Vehicles under $15k are 1.6% of the market, and their share of the market has dropped over 90% since 2019. The old advice that you can get a beater and drive it in to the ground for $5k hasn’t been true for years but it still seems pervasive in personal finance spaces.
That is one reason I haven’t bought a car in a long time. A car is a tool, they are not worth the price so long as I can keep what I have running.