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As we approach the end of the year, it’s common for publications to start posting listicles. Some will even hand out an award. This year, considering all the chaos, I thought I’d do something a little different.
I’m going to go over what I think is the best automotive decision that was made this year, and then I’m going to talk about the worst. There’s no trophy, plaque, or anything. Just after watching this hellish year go by, I wanted to point out the best and the worst.
If you disagree, and you probably will, feel free to hit the reply button and share your thoughts.
Do red cars cost more to insure?
You may have heard the myth that red cars cost more to insure, often with varying reasons why. The truth is, the color of your car has nothing to do with your premium. Insurance companies are more interested in your vehicle’s make, model, age, safety features, and your driving history. What’s not a myth, though — is that people really can save a ton of money by switching insurers. Check out Money’s car insurance tool to see if you could, too.
The smartest decision: Nissan pricing the Leaf affordably
Some honorable mentions will also go to Nissan for seemingly not killing the Versa yet, because car affordability is going to matter a ton moving forward. Additionally, Hyundai’s aggressive pricing on Ioniq 5 is smart in the wave of new competition and the end of the tax incentive.
But ultimately, Nissan gets a solid “W” here for saying they were going to bring the Leaf here, without the tax credit, priced competitively, and that it also wouldn’t suck.
Do you know what? It’s priced pretty competitively! A 300-mile EV for just a hair over $30,000 is still expensive for a lot of Americans, but the standard feature set, limited maintenance responsibilities, and support for Apple Car Play and Android Auto in a small size make it a compelling new car purchase.
Is it perfect? Of course not. It is pretty good, and at the price, the imperfections don’t add up enough to make it a bad deal. It’s like when the Maverick first came out, and was priced at a hair over $20,000 with delivery. Sure, it was cheap inside, but for the price, it didn’t matter. It was a deal.
Affordability is going to matter more than ever going forward. Cars like the Trax, Venue, and Versa are going to continue to sell as people suddenly realize that they can’t afford the expensive cars in a recession in a country where automobile ownership is required in most areas.
EVs, moving forward, need to continue to offer some type of value. Eventually, EVs are going to be the thing, and the leaders now will be the leaders when all of this shakes out.
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The dumbest decision: Ugh, never mind
I wrote out a long screed here about some things that I’ve seen that are truly dumb this year, but it’s hard to break them down into one or two specific events.
What’s important for automakers to see going forward is that any short-term benefits gained from lack of EPA enforcement or tariffs or whatever aren’t going to help save us from Malaise 2.0 and China’s dominance. Even if things aren’t going super swell for them right now, the political winds will shift again, and we’re going to be caught further and further behind.