Another example of Lyin' Liberals

Not really. The cars would still have to meet us crash and emissions standards. Now China has passed the US in EV engineering, so potentially that could be a future threat to all automakers.  However, if you believe in a free market, which we apparently don't, you would welcome the Chinese cars because free market competition would force other car makers to improve their product. I guess Republicans have gone all-in on socialism for big business.

I don't think it is a coincidence that Trump jumped on the ban Chinese cars bandwagon shortly after Elon started whining to the government to save him from competitive forces.

China sells their cars at a loss which is subsidized by their government.     They want to put Tesla and other EV makers out of business.  Thats a bigger priority than making money.   So there is nothing "free market" about it.      

They did the same thing with Solar Panels.  Remember Solyndra?

You also have to consider the new cars are all connected to the inernet and interact with corporate systems.  Do you want Beijing to be able to flip a switch and shut down every Chinese car in the country?    

Sure and Korea subsdized Hyundai and Kia for years.  European governments subsdized Airbus for years. The U.S. government subsdized and provided engineering expertise to the Japanese automakers after WW 2.  If we wouldn't have done that, the US auto industry would have never had to compete with the Japanese auto industry because it wouldn't exist as we know it today. The Mexican goverment provides subsidies to manufacturing companies to move to Mexico including U.S. companies that are moving their U.S. manufacturing there.  Smart countries do things like this.  Dumb countries like the U.S. don't.

The answer isnt to ban superior products and drive inflation up by forcing Americans to buy poor products at inflated prices.  Elon's problem is that he wants it both ways.  He wants that cheap Chinese labor but he does't want to compete with other companies using the same labor pool. His factory in China produces half the Tesla's sold worldwide.  And he is on the record saying China produces his highest quality cars. He also said he wished American workers worked as hard as Chinese workers. Elon needs to put his money where his mouth is and immediately close his Chinese factory. At the very least if there is a Chinese car ban, Teslas bulit in China should not be exempt.

As far as the Chinese turing off your car, they could already do that because most of the electronics in American cars are manufactured in China.  The could also turn off your computers, TVs and household appliances.  

I am tired of all of this yellow mence crap.  I am tired of crybaby capitalists complaning about not being able to compete with Socialist and Communist countries. If they would quit wasting their money on stock buy backs, and outragous executive compensation maybe they could afford to spend some money on R & D.

Is there anyone who thinks that the US auto industry is NOT heavily subsidized by our government?

What happens when one or more of them is in trouble? We bail them out. They can take foolish risks and make bad decisions, knowing that they'll be bailed out if things go south. Already happened several times.

Do US automakers deserve special protections? NO! It took them thirty years to build reliable small cars, while Toyota and Honda cleaned their clocks. Should we have had to pay 100 percent tariffs on Civics and Camrys because our domestic automakers were fuckups?

Likewise, I'll buy the most economical and reliable electric car, even if it IS made by "gooks" (Republican for "Chinese ").

That would be an act of war, which could also be accomplished by detonating a few neutron bombs in our upper atmosphere.

Let's not get all paranoid about what those heathen Chinee can do to us. If they want to sell cars to us cheaply, FINE. We all will save money. I frankly don't care if we do or don't manufacture cars in this country. We are primarily an information and technology provider, not a manufacturer.

If you think the history of the AMerican Auto industry post WW2 is a good one then you haven't visited any of the rust belt states that saw their economies ruined by Japanese companies that outsourced their parts manufacturing to slave labor in Bangledesh and other southeast Asian  countries.    

You cant be for workers making a liveable wage while also being for cars made at a loss by people making impoverished wages.    

And its not really a controversial postion.   Democrats have been pointing out the unfair trade practices of China and other countries for years....and to the extent Trump did anything positive he made the Republicans see the light on that too.    Its now one of the few issues both parties agree on....outside of this message board.

You just made the same argument every FOX News pundit has made since Bill CLinton took office.   Except even they dont make that argument now.    They figured out being on the side of AMerican workers is good politics.

You want to take a callous position towards US manufacturing workers who make good wages?  Fine.  Say goodbye to Ohio, Wisconisn, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in every future election. 

