Quote:
Originally Posted by Klayman
So, since some of us like some facts:
EU charges 10% on US autos verses our 2.5% on their autos.
Japan has a virtual lock on dealerships, parts and service supply chains making it very expensive for the US auto market to get established. (Or any other auto market)
And....EU is considering lowering that 10% duty now.....wow.
China has no incentive to keep improving quality of anything they make past bare minimum and has a poor trade record.
I know tariffs and trade involve much more but.....
Lets just level the playing field some!
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Idk if any of that's true or not, no sources. But I'll humor you, you mention one factor, tariffs. As someone who travels, the more obvious answer is American vehicles are ill suited for European or Japanese roads. From
Wikipedia:
The Interstate Highway standards for the U.S. Interstate Highway System use a 12-foot (3.7 m) standard lane width, while narrower lanes are used on lower classification roads. In Europe, laws and road widths vary by country; the minimum widths of lanes are generally between 2.5 to 3.25 metres (8.2 to 10.7 ft)
In Japan:
major roads have lane widths of 3m (10’) to 3.5m (11’ 6”), side streets are often just wide enough for one small car. Tōkyō’s expressways are largely built with 3.25m (10’ 8”) lanes.
That says nothing of infrastructure, where people use public transit more in those countries and the home sizes are less than 1/2 the average square footage (
2,600 US,
1,300 Japan,
458!! EU). Where are you going to park a your massive Ford or Chevy in Japan or Europe? So if you're single minded, you say "unfair marketplace". If you use the slightest logic you see why companies that sell nice, small vehicles do well in the EU and Japan.
They built products the can't sell globally except in...wait for it...China! Despite the propaganda US automakers are doing quite well there, we'll they were pre trade war at least (
Ford's 2nd largest market,
GM's largest. The CT6 will continue there, dead here, so in that metric even better for GM in China. But hey, who cares for well-researched truth when the official party line is so much more fulfilling for conformation bias...