When all you want to do is sell vastly more expensive but quality poor versions of last century’s product, you should be afraid. American automakers have had the government prop up their manufacturing for decades leaving the rest of the world open to create this century’s products.
American free market advocates when the market is free:
Nothing is more of a hoax than the concept of the “American Free Market.”
WRONG!.gif
Freedom of speech.
Freedom of information.
The hoax that we have the best anything.
I could go on. Americans are massively deluded into thinking they’re special and our country is amazing because they’ve never set foot outside of it. Even our internet feed is radically tuned towards isolationism. We are slightly above the “communist” countries that so many people in the US decry for building great firewalls or cutting their people off from the outside world.
Anyone who’s ever traveled and opened up their youtube account in another country’s airport even would know just how limited our vision of the world really is, and how much our news and speech is controlled.
#GOOD
good
God I fucking hate stealerships. If car dealer cartels in the US as a concept die as a result of this era of idiocy we’re in, that’s a pretty great silver lining.
Want wasn’t it regean that made it a law you couldn’t buy directly from the manufacturer because he was buddies with people who owned major dealerships. And it just stuck since then.
He also imposed an import tax on motorcycles because Harley Davidson was deathly afraid that riders would rush out to purchase a Japanese bike that didn’t drip oil everywhere and reliably starts when you press the button.
Bet most of them voted for Trump too.
We have one of the most car dependent societies in the world and also the highest car prices. Burn it down and deregulate.
the highest car prices
Hmmmm
Deregulate? So corporations can enslave you completely? Huh?
Where did Americans get this idea that regulation is holding you back? Probably the same “think tanks” that convinced so many they were poor because of immigrants instead of… as usual… the wealthy pulling the wool over your eyes by the wealth addicts…
Such a weird, American-only practice, like with American health insurance. The whole country is a scam, jeez.
It really is
I’ll take any silver lining, but I’m not sure if whatever replaced it will be any better given how the Chinese have acted in markets they’ve achieved majority stake in.
Tbh being able to purchase cars direct from the manufacturer would be dope. New car dealers are literally nothing but middlemen.
Yeah, useless middlemen are kinda a thing in the US economy.
Tax filling software companies left the chat.
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Hate middlemen all you want, but that employment level is the driving economic force behind the middle class. Get rid of the middleman, without any serious wage reforms, and you’ll have a nation of 5% filthy rich, and 95% dirt poor.
I really don’t think it’s that hard.
Other countries have figured it out and nationalized these various industries. The fun part is that there’s still luxury, concierge medical care and insurance too alongside nationalized health care.
Fully agree. I just don’t trust China any much more than the US to respect privacy and consumer choice. Color me prejudiced if you want, but I’ve dealt with enough Chinese suppliers to have a decent idea of how they operate.
I mean I don’t either, but us unitedstatesians are now subjected to the tender mercies of Palantir, which is kind of fucking awful… so, potato, potato.
Fair. At least the stated mission of the Chinese isn’t to be evil for evil’s sake. Palantir just seems like an accelerationist’s tool and nothing more.
I don’t drive, so I don’t buy cars. But I’m curious, how would that work to buy directly from the manufacturer as opposed to a dealership? Like I assume they would still have to have the equivalent of a dealership, where inventory is locally stored, can be test driven, can perform servicing. I assume that’s pretty much the same as a dealership right?
Go to website, order car with exact color, accessory you want.
Vs
Company orders 55 blue, 55 red, 56 yellow, 55 black with 55 power seats, 55 power consol, 55 …
Tesla does this. They have showrooms to test drive cars and then you order it online or at the showroom and wait for delivery.
If you go to a us dealership, there’s pretty much always some sort of financing deal or somesuch. But there’s also very often a “dealer markup”. Never, ever pay that.
That said, for some cars, they refuse to budge on that. For instance, when the new Nissan Z came out a few years ago, the dealers tacked on like 10-15k pretty much across the board, and then Nissan corporate was surprised when it didn’t sell too well… because the dealerships got too fucking greedy.
If I needed to buy a new car, I’d vastly prefer to just spec it out online, click “order”, and then have a text come in when it arrives at my local Nissan or BMW or Hyundai maintenance facility (as appropriate for the car). I do not want to talk to a human and have to literally socially engineer them into giving me a fair fucking price. Jesus christ.
All dealers gouged all car buyers during Covid shortages. Jeep was particularly agregious and the world would be better without any Stellantis products.
