Cars should be cheaper to own and run.

[PaulKempTheSecond]

I’ve long held a belief, given the tech we have available today, that cars should be relatively cheap to produce and maintain. While it’s great to have super luxury vehicles we should also be able to produce cars with all the safety features(airbags, abs, TC) and basic comforts(AC, electric windows and entertainment/nav display) for not a lot of money.

Came across this which seems to lean in this direction which I thought was cool.

REO — Built Like It Used To Be

The Runabout. Gas, mechanical, body-on-frame — engineered for 500,000 miles. Starting at $21,500. Reserve yours for $25, fully refundable.

reotrucks.com

 

[NR7]

I dunno, Toyotas and Suzukis seem pretty cheap to maintain.
Outsourcing to India means the lower models are cheap to produce too.

Lots of them putting up big numbers with ehailing and transport. There's an Ertiga with 394492km and it's at a decent dealer for R200k on Autotrader!

 

[die_koos]

The Problem is not the manufacturers.

If you look at the base SC Reo - its $21500 which sounds cheap - but to get that in SA without shipping:

Base Price (FOB) $21,500 converted to R362,705
Customs Duty 25% of the base price R90,676
Ad Valorem Duty ~13.9% of the duty-inclusive value R68,110
VAT 15% on the ATV R83,664
Total Equivalent Price Base Price + SARS Taxes R605,155


That is why you can get a similar spec SC Hilux for approx. R 550000 in SA which will be cheap as chips to run with the 2.4 Diesel and the 9 Services / 90,000km service plan. So in essence cheaper than the Reo already.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

don't forget used nearly new vehicles from Japan are illegal here,
a big part of the greedy government revenue comes from taxes on the official vehicles they sell here.
not to mention all the ones they export, that are cheaper to buy overseas than right here.