akirby

Yes but..... CAFE was most certainly not a regulation that favored the automakers. It forced them to spend billions improving fuel economy and to do stupid things like give away small cars because consumers wanted larger utilities and trucks. And higher fuel taxes like Europe force buyers into smaller vehicles which is the exact opposite of a free market. It's just market manipulation in the other direction. The chicken tax may be stupid but it didn't stop Toyota or Nissan from competing by building trucks here. Only the Tacoma was really successful and that was due in part to gm and ford exiting the segment. The US market is plenty big enough for companies to build vehicles here. The Japanese and Koreans have done it very successfully.

So we should drop all tariffs on imports but allow other countries to tariff our exports? How is that fair and how does that benefit US producers? Those big bad corporations you hate create millions of well paying jobs with great benefits. There is no such thing as corporate socialism because those corporations are not owned by the government. They may or may not be subsidized by govt either directly or indirectly but they are independent businesses and literally anyone can enter that market just like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid and competition within the market is free. What you want is to allow import of cheap vehicles and to force people to buy cheap, smaller vehicles through higher gas prices and taxes. And you don't care if millions of people lose their jobs and can't afford to buy anything.

You need to look up the definition of socialism.

Automotive is still 100% capitalism. Manufacturers are still privately owned and still decide what to make and sell - within regulations. Anyone can start a new company like Rivian and Lucid and compete with the existing players. My neighbor thinks billionaires are hoarding money and causing others to be poor which is ridiculous. My home and my retirement investments have doubled in value the last 7 years. That didn't take money out of anyone else's pocket.

Except It doesn't mean what you believe which is that nobody wants EVs. It means nobody wanted 100% EVs. There is a large percentage of the population who do want and are buying EVs and that will continue to grow as EVs get better and cheaper. They're not going away.

My neighbor is a very liberal hippie type who sells pottery. We just don't talk politics. At our local artisan craft show I was walking over to chat with her during a slow period and I heard her tell another lady that she just doesn't think capitalism is sustainable. I just did a 180 and went back to my table biting my tongue. It was ironic since she's retired with a corporate pension and sells her pottery on the open market.

Probably the cylinder head temp sensor. Sorry I dont have a diagram.

If buyers wanted 100% EVs they wouldn't have needed laws to mandate them. Typical government thinking they can force something that isn't technically or economically viable to realize a political agenda.

Doesn't change the long standing labor issues at that plant. I'm not blaming the workers per se I'm blaming the union for protecting them and allowing it to continue. Management also shares some blame.

Chicago strikes again. Thanks UAW.

They don't separate US auto financials so its hard to say how much US contributes vs Korea and other countries.

Notice how profit doesn't scale with sales? 23/24 same profit. It is trendingup from 2020/2021 but this tells me they're buying market share.

There you go. Renault wants Ford commercial vehicles so Renault wanted something in return. Balance of trade.

I actually like it. Bold design.

But their own criteria is that a nominee must be new or significantly updated that year. Its not just the best truck.

High volume mainstream vehicles don't sell on passion they sell on price and value. You can't sell 300k Mavericks unless you sell them below cost. The solution is to have good passionate products that are profitable at 100k to 150k and combine those in factories where you can adjust the mix to match demand.

Ok I fixed it by turning off auto-correct. If you choose the word without the quote twice it wont try to add it any more but then you have to do ot for every single word. Ridiculous. Should be part of smart punctuation

Clearly there is a ton of cheap Chinese junk for sale, but there are also good products that just happen to be built in China.

I almost never have to charge my phone in the car. Then again I don't use CarPlay or use it for navigation.

There might also be some other reciprocal agreement we don't know about.

ORRRRR.......... the investment required to do it from scratch for a product with low ATPs and low margins that can't be sold in the US was too much and the ROI too low. They blew it by not developing a cheap small car platform 20 years ago.

New facia, new infotainment screen, new Powertrain combos, new packages. Mid cycle refreshes usually qualify. Then again it's Motortrend so everything is made up anyway.

I have no idea. New iPad. I've turned off every keyboard setting I could find. Only seems to do it when I quote someone. I was deleting it but got tired of that.

'Before they forced us back to the office my buddy sold his house to his son who had moved from NYC during Covid and bought an RV and spent over a year driving around the country and working remotely.

'Of course, but what isn't clear is the US profit margin. They don't report it separately but my gut says it's around 4% or less. By contrast Ford Pro was 11%-13%. Ford blue is typically around 6%.