Let's say you make a "bare minimum" car and after all of your design costs, you can get the MSRP down to say $13,000. The problem is that once I'm already paying 13k for a "bare bones" car, I'll probably think, well, why not just pay $15,000 to get a car with sound/speakers, adjustable seats, air conditioning, automatic windows, etc. Behold, that's basically what a Chevy Spark costs (before supply chain crunch). If I'm really trying to save money beyond that, I'll just buy a used car.
What would be nice though is a car that doesn't get redesigned every few years. If I know that redesigns will only happen every 10 years, then that means cheap parts will be abundant and maintaining the car will be much cheaper.
I always drive old cars from 10,15 years old.
For example driving an Infinity FX35 from 2003 for about 7 years now. Never had a single issue. Bought the car for 8k.
$2000 adds about $30-40 a month on a 5 year note. If your budget will be busted by an additional $40/mo, you have no business buying a new car in thee first place.
What would be nice though is a car that doesn't get redesigned every few years. If I know that redesigns will only happen every 10 years, then that means cheap parts will be abundant and maintaining the car will be much cheaper.