[Fat Charlie]

It costs money to jump through regulatory hurdles. Regulatory hurdles, by and large, serve a purpose, even if we tend to focus on the things they prevent us from being able to do.

It also costs a lot of money to run a company badly. Just like with regulations, people focus on the wrong things here. Shareholders and management would rather sell pickups for $50k than well thought out people movers for $10k. Or $6800, for that matter- have you noticed how much capital isn't getting thrown at Paul Elio?

Everything that lowers the price of a car hurts the car companies' pricing structure and isn't going to get done- except maybe complaining about the price of airbags. GM started losing money big time in 2005, but they kept paying a dividend for another three years. Maybe it's a Common Core thing, but I don't see how a company that's losing money has any profits left over to pay out a dividend to its shareholders. The shareholders didn't complain, though: they were happy to believe their board and management who kept pouring the "profits" to them, even when there weren't any.

Mandated equipment isn't what made their products unaffordable or their business unprofitable, and they have no interest at all in selling inexpensive cars except as a way of getting entry level buyers into their stores until they can afford "real" cars.