PJ, China quit subsidizing EVs in 2022. They utilized the same type of incentives we did. The Chinese government paid consumers who purchased an EV a rebate.  The Chinese government rebates were smaller than the US government's EV consumer rebates.

BYD, China's best-selling EV producer, has a small 4-door EV that sells for 10k to 12k depending on the options one selects. It has a 250-mile range.  It isn't a bare-bones offering either. Think about how life-changing a new 10k car would be for those in the lower end of the American middle class and even those who don't quite make the middle-class cut. It would provide them with reliable and affordable transportation.  Think about how much quicker we would be able to make the transition from gas to electric with EVs like this. Hell I'd buy one because it is such an outstanding value.  

GM and Ford blew it. They didn't build the EVs that the typical EV consumer wanted.  Ford built a 100k F-150 that is incapable of towing anything and a 50k 4-door and called it a Mustang.  GM built a 120k Hummer and a 60k Cadillac. They both went for the high-end EV vanity car buyer which is a very small market.  It is no mystery why they aren't selling. 

GM, Ford and Chrysler have no interest in building low-cost EVs. Chinese companies do so they aren't even direct competitors. GM, Ford and Chrysler don't even have any new low-cost EVs in the pipeline. Their whole strategy was to slowly convert their high-margin vehicles to EVs so they could maintain that 15k or more profit margin that they get on each SUV and full-size truck they sell.  That strategy has failed and now they have nothing.   If we keep depending on domestic manufacturers to build mass market EVs we won't ever make the transition from gas to electric. 

And I am sorry but Tesla builds shit cars.  They lied about the range and even monkeyed with the computer so the car would report a higher remaining range to the driver. The fit and finish of a typical Tesla is comparable to the fit and finish of a 1970s era kit car.  The body panels don't line up. Small fender benders that would result in a $1500 repair bill on most cars end up costing over 10k on a Tesla and then there is the perpetual shortage of parts which results in owners' cars being in the shop for months at a time because there aren't any parts to fix them. 

After watching some You Tube videos, I am sold. I want to buy one of these 12k Chinese EVs. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/Lmyw2qFw0gg?si=2sogf305Fp9lTBen

PJ, you're conflating American auto workers with American auto manufacturers. American auto workers continued to make great wages even while the folks they worked for were producing shit cars. And bully for them and their unions. That ain't the point here. The point is that the manufacturers are repeating the same errors that they made in the 80s and 90s. They tried to paint "buying 'Murrican'" as patriotic and buying Japanese (and later, Korean) cars as betraying the motherland, or something.

But let me ask you something--should I have been a true-blue 'Murrican patriot and bought and driven a Ford Pinto...or a Honda Civic? Which would have lasted longer AND cost less? For that matter, which would have lasted longer, TWO Ford Pintos or one Honda Civic?

Here, PJ, is a fundamental concept of trade. Those who make a given product/good the best at the lowest cost should be the ones producing it. Others should be producing what they make best. Then the various entities engage in trade.

And I'm sorry, but we haven't made the best cars in the world for about fifty years now. We are the world's leading producers of information technology, information itself, entertainment, food, and weapons. We should get rid of the heavy manufacturing burden, even if doing so temporarily inconveniences Rust Belt workers. We can offer them transitional assistance. That would be better than being dinosaurs.

Our current president doesnt agree with you.

BYD spent billions of dollars researching batteries and building factories to mass produce them.   

So did Tesla.   You know what the difference was?  Those endeavors by BYD were 100% subsidized by the Chinese government.     Tesla had to borrow money and pay it back.    Same with GM and Ford.      

So anyone who says our American subsidies are equivalent to China's is being fundamentally dishonest.

AND - BYD's workers in China make less than $12K/year.    Is that what we should pay our workers?  Is that a fair playing field in your opinion?   There's "trade" and there's "fair trade".      

Buying foreign goods at a discount comes at a price to our workers and economy.  Take a tour of Mansfield, Ohio or Flint, Mi and see how well our 1980's surrender of the auto industry to Japan worked for them.   I dont know what to say to people who desire a repeat of that.     

AND lets not forget Shi Jinping is a dictator.    That reason alone has been enough to make the UNited States move away from China as an importer.    You want to give him leverage over the UNited States transportation sector?    I sure as hell dont.