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Editors' Note: If you have a comment, please include your name or initials (AND YOUR HOMETOWN TOO, PLEASE). We do not print email addresses. If you want to read previous issues, click on "Next Entry" on the bottom of each section (we do not save emails from previous issues, however). Thank you. -WG  

Rude awakening.

Last year I leased for the first time, a Buick Envista, when nobody seemed to know what it was, (It does seem like the word is out now and it’s a good deal, but Korean point of origin is about to scuttle that.) My problem is the wet timing belt design sounds like a point of failure waiting to happen and super high compression on an engine fit for a motorcycle, well I just have concerns that it’ll be an albatross at 50k miles. So, I’ll lease and let it be the next guy’s problem. (A strategy that Audi has used for years anyway.)

The concern is that not only are cars more expensive, they’re more disposable than ever. I cringed when my 90’s era Stratus was “totaled” not because the damage was extensive but because it didn’t hold the resale value of a Honda/Toyota so they gave me a check and sent me shopping instead of fixing the car for a few thousand. And that’s the attitude the industry (aside from the guys at the manufacturing and design level) have had for years now. Sell, finance, market, dispose, repeat. At a time when we need more used cars, unaffordable new cars and used cars are more disposable than ever. I even went to a classic car “consignment venue” because I thought maybe an 80’s Monte Carlo or 70’s Porsche might be a better value than a 120k mile 2012. But I saw far too many hot rods and customized 60’s cars that I wouldn’t dare try to make into a daily driver.

My hope is that lost in the details of the media hyperbole, American made captive imports (Ohio Accords, Indiana Subarus, Chattanooga VWs etc) will be exempt and affordable. There are a lot of flag waving F-150 drivers that are gonna be in for a rude awakening when they find out final assembly was in Windsor or Mexico.

Infosaur
Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania



Affordability.

I couldn't agree more with your assessment. I've been preaching this for years everywhere I can find anyone that will listen and have been getting poo-pooed online by everyone who reads my comments. It's as though everyone in the U.S. is independently wealthy and can afford to buy anything they want, any time they want, and who cares about anyone else. And the automakers are apparently listening.

I don't see any of this leading anywhere good. But, since everyone seems to know better than I do, I'll just shut up and wait and see what happens. Either I'm right, the whole thing will implode and nobody will admit they were wrong, or I'm wrong and I'll be the first person to admit it. I believe it'll be the former, and not even God knows at this point what the repercussions will be, how widespread they'll be, or how long they'll last. We're still recovering to a point from the shitstorm caused by the entire COVID debacle five years ago. And that will likely pale in comparison to what's looming ahead.

I hope I'm wrong.

Eric Marr
Appleton, Wisconsin



Again.

Trump has mastered the process of gaining trust then stabbing you in the back on your way out. This week Shawn Fain gave Trump some props for his tariff plan. And asked for him to hold corporations responsible for the tax and not the consumer. Well, that idea never crossed Trump’s mind, effectively giving Fain and the UAW a giant slap to the face. It’s baffling that people still fall for this guy’s three card monty but here we are. Free markets work because they are free. Isolationism and tariffs don’t. Yes corporate greed is a MAJOR problem but slapping tariffs on products is not the answer. Layoffs and price increases never have spurred economic growth. And neither has anything that has come from Trump’s brain. But again, here we are. Again.

JRR
Plymouth, Michigan



My (anything but affordable) Little Pony.

I realize this place is rightfully focused on the automobile and fueled by emotions and passions that are presumed affordable for many of us

“Show Pony” vehicles are nothing new, they were just never offered for sale at the time of their showing at any price. Affectionately called ‘dream cars” they were avatars, artful and clever one2-off exercises used to effectively seed the minds of the public with lustful desire for their future and affordably priced mass produced progeny.

Today’s “Show Pony” vehicles are different and, ironically, fail miserably at their original intent. Far from being lustful inspirations for future purchase decisions, their size, cost, impracticality and overall onerous burden of ownership and use can repel a rational mass market prospective purchaser. As of now they have no progeny that appeals to the mass market. (Hello, Celestique, Hummer, Escalade IQ).

Affordability never entered the mind of a youthful gazer at a Harley Earl creation as it rotated under the spotlights on the stage at the Motorama. He knew instinctively that the miracle of future American and GM prosperity would put a version of the dream he saw on his driveway or in his garage. He was confident he could afford that future. Today’s “Show Pony” BEVs do not inspire that confidence. Not much does.

Dr. John
Phoenix, Arizona



We'll see.

While I most definitely think the tariffs are a dreadful mistake, the iSeeCars information in "On The Table" that adds 25% to the selling price of the vehicle is not accurately portraying what happens with the tariffs. They're not applied to the selling price. They're applied to the declared value (transfer price from the foreign-based manufacturer to the U.S. importer), before adding in margins for the importer and dealer, and before adding in locally added equipment, destination charge, etc. So hopefully the impact won't be quite this bad. Even more hopefully, this terrible idea will be dropped soon.

MS
Los Angeles, California

Editor-in-Chief's Note: We agree to disagree. The impact of the tariffs could actually be much worse than that table indicates. Once the tariffs filter throughout the system, affecting suppliers and especially retail dealer transactions, their impact will be significant, resulting in layoffs, closed plants and dramatically reduced sales. This administration is hell-bent on taking this country into a recession, and it is unnecessary and outrageous. -PMD



We'll see, Part II.

In the interest of accuracy, I have to point out that import tariffs are calculated upon the declared COST of the item, not its final, retail price. So, your chart of price increase per model is a bit inflated. I'm not minimizing the effect on price increases, as even if the vehicles is manufactured in the US, many parts, including engines and transmissions, can be / are imported and will be tariffed.

DG
Berwick, Maine

Editor-in-Chief's Note: See my previous comments. -PMD



Nissan.

Nissan announces plans to stay and bring buttloads of new product...

And anyone fell for that?

Seems to me they're just trying to inflate the prices of their fixed, physical assets in the USA, by making potential suitors think they need to bid more $ to obtain them, given that Donny is making auto makers seek new and different methods of production inside the borders of the USA.

Curt J.
Sunny, New Jersey

Editor's Note: We commented on Nissan in this week's "On The Table" -WG



Delusional.

Peter is right that the UAW will not see any new jobs from Trump's tariffs. Even if more auto manufacturing moves to the US (over the next 10-20 years), companies will not renovate or build factories that employ thousands of workers as Trump likely imagines, from the 1950s. Not hundreds of workers. Maybe 10s of workers, to monitor the robots. This automated Xiaomi factory is the future of manufacturing, and not just in automobile production.

Trump is delusional, and so is Shawn Fain.

George Lundskow
East Grand Rapids, Michigan

Trump’s Tariffs.