Robert whilst all your observations are correct, you have missed the vital ingredients of the Car. The car manufacturers through their marketing agents realised years ago that the Car is:-
1 The ultimate Status symbol in human aspiration.
2 The car represents mobility and independant freedom.3 The car represents excitement.4 Not least it is also a sexuual statement.

No matter what the economics of the car are in reality the foregoing over rides these facts. Just look at the design of many of them in earlier days The Ford Mustang . A pure Sex symbol projecting Testosterone. Really impractocal Dangerously over powered gas guzzler and difficult to get your Granny in the Back.. The massive opulent limosines provided for potentates and Presidents . The silly Renault Clio which is sold as transport for trysts with Italian Lovers. The fact is all this human physcology sells Cars Now every body in China and India wants one for exactly the same reasons. You try and stop it The Politicans call it progress. The world Economy is now run on Car production and its satelite industries, Oil Steel Rubber, and also TAXATION.

Don't Kid yourself, people want their own independent transport, bikes,scooters and ultimately a car.If people have less spending power, car prices will follow .
Anybody who buys crap cars is either up against it financially or a cretin.
So keep rolling out the sleek sexy looking cars and they will sell.
Pity we as a country are not capable it seems thanks to the Labour Party and the likes of RED KEN for those who can remember that period our labour rates can not compete on the world stage, although Nissan ,Toyota and Honda seem to have got it right, maybe they don't stand for the Union Crap. So perhaps there is a case for Virgin or the likes to start our core production of a UK car.

I can still remember the automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010. It happened mainly due to Global financial downturn. One by one they had some sort of recovery during last five years. Can we expect similar growth in the car industry during next five years?

http://www.strategyand.p...16-auto-industry-trends

2016 Auto Industry Trends

In the main we have a car assembly industry in the UK rather than a car manufacturing industry. There are exceptions of course, but Nissan, Toyota, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Mini, all assemble imported parts into cars to a greater or lesser extent. The shriveled pound will make the parts much more expensive to import, but the labour to assemble them in UK will obviously be cheaper.

When I worked I had a company car and it was changed regularly. When I was younger after 3 years or less, my cars had already had quite a hard life and done 60,000, often at high speed for long hours in Western Europe.
I then joined a small company and my mileage dropped and taxes went up. One day the Financial Director came into my office and asked me if I'd ever thought how much my "free company petrol" was costing me per mile in tax? It was very high and I was grateful when my company changed the deal I had.
Thinking of retirement, I decided to buy a new car and keep it for ~10 years as my American friends seemed to do with their cars. I did this and any costs divided by 10 always look better. Cars seem to be so much more reliable and last longer. My old £16,000 diesel had done 150,000 miles (at ~50miles to the gallon) when I gave it to a relative, and it still passed the MOT a year later, before any service!
This reliability is of course a problem to manufacturers, who I suspect are grateful for younger people who require the latest and the greenest new cars.
In a pro-Brexit world I guess it might be better to buy a Japanese, Korean or other Asian car rather than a German car for reliability and longevity. I doubt if French or Italian cars are bought with reliability and longevity as prime factors.
As to whether electric cars are really an option is more difficult to say. I had a look at hybrids/electric cars around a year ago and the low running costs were attractive. However range is still an issue. More worrying to me was that the leading electric car models didn't seem to be that reliable, especially when one took the high cost/lowish spec into account - without the government subsidy you'd have to be very "green" to buy one. I don't think a believable 10 year cost of ownership model as been done for electric or hybrid cars. It all depends on whether the batteries have to be replaced and at what cost.
I would have thought that the drive for greener cars and ones that drive themselves would be good opportunities for world manufacturers. Post-Brexit the EU-UK tariffs might mean these opportunities will be taken in Asia and the USA, rather than in Germany or the UK. Especially as the USA-EU tariff talks seem to be at an end.
Personally I have recently been very impressed with a friends Note diesel. Quiet, ~70miles to the gallon and a nice place to be. And made in Sunderland, so no EU tax.