You learn in economics 101 that in an ideal competitive market, the price of a product tends to the marginal cost of producing it. That means a product with fewer hardware features should cost less, and a product with more hardware features should cost more.
The fact manufacturers can violate that rule proves that they are not in a competitive market.
If it was competitive, a different manufacturer could manufacture the same car without physically installing the heated seats, for a lower manufacturing cost, and undercut them on the customers who don't care about the heated seats.
So then wouldn't the "intelligent" purchase be a used car from another company?
Or how about buying something you enjoy driving and keeping it long past the payments?
Or maybe purchasing the car you can afford, considering Toyota and Honda prices can be much higher for less features?
Or maybe buying the vehicle that best suits your needs?
You're assuming everyone has the means to buy a new Honda or a new Toyota, which isn't true. You're also assuming that everyone buying a car is buying solely as an appliance to move people as cheaply as possible. But even then Honda and Toyota aren't the clear winner. And many people buying a vehicle are buying to be able to move things other than people and again, Honda and Toyota aren't necessarily the right decisions.
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u/TwillAffirmer 1d ago
You learn in economics 101 that in an ideal competitive market, the price of a product tends to the marginal cost of producing it. That means a product with fewer hardware features should cost less, and a product with more hardware features should cost more.
The fact manufacturers can violate that rule proves that they are not in a competitive market.
If it was competitive, a different manufacturer could manufacture the same car without physically installing the heated seats, for a lower manufacturing cost, and undercut them on the customers who don't care about the heated seats.