Americans Are Open To Cheap Chinese Cars. That’s 'Scary' For The Rest Of The Auto Industry

Everyone is broke as fuck we are open to cheap everything. People are living in literal sheds

Yes I think that's the part where you have to, you know, compete or whatever.

Don't cram touchscreens and smart features into every fucking aspect of your car. Keep your costs low, keep prices low, and believe it or not, you'll tap into the "bottom" 60% of the market that has been forced to buy used for the last 10 years. I don't want a base trim 10 year old Honda Accord with 150k miles, but it's all I can find for under $20k.

Maybe make affordable cars here then?? Dumbasses

The industry should meet the needs of the consumer, not the shareholder.

I mean fuck, if only we could get shit like kei trucks.

Some of us have been open to foreign vehicles you can't really get in the US for a long time. Oh well.

Well too fucking bad for the auto industry? Just because it’s an American industry doesn’t mean we should give a fuck about it. If they want our loyalty, make fucking better cars.

Auto industry looking at their overly inflated prices, "well well well, if it isn't the consequences of my actions."

80s: You wouldn't buy a Japanese car!
90s: you wouldn't buy a Korean car!
00s: you wouldn't buy a small Italian car!
....

There's all kinds of wacky taxes, regulations, and barriers to prevent the US industry from having to compete with the world. One such example is the Chicken Tax:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/chicken-tax.asp

That one keeps the Toyota Hilux out of the US.

Yeah, I'm a weirdo with a cargo e-bike. Love it, except when it rains or snows.

I'd love a sub-$20k street legal EV that skips the entertainment system and most other features. Just give me a weatherproof cabin with comfortable seats and a modest cargo capacity for groceries and small appliances. I'm only ever going to drive it for at most an hour around town and back. Maybe listen to a podcast from my phone. Stick solar panels on the roof and it'll probably always be topped off for how infrequently I drive. I'll rent something if I take a longer trip.

Not scary for the auto workers who want to work on them, build them, supply parts for them, etc or the families who want affordable EVs. More scary for the wealth class who didn't reinvest enough into updating their facilities and processes to stay competitive businesses. The government already gave them extra time with the embargo but that isn't going to last forever.

If it pass safety standards without all those smart and data collection bs and being reliable for 7+ years with easy part sourcing I might give it a try.

Even Xiaomi has released the SU7, a real Tesla killer and also way cheaper. But not for the US market, but for the EU.

What's their e-bike situation like? Are there good ones or will they blow my nuts off?

I personally own Ioniq 5 but that is because Hyundai has better after sales support in my country than emerging Chinese OEMs.

Not to mention existing Chinese cars currently do not possess enough battery capacity and efficiency for my taste.

Once they fix that atrocious after sales support, I will reconsider them.

FYI, Wuling Air EV probably has the 2nd biggest sales number here in my country but people who own them complain alot about maintenance and spare part supplies.

Lemmy:

Go UAW, fight for higher wages and better working conditions

Also Lemmy:

I demand the cheapest car possible, I don't care if its built by slave labor in xinjiang. If western companies can't compete with third world labor costs then they're obviously inefficient and don't deserve to exist.

EVs are cheaper to fill up than internal combustion engine cars, even in oil rich countries - Changan Eado EV, 9 Saudi Riyal (2.4USD) to drive 460km (287.5miles) - . I want to get an EV eventually, I just want to know how well can they handle +50C temperatures.

The biggest con is the industry's war to make Kei trucks illegal in the US.

I'd rather walk than spend money on an 'American' car. Fuck, I'd rather walk period but you can catch my drift.

I feel like a lot people on Lemmy, and people in left-leaning spaces in general, kind of have a blind spot on this one. People get that buying local is good, but not buying American.

It matters where your money goes. People complain about the soullessness of modern American life, and how hard it is to find a good job, and how democracies are backsliding around the globe, and then they buy things from China that are cheaply made and, at most, slightly better value in the long run.

This isn't me trying to be nationalist or xenophobic but whenever anyone (including me because there's no way to completely avoid it nowadays) buys Chinese goods you are supporting a government that is aggressively un-democratic, that actively supports Russia, and also has basically zero labor laws and an absolutely enormous wealth gap between the ruling class and the working class.

And yeah I get a lot of Americans are hurting right now due to inflation but the solution isn't to send money overseas. The best thing you can do for your neighbor is buy union and buy American.

All cars should cost 500k minimum and roads should stop being built, also cap all auto-industry salaries and annual shareholder payouts to 500k with the rest overflowing to the workers. Within 20years seeing a car in America will be rare, within 50years, we'll have solved climate change.

Until they're testing and pass NHTSA standards, fuckin nope.

Maybe people will change their minds once they see the aftermath of high speed crashes in these things. Or crashes with a MUCH heavier vehicle. With the weight of EVs these days you NEED a car that's designed around safety.