very successful in Europe.

As far as I know they stopped making the Fiesta a while ago, the Focus is still being offered in Europe. I think they might still sell the Ka in Brazil as a small car but obviously nowhere else.

Yeah, the Capri is back in name only. Updated for the current market by being an electric SUV…

Edit: just looked it up and not only does Ford not sell the Ka in Brazil anymore, they don’t sell the Focus at all anymore. What a shame.

No one in the US makes those budget entry level cars anymore. No Honda Civic or Fit. No Nissan Versa. Certainly no Ford Escort or Fiesta. It’s just not a category any of the companies care about serving anymore. It used to be that companies would lose money on their entry level car to win your brand loyalty. Mose money on a Corolla so that someday you get even more back on a Lexus. But apparently ain’t nobody got time for that anymore.

And it is a sign that fuel is still too cheap in the US, even today, also, that people don’t care about others, not even about the safety and life of others.

The US is a big place with many responsible, caring people in it, so it can’t be characterized all in one stroke. But when this goes wrong, it goes really wrong.

Many are actually allergic to the idea that they are even supposed to care about others. “I’m not my brother’s keeper” is a prominent attitude here.

They see this as an impingement upon their freedom. Like having a deadbeat relative you’re stuck taking care of for the rest of your life. That kind of burden.

They have some notion of family and community but it’s very local, and I mean just the people in their lives. Anything beyond that turns into 1984 for them. Not agreeing with them, mind you, just describing.

A mustang is not a muscle car, it literally created it’s own group of cars called pony cars