dustindahusky-blog

[dustindahusky-blog]

Muscle and Aluminum

When the muscle car scene got pretty hot in the early 1960’s, most of the domestic competition had these large sized models that served the basis of their muscle car creations. The compact car had finally been accepted as respectful automotive transportation by Americans at large in the late 50’s recession and you saw cars like the Corvair, Falcon, and Valiant quickly taking hold on market share within their own divisions. Midsized cars would soon follow in 1962. But the biggest sellers have always been the larger sized models, and for a time being was the perfect template for the early muscle car.

 A quick and simple definition of a muscle car is a passenger-based automobile in which offered powerful V8 engines with manual (or auto) transmissions that was always paired to an axle that primarily drove the rear wheels. The purpose of a muscle car is to look and sound cool, go fast, and boast how much power and torque you can get on the pavement. Nearly all muscle cars from 1960’s America were a two-door sedan, two door hardtop coupes, or a two-door convertible in configuration. And the muscle car could be built to order as a fully loaded top trim model with all the creature comforts and options, or in complete stark contrast austere plain jane base trim models that only gave you just the basics. In these base models, you could even opt for a heater and radio delete if you so desire.

 But regardless of which trim level or even body style you choose for your muscle car, cars at this time were made extensively of metal with very few plastic or rubber materials. This made large American cars quite heavy for their time, and even with all that power and torque, it has to lug all that weight to get it up to speed. And with that speed, you also need plenty of distance ahead for braking, as most muscle cars still made do with all drum brakes though front power disc packages were available to buyers.

 The big three soon realized that making smaller cars faster and powerful were just as quick off the line as their full-sized counterparts, and more and more buyers were beginning to shift their thoughts from full size to compact and midsize offerings. Granted these newer light muscle machines weren’t as powerful as their bigger brothers, this would quickly change throughout the 60’s. The big three saw a need to find ways to lighten their full-sized muscle cars if it meant staying on the edge with their smaller models, and the easiest way to achieve a lighter production vehicle is to use aluminum body panels in place of the more standard steel panels.

 Yes, Pontiac offered customers to drill holes into the chassis channels to remove weight that way, but not many other manufactures (even in other GM divisions) went this route and this proved to actually weaken chassis frames from the constant twisting motions of torque from the powertrain and this option didn’t last long with Pontiac. Yeah, Dodge offered in their model’s lighter van application bucket seats in place of their standard seat, again not all manufacturers would offer this type of option to keep more weight off the bare frame and body shell themselves. Aluminum body panels were offered as an extra cost option to buyers for those who wished to really cut as much weight as they can for a muscle car. Initially this was for an aluminum front clip, just the fenders, hood, and front valence panel was entailed for such a package option in the early 60’s, and it wasn’t long before they offered the doors and the trunk lid along with them by the mid 60’s. However, not many muscle cars were ordered with this sort of weight reduction option, and since aluminum was sort of a wonder metal as an automotive application, it was pretty pricy too. Aluminum body panels were kept as an option until the rise of popularity for the intermediate and pony sized models took over the market share for muscle car offerings. Full sized muscle was fully on the defensive by 1966 and was effectively dead by 1969, by then the interesting aluminum body panel packages have long been pulled off of the option sheet and the smaller intermediate and pony muscle cars were much lighter than their full-sized counterparts. With poor sales of these body panel options and the next wave of muscle cars benefitted by being lighter in weight, there was no true need to keep aluminum around.

 And that marked the true end of a push to use aluminum as a performance enhancer for ordinary production automobiles. Though aluminum has found its way back into use as panels, but its more for fuel economy reasons more than anything else in our day and age when fuel consumption is very much a key deciding factor when purchasing any vehicle these days.

 And the lucky few who have ordered and/or kept these older full-sized muscle cars around with these ultra-rare body panels definitely have something special to mention at car shows, and some auto enthusiasts might not have known about this uncommon option that all the big three offered at one point or another. I’ve yet to see any muscle car with aluminum body panels, but maybe a small magnet might do the trick to find one such example in the wild.

