I’m hoping for Chinese cars because the low end of the US market is a mess.
If I want a sedan, my choices are more limited than they’ve been in decades.
Everything is more expensive, which I blame on adding a lot of complexities and gimmicks. At this point, an ICE drive train is a solved problem. Nominally, it seems like most of the features are about making it more luxurious but plenty of use cases don’t need that.
Save $500 million on engineering an infotainment fiasco; sell me a car with the legally mandated back camera and a DIN sized slot, and I’ll let Pioneer/Kenwood/JVC figure put the rest. Don’t replace the chirping remote for power doorlocks-- which itself can be offered one model up from the base trim-- with a cloud-enabled, app-privacy-fiasco breaking point that turns into a vector for a $10-per-month subscription. Make sure cloth seats are available since Arizona exists and nobody wants to weld their ass to leather/pleather, oh wait now it’s “vegan leather”, which I guess is made from the skin of pretentious pricks.
Basically, sell me a 2002 Elantra built to modern crash safety code.