The $10,000 Mazda We’re Not Allowed to Have

If you could could buy a brand-new Mazda crossover for $10,000 would you? That’s probably why you can’t. The $10k (in Japan) Mazda Flair isn’t too good to be true. It’s too good to be allowed. It would give Americans the kind of relief from high prices Trump promised but never delivered. It would create an incentive for other car companies to at least offer affordable options. But it’s not an option that will be available to Americans – Trump’s already forgotten promise about “tiny cars” notwithstanding.

The Flair is not an untenable, impractical vehicle that people wouldn’t want to buy. It’s just small and basic. The distinction is important. Unlike an old VW Beetle – which barely had heat – the Flair comes standard with AC. It also comes standard with four doors and an automatic transmission, power steering and power windows. It has a powerful enough three cylinder engine augmented by a mild hybrid system that gives it enough pep to be viable in traffic and on the highway. Top speed is about 90 MPH; if you want to go faster, there’s an optional turbocharged engine that bumps the top speed up to about 112 MPH. A vehicle that is capable of going that fast can easily go as fast as 65-75 – which is what the speed limit is on most American highways.

This little Mazda is also very fuel-efficient. It averages about 50 MPG, very close to the mileage touted by the most fuel-efficient vehicle Americans are allowed to buy – the Toyota Prius. Just for less than half the asking price of a Prius. There’s also an XS variant that has AWD and rugged, Jeep-like styling affectations. It’s not a Jeep, of course. But then, the least expensive new Jeep you can buy is the $29,550 Compass – which is about $20k more expensive to buy than the Flair.

Imagine what a used Flair would cost. If such vehicles were available, there would be a plethora of viable, very affordable used cars available. It would be like it used to be – but no longer is. 

So why aren’t Americans allowed to buy the Flair? It’s more accurate to say why isn’t Mazda allowed to sell the Flair to Americans? This is also a distinction that’s important. Trump misled Americans about “tiny cars” such as the Flair (there are many others) when he said he would allow them to be made in America. When people heard that, they thought they heard Trump say that these “tiny cars” (Kei cars, in Japan) would soon be available to buy in America. This is an example of the Art of the Con. Let people hear what they want to believe. Then hope they forget all about it after awhile. The $5,000 DOGE refund checks are another example of this technique of Trump’s.

But while Trump did command that “tiny cars” could be made here – which was another con since there was no law barring them from being made here – he did nothing to make it legal to sell them here. In order for that to be possible – legally – “tiny cars” would have to be granted exemptions from the plethora of federal saaaaaaaaaafety requirements that every new passenger vehicle must comply with in order to be legal to sell here. It is often taken as a kind of tautology that any car that does not meet these requirements is “unsafe.” Not so. It is merely not compliant. Another important distinction. Not-compliant means – as a for-instance – that a car does not have multiple air bags. Well, no cars had air bags until circa the mid-late 1990s (when the federal Supplemental Restraint requirement went into effect).

Were all the pre-air-bag cars “unsafe”?  How about all the cars made before the federal government required back-up cameras and “drowsy/distracted” driver tech? It’s true they didn’t offer as much in the way of occupant protection as a federally compliant, air-bag-equipped car) but this assumes the vehicle will crash. Most don’t. Most people do associate “unsafe” with a vehicle that is apt to crash because it is prone to crash. This is not the case with the Flair and the other “tiny cars” Americans aren’t allowed to buy. They have stable handling, good brakes. There is always the risk of an accident happening with any car – even the most compliant. But it does not mean a non-compliant car is more likely to be in an accident.

Americans have, in brief, been propagandized into buying this false tautology that a car that isn’t compliant is “unsafe.” It is how they keep Americans quiescent about the things they are not allowed to buy – and the things they are effectively forced to buy. It’s as vicious as it is tragic. Despicable, too – as regards the president. He could have issued exemptions from the federal rigmarole that has pushed the cost of the least expensive new car Americans are allowed to buy into the low $20k range (twice as much as the Flair costs). Then Americans would be allowed to buy inexpensive little vehicles like the Flair – because they’d be legal to sell and legal to use, too.

So how come Trump did not do that?

Probably for the same reason he never had those $5,000 DOGE rebate checks sent out. Or the “COVID” criminals indicted. Or the Epstein Files released un-redacted. It’s all talk – and it lasts until you forget whatever it was he said.

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