Manufacturing

There is a niche for an affordable car that is made at a large scale in the U.S. Manufacturers stopped selling low-end options such as the Kia Rio, Hyundai Accent, Mitsubishi Mirage, and Nissan Versa in the U.S. or globally. The most common options now are often crossovers or small SVUs paired with complicated transmissions.

With Japan, Germany and South Korea looking to phase out gas/diesel-only cars or cars with emissions at all, an economy car coming here from these places probably won't happen again for a while. The cheapest electric car available here right now is close to 30K. Considering most places aren't really designed around public transit and the fact that most households still need a car, people need a practical vehicular option. 

A better option for many buyers could still be built here. It could even be built in Detroit, where there's affordable land and all kinds of talent familiar with the industry. The major universities educate students looking to work in this field. Also, there's the potential for affordable housing to be put into surrounding areas. 

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A good design would include rear wheel drive with limited slip differential; relatively simple manual and automatic transmission options; one 4 cylinder engine option; minimal color and vehicle options; 2 doors, 4 seats and a hatchback. Serviceability, design precision and quality control would be priorities. For instance, it's easier to change out a clutch or transmission on rear-wheel-drive cars.

This would be one mass-produced car, with a design that doesn't change for many years. Interchangeable parts would be built into the concept, because there aren't all of the parts associated with a changing product line, and down the road used parts would accumulate. So this would be a good used car option in the future.

The company could have one factory here for final assembly, one for the engine and one for the transmission. Other components could be sourced internally or externally. With today's manufacturing, this wouldn't create a lot of assembly jobs, but it's still a lot of jobs, and it's domestic. Someone still needs to make the robots and all of the parts. This could even be viewed as a jobs program, with all kinds of jobs for people building something all kinds of people need.

The key here would be finding people who really want to do this kind of work and keeping greed out of the way of smart, efficient business practices. A Saturn-like sales network could be set up, or the traditional dealer model could be used. A simple design and minimal service requirements would make existing dealer networks more accessible. This would be initially intended for domestic sales. 

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Unaffordable Housing Dynamics and Zoning Reform

 

In these larger metro areas and smaller cities that are very desirable places to live, land prices have increased more to much more than the prices of homes. The most pronounced effects of this are very few small homes being built and larger new homes being the norm. It isn't as profitable to put a small, affordable house on an expensive lot. 

Back in 1950 the average size of a new house was about 1000 sq. ft. Now the average size is around 2,400 sq. ft. So, along with inflated home prices, this isn't affordable for someone with a median income. People need access to small (900-1,200 sq. ft.) homes.

In rural inland areas and smaller cities in the South and Midwest this is still viable. There are places that just need development and zoning reform. Looking at zoning regulations for Shawnee County, KS, where Topeka is, they could use some areas zoned for smaller single-family residential lots. There are correlations between lot sizes and the sizes of the homes built on them. For instance, a 1,000 sq. ft. house shouldn't require a 4,000 sq. ft. to 6,500 sq. ft. lot. Bigger lots result in lower urban density and bigger houses, and this adds to housing costs. 

Some of these places should try working with their zoning and seeing if this opens up the areas to prosperity and development. First of all, this is new construction. Affordable homes in areas such as Topeka mean someone not only saves on the price of the house, but they also save on the interest. Moreover, someone who might take out a 30-year loan for a starter home in Portland, OR, could benefit from a 15 or 20-year loan on a starter home in Topeka.