cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15089465
Americans Are Open To Cheap Chinese Cars. That’s ‘Scary’ For The Rest Of The Auto Industry
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15089465
Americans Are Open To Cheap Chinese Cars. That’s ‘Scary’ For The Rest Of The Auto Industry
Absolutely. So many sensible sized European cars aren’t sold in the US because bullshit market research says small car bad big truck good.
But the European market is also pushing bigger cars and SUV.
The smart is now a 4 meters SUV
The Volkswagen up (small 4 person car) is out of production and they’re selling nothing under 4 meters
The fiat panda (another small 4 person car) is in the process of being redesigned and the mockups look like a huge range rover SUV
Skoda, after retiring the citigo, has the Fabia that’s relatively small (almost 4 meters) and the rest are huge
Most automakers are giving up on the cheap and small compact car segment, leaving a big gap for Chinese automakers
Nope, it’s the government’s mileage standards. If you make a truck with a shorter wheelbase and track, it has to hit higher gas mileage standards. Easier to make a big truck that’s allowed worse mileage.
https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM
Also, I did a brief stint selling cars in the 90s. One of the salesmen explained it like this, "What’s the real difference in a big truck and a small truck? Same engineering effort, same production work, all that. Hell, same parts for most systems.
More steel on the big one, and steel is cheap. We can charge a premium for the larger truck."