My point wasn’t that you can’t find 20 years old cars that are better than the worst newer cars (I’d totally imagine 2000’s top of the line Mercedes to be more secure than today’s Lada)

If you stay within a category there will be progressive improvements that cumulate enough to be a big difference 20 years after.

I also totally agree that some cars don’t need to be built to handle getting crushed by a tank if they’re supposed to be lightweight low speed convenience vehicles. Now those still see enough improvement to be changed after a few decades IMO.

>When I'm abroad, and I want to buy a car, I look for one that was manufactured and sold also in the USA market so that it meets NTHSA standards

This seems like a super reliable way to purchase a totaled vehicle, no?

No, not necessarily. It's a reliable way to purchase a used vehicle. Some of the used vehicles from higher wealth markets end up making their way to other countries.

Some, yeah. Mostly ones with bad carfaxes though.

No, I don't think you understand my example.

Manufacturers make different models. A and B.

A is sold in USA, EU, Rest of the World.

B is only sold in APAC market.

Due to economy of scales, it's much easier to manufacturer the same car that fits all standards as model A and not to remove or replace parts.

This means that there will be a general manufacturing plant of chassis, or that there are similar manufacturing plants around the world. This is common for Toyota, Subaru, Mercedes, BMW. BMW has plants in South AFrica, Germany and south Carolinia. You can see where the car was built by the first VIN number, if it's a number like 4 it's USA, if it's W it's Germany.

This means also if a car is sold in another country, it has tarrifs upon entering, so the manufacturer would semi build up the car in Country of origin, and then finish the assembly in Country where it's finally sold which usually has cheaper labor but since employs locals, has a lower tariff rate and sells for a lower price new.

This means that it will meet USA/EU safety standards because the assembly line in the country of origin is not going to defer to make cars that far from a base acceptable standard. This makes more sense if you know/read of the Toyota Production System, TPS - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System basically Henry Ford and Assembly Line production x4.

tl;dr if car model/trim is sold in USA, EU - car companies save money by basing design/safety standards to meet US/EU and will give that away for rest of the world with no such standards because it's more expensive to deviate from the assembly line process or even from vehicle branding.

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For car model B, that has no USA/EU release schedule, car manufacturers then will deliver a much cheaper car w/o the safety equipment because it isn't required. Most of APAC barely only requires a speedometer, seatbelt and wipers on windows with default lights. E.g. no reverse camera, no bumpers that can withstand 5-10mph incidents w/o impaling people, very small B and C pillars (less roll over protection(, no airbag, no side airbags, etc.

These small things add up to the BOM or build of material, reducing them reduces part cost, labor cost, manufacturing cost, shipping cost, and reaches the goal of more sales in APAC Where people are much more price sensitive. The average car purchase price in APAC is $13,000, e.g. Suzuki Carry, Mitsubishi Mirage G4, Toyota Wigo and in certain parts of Asia, less than $8000.

Which is why this example works - I'm buying a car that was marketed and sold in the USA but not necessarily "FROM" the USA. So it would not be crashed or totaled or that insurance video/car max tactics of fear.

It would be a car that was imported by the manufacturer as NEW, sold as NEW in the country and then go through deprecation, but since it meets USA/EU spec, it can very much be a better car than a "new" car because it has more safety built in, alongside other better creature comforts like power seats, actual HEAT (most cars in Asia do not include heat, only A/C - no heater core.) ABS, (still pretty rare in Asia), rear camera, etc - the thing is it has airbags, enforced B and C pillars, proper seat belts and also a bigger engine over 2L. Most Asian cars made for Asia market are sub 2L because of tariffs anyway.

tl;dr buying basic USA/EU cars in Asia is a luxury all around. You'll live if you have a roll over accident.

$14k USD / 700k PHP -- not bad!

Any modern car would just be a cloud of plastic and aluminum dust around a 90's era Volvo in a collision.

But you'd need to be scraped away from the inner side of the Volvo's windshield.