- cross-posted to:
- usa@midwest.social
- cross-posted to:
- usa@midwest.social
I hate this underhanded bullshit, build better cars. Competition is healthy in the market and seeing manufacturers push to ban the Chinese market just because they can’t compete is bullshit.
Do. It. Do a flip. I want to see China buy a bunch of stock in publically traded American Automakers. Just so those automakers get forced out of the market too. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Tesla literally private labels its batteries from China and is directly pattered with the PRC via this arrangement with CATL. Such bullshit
The US has lost the ability to act in its own interest. Run, flee! I promise it will all get worse soon.
This post I saw yesterday on Bluesky is gonna age like fine wine, it seems. It will be 2040 and most of the cars on US roads will still be from 2000’s and 2010’s because dipshit politicians paid by Ford and GM will ban everything else.

There are different kinds of “old cars”, the kind of old cars made before 70s that are really inefficient with gasoline, but might last another hundred years if maintained, and the kind of old cars made up to 90s that are harder to keep from falling apart, and then the kind made later, which is - not really for future generations.
The more optimized their production is and the less luxurious they are as a thing, the closer they are to something that’ll only last their guaranteed time. Preferably for the producer - falling apart into rust a couple of days after that.
In Cuba the old cars are meticulously maintained, though. In the US it will be all rusty old death traps.
[Seriously though, the bad economy is already turning the roads into this. The number of frighteningly unmaintained and crashed-but-not-repaired cars is noticeably increasing lately.]
Do you not have mandatory checks for cars in the US? Here you have to go to a certified mechanic’s shop within 4 years after the car is first registered and every 2 years after that. They check brakes, steering, emissions and lights and if you fail any of those checks you are not allowed to drive that car until you get it fixed.
My state recently did away with annual inspections. It used to be required before you could renew your annual license plate registration. They’d do exactly what you said: check brakes, lights, emissions, steering, dashboard lights, etc and you had to pass all of them. Now none of that is required, because “small government” or some other BS.
So yeah, now we have a ton of screaming metal death traps on the road, because of course we do. Normally those cars would get failed at inspection if they were missing all of their brake lights. Now it will only be discovered when they get rear-ended. And wrecked cars that wouldn’t otherwise be legal are suddenly driving all over the place, because they can still technically get from A to B… They just don’t do it safely.
Depends heavily on the state, but even inspections in the strictest states do not compare to the ones in Europe. Some states have no inspections whatsoever.
Depends on the state, and how eagerly and effectively they enforce it.
When I was a kid my state had yearly inspections, but that was stopped like 25 years ago. Occasionally you still see one of the green stickers on the windshield of an old car.
All I can attest to is in Virginia, yes, in Michigan, no.
In the US it will be all rusty old death traps.
This description already applies to new Cybertrucks.
Rusty new deathtraps
While the article focuses on Mercedes-Benz, as a Volvo owner, I was immediately concerned about what will happen when my lease is up.
Buried at the bottom of the article are these three paragraphs:
Volvo, which is majority-owned by Shufu’s Geely, said on Tuesday that it received specific authorization from the U.S. government to bypass federal bans restricting connected vehicle software and hardware linked to China.
Volvo confirmed its special authorization but did not immediately respond to questions about the other bills and their potential impact on the company.
Volvo Cars sold 121,600 vehicles in the U.S. last year. Mercedes-Benz sold 303,200 passenger cars and 12,400 vans in the country during the same period.
I assume it’ll go the same way as the Chinese router ban, and there will be loopholes for the Special Favorites, probably totally unrelated to any monetary contributions to Trump’s circle.
Don’t worry, they’ll just give the Mustard Mussolini the first Mercedes-Benz Peace Prize and get an exception.
mustard mussolini 😂







