Auto manufacturers hit a peak in terms of gas engine efficiency right around the turn of the century and since the rate of profit must always climb they need to make up new nonsense to justify the same car they built 20 years ago costing three times as much.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Decadence and Decay
https://www.historytools.org/stories/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire-decadence-and-decay