While I do agree with pretty much everything and I'd love to have an el cheapo banger, it just isn't possible over here. Annual road tax for a 1.6 is 280eur. and insurance is 260. The one-off cost of getting your name on the license is 165eur. and lets go with 100eur for a basic service with oil, fluids, plugs, filters etc. This brings us to 805eur plus whatever the car cost.
As for the cheapo banger, there's not a chance in hell you can find such a one for 200 or 300 or even 500eur over here. The cars sold at those prices are for spares only and 99% of the time they can't get a licence (the paperwork that renders the car road legal).
You can get a banger for around 1000, but then you'll have to fork over much, MUCH more than the aforementioned initial 100eur for a service to bring it to a realistically serviceable condition.
Of course, adding to the above, people of moderate to low income can't possibly afford the added property tax of a second car.
Sad affair, really.
Hell, I got the Brava for 1.5k euros and before I found that, most other cars I'd looked at (every brand in the hat) were just plain BAD. Most had... "flooded", near-death heads, were in need of every consumable part possible, were usually damaged with faded paint and needed much bodywork, not to mention lots of things on them simply not working - namely and mainly, the AC units on most.
Not to mention, of course, every single one having tyres dating back to '11-'12, most had bent alloys ($$$ to fix), spent catalysts etc. etc. etc.
I believe the threshold for a good, well looked after car here is around 4k. And that's for a 10year old car at best, most probably older.
There are, of course, much nicer examples for much less money but they're usually 1.8 or bigger, and due to the taxes, most people opt for the various superminis, mostly up to 1.4 or, for the more... affluent(!) 1.6. At 2 liters and upwards, you get f-ed with ANOTHER, "luxury" tax. No matter if your car is a 2018 Jaguar or a 30 year old Opel Manta.
