I remember seeing a TV commercial for the Volkswagon Beetle when I was a small boy. One point that I remember is that the announcer made a big deal pointing out the Volkswagon was still under 2, 000 dollars. Is it true that the Beetle was the last under 2,000 dollar car? This was around the early 1970s.
The Subaru 360 may have been cheaper than the Beetle. I found a refence to it selling for $1,300 in 1970. They weren’t terribly popular. My grandparents bought a pair of them for two of my uncles and those are the only examples I’ve actually seen.
I’ll sell you my 1979 Datsun for $50.00 today!
I remember when the VW Beetle went above $1,000 in price, and the Fiat 850 was still below $1,000 (not much - msrp was $995 IIRC). This would have been around 1969-70. A few years later (1972), during the time of the “Mr. Ferrari drives a Fiat” ad campaign, I’m pretty sure there was another Fiat model (the 128?) that was cheaper than a Beetle.