Re:It takes now 53 weeks salary to earn same as 30 weeks in ...
by paulddraper on Thursday February 20, 2020 @06:43PM
(#22379676)
You're being downvoted, but you are correct: driver and passenger airbags alone increase the price of a car several hundred dollars.
Until recently, I owned an airbag-less 1991 Saturn SL1, with the automatic seat belt, which was Saturn's very last-ditch effort to avoid installing airbags and raising the price of their cars.
Extend that trend across construction, transportation, electronics, etc. In many cases you literally cannot find an equivalent product sold or even legal to legal nowadays.
The 1996 Grand Caravan is not legal to sell new anymore. Many new costly features are now mandatory, in the name of security and environmental protection etc.
This is fine for the comfortable Ivy League class that controls these things, but for poorer segments, it means they have to pay for a much more advanced car than they'd pick if given more choices.