I think it's safe to say that over the past several decades the car industry has been wholly co-opted by the state and the unions, rendering it a fascist industrial complex similar to the military, medical, educational, and environmental industrial complexes. Here are some reasons why the government-infiltrated car industry produces shabby vehicles and a lousy transportation system:
1) Repairs - Any of the following items may require you to spend money either fixing or
replacing: car engine (good luck), catalytic converter, car battery, mass air filter, electrical issues, belts, fuel hoses, throttle sensor, brakes, accelerator, cylinders, muffler, oil changes, tune-ups, tire rotations, re-fueling, spark plugs, broken fuses (these are just a few of the things I've dealt with; there are more) . . . and you will also need to get a driver's license, car insurance (whether you want it or not, and whether it pays anything when you make a claim), state inspections, car registrations, and license plates.
By the way, I know things break, but let's be honest, cars break down at a ridiculous rate and the automotive repair industry is a boon because of it. However, their benefit is at the expense of an efficient, safe driving experience.
Why can't manufacturers work on making cars that do not fall apart every few months? Because that would require them to respond to the consumer demand for better quality, something that does not rest well with unions who are in the business of pumping out new hunks of metal repeatedly (see Detroit). This is just like how public school teachers have no desire to provide quality educations, for then pupils would rise through the education process quicker, thereby decreasing the need for a high supply of over-paid teachers.
2) Debt Financing to Pay for Them
This is the same unsustainable problem Americans have with housing, education, health care, and even general purchases. People use and abuse debt at an obscene level. All things considered, car debt may not be what breaks the camel's back for most families, but it does make up another several thousand dollars in expenses, stymieing the effort to save money. As has been the case in the housing industry, people have fallen for un-fixed loans and extended warranties in this domain as well. The average auto loan in this country is about $30,000, even higher than student loans.
3) Monopoly on Transportation
Believe it or not, cars CAN share the road with travelers of other means. Check out this video of 1905 San Fransisco. This is spontaneous order for transportation. Nobody needs a stop light, stop signs, yield signs, or much else to function peacefully. Even for its time, San Fransisco was still more crowded than many American cities and towns today. To say that we need traffic regulations and a one-vehicle-type system is to ignore reality. Urban planning at both the local and federal levels have distorted the marketplace for transportation. We are de facto stuck with a single mode of transportation, for most of our travels, due to the dictates of elected/non-elected tyrants. Wouldn't things be better without the automobile monopoly?
4) Used on Unsafe Roads
With all the fuss that has been made about BP's blunders, it is a wonder why nobody holds government accountable when its Frankenstein roads put far more people in danger than any oil spill. In Walter Block's book, The Privatization of Road and Highways, he cites a death toll of around 40,000 per year due to automobile accidents. Could the private sector get away with anything like that? Of course, they could not. This problem may not be directly attributable to the quality of cars, but it is worth mentioning. The monopolization of cars as the only method of transportation may have a lot to do with the government plastering roads and highways all over the country, leaving little or no alternative for getting to and from places. Unsafe/faulty cars go hand-in-hand with unsafe roads. Anyone who has seen how inefficient government is in dealing with postal delivery should not be surprised that the same entity takes it sweet time doing basic repairs for roads. For more on this, I highly encourage a reading of Block's book.
5) Very Little Advancement Recently
Unless you are easily impressed by the increase in mass of the average American car over the past 20 years, there is very little to write home about when talking about the most recent evolution in automobiles. The government decided to enact emissions crackdowns on polluting cars, the emission standards ex-communicated almost all old cars, manufacturers got around this by creating SUVs (which pollute a ton, but are not really "cars"), and the rest is history. Now everyone wants to get rid of SUVs. We also have hybrid cars, which are also a statist/leftist idea, and are completely impractical. Hybrids have multiple, highly-polluting batteries.
When compared to the great leaps made in the early part of the 20th century, recent developments are decidedly lame, unnecessary, and usually brought on by frivolous lobbyists (unions and environmentalists). If the free market was allowed to operate, our vehicles would be more akin to Star Trek or the Jetsons. However, when the state interferes with things, progress is slowed to an almost stand-still and prices increase due to artificially-imposed scarcity. I have not even said anything about the oil manipulations, almost entirely attributable to the state in one way or another.
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