[john70t]

It's a clash of many armies:
1. Manufacturers all trying to outdo each other on hp and luxury to retain their Brand Name status at the top of the pecking order.

2. Rising costs and rising shareholder expectations. Manufacturers making their vehicles more complex and market-capture the exclusive repair sector.

3. Like printers the real money is is in the ink. That is now customer surveillance and forced ads. Some people might not like that concept.

4. Consumers with stupid money are drying up. The economy is what it is. They had great jobs and leased a brand new car every three years. Then the dealership resold it on the used car market, sometimes using astroturf owners with a good story to flip it. Or they were okay with 30yr financing for a daily driver..the same price as a home... Not anymore.

5. Real quality is easily fakeable visually. And sometimes that is good enough. People are returning to the concept of "does it go?" with overall costs of ownership. Every manufacturer now has the cheap plastic interiors with different levels of insulation . High end or low. Heck even my 2004 Corolla had a nice 'brazillian rosewood' dash.

6. Startups and new manufacturers are cutting into the low and middle end. With comparable vehicles they will start to choose the cheaper one. Brand reputation has lost it's legacy when major manufacturers release stinkers and don't address the problems immediately.

7. Government regulations with enforcement such as CAFE and Safety are all over the board. The Toyota Prius was almost shut down for half a dozen 'runaway acceleration' incidents blamed on floor mats not hacking. Meanwhile Tesla's are running into things by the dozens every week and Waymo's are blocking city intersections with power outages. Manufactures are forced by CAFE to build larger vehicles because of wheelbase footprint alone. SUV's and pickups are insured less than an efficient hyper-miler econobox.

8. Everything but EV's are being banned, literally, but that model simply doesn't work with a lot of consumers. Still they are being forced into them and there is a backlash growing.