They'll probably be gone soon in Europe, priced out due to all the extra 'safety' and 'emissions' features required by law that barely make a difference in the real world. The only small hatches that will be left to buy will be expensive 'premium' EVs.
I'm not convinced.
Dacia have proved that poor Euro NCAP results are no impediment to sales if the car is priced low.
Historically, other than Japan, the country Suzuki is most associated with is India. But if they were to tie up with one of the Chinese makers to bring a low priced EV city car to the UK, I reckon it would do well.
If that was the case, why are a good number of the major car manufacturers ditching their city cars and superminis - at least outside of the mostly unaffordable EV 'replacements' (which always seem to be plush trim models), especially when said cars regularly have topped the sales charts across Europe, and that they are more efficient than 'equivalent' SUVs / crossovers, given all the changes are supposed to be about 'going green'? Surely they'd be falling over themselves to promote the most efficient cars?
I walked past my local KIA dealership the other day and saw second hand cars being offered at well over £40k.
Yeah I was in a family run Suzuki/Subaru dealership a couple of weeks ago and there was an alarming number of £35k+ "used" Subaru's on display outside. All they had inside (apart from a handful of classics as the owner is a collector) was a Vitara and an S-Cross!.
Just went past it again on my walk today, and there were second hand KIAs at over £50k and one at £64K. When did buying a previous vlaue for money brand become so exortionately expensive?
Other than the Chinese (whom I wouldn't trust at the mo), only Dacia (as you said) seems to have any pretentions to seeling vlaue vehicles, and even they aren't anywhere near as cheap as they were just a few years ago, often ditching their base trim models.
Seems like many makes are now selling properly used cars (some often with very high mileages and where the dealers aren't exactly caring about how clean or tatty the interior is) at what they were selling unused brand new ones just 5 years ago.
Also many dealers now only offering 3 month warranties for second hand cars out of the manufacturer's original one.
|