As prices surge, foreign carmakers spotlight US-made budget models

• Foreign-owned carmakers state they offer many affordable vehicle options under $35,000.
• Government officials expressed concern that rising new car costs are causing Americans to keep older, less safe vehicles.
• Lawmakers identified supply chain issues, such as the chip shortage, as a key factor in increasing vehicle prices.

Foreign-owned carmakers are touting number the number of domestically produced models they have for sale that retail for under $35,000 as consumer concerns about affordability continue to mount.

Speaking during a January 22 panel discussion at the 2026 Washington DC Auto Show that was moderated by a member of the USA TODAY Cars team, Jennifer Safavian, CEO of Autos Drive America, which lobbies in Washington for internationally headquartered carmakers, said members of her organization "already provide a ton of different affordable options."

"If you look the cars that were sold in the U.S., 75% of those cars that were sold were MSRP of $35,000 or less," Safavian said. "And those are from my members, international automakers. So they offer a wide array of options for consumers, for families for needs that they have, and different price points. So there's a lot of different options out there, because affordability has always been an issue and it's something that my members have always been concerned with."

Safavian also noted that many of those sub-$35,000 models that were made by foreign-owned automakers were also built domestically. To help drive home that point, Autos Drive America placed signs on nearly 50 cars that were on display noting which states they were built in, despite their international name plates.

"We are investing here in the U.S.," she said. "You know, my members, international automakers, have been doing that for years. Over $100 billion invested in the U.S. They continued to do that and they want to do that."

What other auto industry stakeholders were saying about affordability

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said during a separate appearance at the Washington Auto Show that President Trump is also very concerned about rising car costs.

"The president has been very thoughtful around how do we navigate the price of a vehicle," Duffy said. "They've gotten very expensive through the Covid years."

Last year, the average price of a new vehicle in the U.S. soared to record levels, near $50,000.

Duffy noted that a consequence of rising new car costs has been Americans holding on to their older cars longer they ever have before. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the average age of a vehicle on U.S. roads in 2025 was 12.8 years.

Duffy said drivers who remain behind the wheel of decade-old cars are missing out on critical safety features that are now common on newer models.

"People are keeping vehicles longer," he said. "The problem with that is when fuel efficiency has improved dramatically over 10 years and the safety of the vehicles has improved as well, so if we can get people into (new) cars, we're driving fuel economy and we're also driving more safety."

Duffy added: "So should the unthinkable happen, if you're in a wreck or a crash, the odds of surviving that go up if we make it more affordable for that family to have been in a new vehicle, as opposed to one that's 12 years old or 14 years old. I think about that a lot and the president does too."

What did lawmakers say about car affordability?

U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said during a panel at the D.C. Auto Show that there are a variety of factors that have led to mounting sticker prices in U.S. showrooms.

"I think we need trade policies that have us on a level playing field," Dingell said. "During Covid, we saw parking lots full of vehicles, because we weren't producing the chips in this country. We've got to address the chip availability...I could go piece-by-piece. Our supplier community has been really challenges as we've been looking at tariff policies... This is so complicated for a 15-minute conversation."

U.S. Representative Bob Latta, who is an Ohio Republican and a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, agreed, saying "there's a lot of things that we should be doing in this country that we're not.

"I think for one thing, we have to make sure we have a good supply chain," he said. "During Covid, we found out our supply chain was strung out way too far across the world. We had to bring it back in."