Lmfao who wants to buy a
ChryslerStellantis product? They’re just… bad. They’re not even cheaper. They’re just worse, and break more.
At least for the last year, the only thing that has tempered Donald’s worst impulses is markets.
So in a way, these kinds of movements and deals are essential to international security.
“It’s bad for our industry, it’s bad for our country, it’s bad for consumers.”
I think they (accidentally, of course) left out the people that it’s worst for.
Once these guys are gone, where are the Better Business Bureaus gonna find smarmy guys in suits?
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Boo mods
I was confused too. This comment doesn’t look too bad but given it’s a 7 hour old account it made several multi-paragraph comments like this in a formulaic outrage-bait kinda way. This comment looks fine but the full comment history is pretty AI like
Full comment history: https://files.catbox.moe/uf48if.png
Yeah, they’re part of the problem.
We need new instances with better moderation.
Don’t forget their political aspirations!!
Car Dealers Recipients • OpenSecrets https://share.google/4nIu8I09iOKCgt4wH
Un-american here. Does Canada have the same direct sales ban as the US? Same dealer lobby in both countries?
Tesla does not use dealerships in Canada or US. Dealerships and insurance agents, brokers , real estate agents are are redundant leeches on society.
Do you write for a living? You should write for a living. 👌
Was gonna say the same thing, evocative
And now a mod removed the comment?! 😔
It’s an AI bot
Huh, well, it made good points anyhow, I guess the one thing it’s decent at is fooling me every now and then lol
This community has an AI bot as a mod?
I really hope American car manufacturers go bankrupt. American cars are the worst. The rest of the world has better cars.
American manufacturers (GM, Tesla, Ford) only make up a minority of sales here. The majority of car sales are manufacturers from “the rest of the world.”
You can’t even buy a Toyota truck with a decent bed length though.
I miss the original small Toyota trucks. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1980-toyota-pickup-3/
How many US car manufacturer CEOs endorsed Trump? I’m betting a lot.
Good, maybe they’ll realize nobody wants cars being as complete as AAA video game titles… Aka overpriced shit that’s half assed with loads of issues.
I’m literally worried about buying a new car. It was bad enough when I did in 2019 getting a car with actual buttons and still half the basic features I have to tap a screen for. It’s never, never felt comfortable like my old Mazda3 2012 or Honda Civic 2003 did. I just want fucking buttons and knobs man. I also hate all of the “safety features”. Which are just essentially “feel safer while using your phone and driving” features that all the idiots on the road use them as. Everyone can see your lane assist correcting you every 5 seconds Debra! You’re gonna kill someone.
I got a second hand Toyota Corolla last year, '22 reg. Everything has a physical button. It’s got a touchscreen but I rarely use it and doesn’t connect to the internet.
I must have made it just under the wire
My 2018 Honda Civic doesn’t have a touchscreen, all knobs and buttons, and the only safety features are things like airbags/traction control/ABS
What does the backup camera use for a screen?
My lexus uses a small screen built into the rearview mirror for the backup cam. Car was designed by people who can do math in their heads.
You can still have a screen without it being a touchscreen.
Obviously but I find it hard to believe a manufacturer would waste their time with that in 2018, but it does appear to be the case on LX and lower trims. They just get a 5" display.
It runs a tiny RTOS called eCos. Just does backup cam, AM/FM, Bluetooth, and USB sticks (as long as the media is WAV or MP3)
My only complaint is that it sorts media files on USB sticks by timestamp rather than alphabetically
Right?! Yeah don’t enforce safer driving practices or anything. Just make it easier to not pay attention.
I’ve always said phones should lock you out of almost every feature when motion/gps data shows movement. Then you have to put in a PIN to use your phone as a passenger. Like the Navi screen warnings of before “do not use while driving”. This way people can be held accountable for the dangerous shit they do.
What, you don’t want to update every week? Sure, some of them brick you, but… it’s worth it for the new icons right!!!
It’s called “continuous deployment”. It’s the latest term for not having the hassle of separating development and production.
Ah, the “American dream”. Competition. Sadly only if it is competition not just lobbying power.
I see we’re in the "find out’ stage of FAFO. Well all the other industries in the Us are imploding, we might as well do the auto industry too. You auto workers are welcome to pull up a stump in front of this nice flaming trashcan I am warming my hands to.
Good.
FAFO.
