Americans bought 17.2 million brand new vehicles in 2017, of which, not a single one of these vehicles were priced to sell for under $10,000. The cheapest brand new car available in 2017 appears to have been the Nissan Versa for $11,990, but even that price is very deceptive, because it is not only the bare bones model and hence a manual transmission, but to actually finally that vehicle, available to be sold at the price, would be problematic, because so few of these models were ever manufactured. In addition, even before considering what financing would be available for the purchase or the down payment required, those purchasing such a car would have added onto the price, depending upon the location of where they were buying that vehicle: sales tax, destination charge, documentation fee, and the title and registration fee, not to mention dealerships trying to add on fees such as: advertising fee, extended warranty, dealer preparation fee, and so on and so forth.
In point of fact, it's deceptive for consumers when a car is advertised at a price in which few, if any of those vehicles are even available, in addition to the fact, that any additional taxes or fees, that are mandated by State or Federal law as having to be applied to such a car should be part of the advertised price to begin with, excepting the sales tax, because that is the way typical consumer purchases are priced in virtually any other transaction of a material good in this country.
While, it is true, that the price of cars have pretty much kept up with the pace of inflation, so that, cars that were available for $2,000 back in the early 1970s, with inflation would go for around $11,750 today, it also true that the manufacturing of cars is global, utilizes more lightweight materials than previous years, and that the percentage of vehicles utilizing unionized labor has plummeted over the last two decades. All of this combined, would imply that cars should be cheaper than they currently are, and that these cars should be available for sale in America, for other countries such as India, have new cars being sold that equate to around $5,000 brand new.
One of the main reasons why they aren't any inexpensive brand new cars, is that the profit margin of the cheapest vehicles is small for the manufacturers as well as for the dealerships, and the corresponding commission rate for those cars being sold is also small, so these entities have every incentive to want the people purchasing cars to purchase more car than they really need in order to make more money on each vehicle sold, and for those dealerships or manufacturers with a financing arm, to also make more money from the loans necessary for buying a higher priced vehicle.
This government provides all sorts of incentives and tax advantages for certain manufactured things and companies, such as electrical vehicles, in which tax credits are initiated, in addition to other perks which may include vouchers and rebates. There isn't any reason why this government cannot make it a priority, to set aside a program that rebates or initiates tax credits for consumers and/or the manufacturers of vehicles in which the price of that vehicle when it meets a governmental low-price objective, initiates a subsidy for the consumer of such, so that more vehicles would be purchased at that lower price point, of which, those vehicles would because of their lower weight and smaller form factor, create both far less pollution as well as being far more energy efficient, in addition to saving the American consumer some much needed money.