Bought My First Hybrid

Those cheap Chinese EVs don't even come close to meeting our safety standards. The factories in which they are built don't come close to meeting our environmental standards. 

I'm sure that if we didn't have trade restrictions against them, that they could make a version that conformed to US safety and environmental standards. They would still be far, far cheaper than what's currently available to us now. And there would be an immense market.

Americans need basic transportation. I am very much reminded of the whining and bitching from Detroit when cheap, affordable Japanese cars first appeared in the US. Detroit successfully lobbied to tariff the crap out of those imports, but America soon learned that the surcharge was worth it. The alternative was to buy the American iron hulks that wouldn't get past 100,000 miles.

As far as environmental standards for the manufacturing sites are concerned, that's their business. China kills an estimated 250,000 of its citizens every year due to lax environmental policies. But the Chinese government thinks there are too many people anyway.

I favor free trade, so we should be able to buy whatever we goddamn want. Maybe we import one and have to retrofit it to conform to our standards before it's legal to drive? Still very much worth it.

I drive 2013 gas Toyota Rav4 now.I would like a compact.None available.No more Honda Fit.No more Toyota Yaris.Company says no demand?

I worked in the auto business for 30 years and you are correct about the lack of demand for those vehicles and to be at the low end of the price point there is little profit for manufacturers and dealers. So no wonder manufacturers discontinue making them. The real demand for those vehicles is in the used car market as inexpensive reliable transportation not as new cars. Look at all the excitement when Ford announced the new Maverick truck at a price point of around 20k, now look at the prices of them, obviously if they could build them and sell them at a profit at 20k they would be, the public says they want basic transportation but really they want all the nice options and all the great safety options which greatly add to the price. The idea of a $1500 electric vehicle is about as real as me getting a Royal Flush on every hand on next trip to Las Vegas. Not going to happen, my riding lawn mower cost over 4k and that was a few years ago.

What about Kia/Hyundai?

Both have hybrid sedans with MSRP under 30k.    That whole segment has a good car from every manufacturer except the big three (Ford/GM/Chrysler).      They decided small sedans were not a good business.   Shame.    

I never got into the whole SUV / Big Truck thing.   I owned a Ford Ranger once and that was a money pit - I can only imagine what a Ford F150 does to one's finances.

My husband knew cars.  He said Kia/Hyundai, Korean, started out like most new starts a little shaky, but had developed into really good cars mechancally.  As mentioned, Honda still makes a good little car.  Maybe not as little as the Fit, but good CRV/X etc.

Candy

I drive a Honda CRV and it's the best vehicle I have ever owned. Kind of indestructable. 

People who yeep this way don't understand that China's costs of production are far lower than ours. Of COURSE our Big Fat Auto industry couldn't make a $1500 EV. That's why we should import them...duh!

ANY manufactured product, if it can be made more cheaply elsewhere, we should just buy it from them and concentrate on making the products we do best. This is the Law of Comparative Advantage, a simple and elegant concept that nonetheless flies over most people's heads.

I agree the big three, as PJ mentioned, have no interest in producing high volume cars under 30k anymore. So let those folks in that do want to make them. A

sub 20k EV would be so life changing to the middle class and working poor. I just looked and less than 20k doesn't get you much in the used car market right now. Almost anything that runs, is under 20 years old and has 200k or less on the clock goes for that. The only other option is something from FB marketplace. 

As far as safety concerns,  BYD is already selling in Europe, Australia and other first world countries so I am confident they could meet US safety requirements. 

I will say my F-150 has been pretty darn reliable. I wanted give my daughter my nice car, GMC Terrain, when she started college so I gave her that her last year of high school when one my neighbors was relocating to Florida and was wanting to sell his Truck before he left.

I paid a whopping $600 for it almost five years ago as he thought the transmission was going out. It wasn't. The cable just needed to be adjusted. When I bought the 2006 it had 175k miles on it. I put new tires, two new wheel bearings, two new rotors on and a few other odds and ends on it which ran me $1.5k. It hasn't needed anything other than routine upkeep since then and has about 275k on the clock now.

It still runs but if I wanted to continue to use it as a daily driver I'd have to put about 3k into it and given the amount of rust it has at this point it has been demoted to occasional trash hauling duties.