 Always keep zooming!

[dustindahusky-blog]

More on the growing SUV trend.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/sedan-not-dead-reference-mark/ I couldn't find a better article about what's going on between the bitter sales battle of the passenger car and SUVs, and I think it hits the nail on the head squarely. Today I have heard news that GM is cancelling most of its passenger car line up too and some models will keep living on for the time being until further notice. Even Toyota and Lexus is thinking of chopping off a couple unsuccessful models that aren't doing so well. However unlike Ford and GM, Toyota has no plans to cancel the ever popular Corolla and Camry nameplates. Both enjoy successful yearly sales in the US and Canada, and Toyota announces that a new Corolla will grace it's lineup in 2020, long after many sedans and hatchbacks have met the end of the road from other manufacturers. Expect a ton of coupe based cars to be axed in the coming year (or months even), the slow death of the manual transmission might give way to its full death considering that many manuals found today happen to be in passenger cars and coupes, so the manual might have a sooner expiration date than what many enthusiasts might want to believe. Expect more supercar utility vehicles to replace hot hatches, but expect the value of traditional hot hatches of any age to go up in value. As the article denotes that the sedan and hatchback is dead. Not quite so, and I agree. Only the marketably poor sedans, coupes, and hatches will die off. The most successful of a passenger car nameplate and in terms of monthly sales, the more likely that they will always be around in the future. The cancellation of the Civic or Corolla would honestly bring more public outcry than the current axing of the Focus and Cruze. The cancellation of the Accord and Camry would be felt more than the Fusion and Malibu, even though that GM plans on keeping the Malibu nameplate in it's current generation. Though maybe to get back their investment before pulling the plug on that model. The Bolt, Sonic, and Spark will also continue their production for now, again for how long we won't really know. Life is all about the current trends of society, and trends have their period of rise of popularity to their fall of irrelevance. The station wagon, the minivan, the small truck, the hatchback (has come and gone multiple times over 30 years), the coupe and convertible have had their time and had been the hottest thing since sliced bread. And trends continue to come and go. The current trends is upmarket larger vehicles, vehicles that the average person will likely never truly full fill their purpose and are more like social pillars of society than anything else. No one would want to be seen in a car costing less than $20k, people want to be coddled in every luxury possible. Even plumber Joe who works a shit job (hehehe) and drives a crusty Chevy Astro van has a Lexus SUV waiting for him at home. The trend today is to feel like your the upper crust in society, and this means to splurge on big ticket purchases. With a recession around the corner and the price of gas could always jump a dollar any day now, the justifiable reasons to buy an SUV or truck doesn't sound all that good when your spending your money on fuel. A car sips gas and you don't even worry about raising gas prices. Back in 2012/13, when gas was $4.35 at it's highest in Wisconsin, my Cavalier with it's larger than average fuel capacity of 15 gallons never made me feel the pinch of the cost of gas. Yeah I'm paying a little more than usual, but it still didn't hurt me as much as the more expensive wheels that my friends were driving at that time. Many of them ditched their trucks for cars within months, they couldn't find reason to spend so much money on fuel. If there is any generation that will keep the passenger car market alive for many years to come, that would be the millennials. We like our imported compact cars, because we know it'll start up in the morning and know that the cost for them are completely justifiable within reason. The idea of the passenger car I knew wasn't fully dead, and I'm quite glad that others see it in that light too. Only time will tell what new trend will happen next. Always keep zooming!

[dustindahusky-blog]

Extinction of the Ford passenger car

In April of 2018, Ford announces that it will be canceling its whole passenger car line up by the year 2020, minus the Mustang and a Focus Active hatchback that was scheduled to be produced in China. As of September of 2018, Ford announced that it will not produce the Focus Active due to the trade tariffs towards Chinese steel and products. Now this leaves the Mustang as the stand alone passenger car left by the Ford downsizing, from there on out they would only produce utility vehicles and trucks. This means that in a couple years the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, and Taurus will be dead and will not be given a replacement to continue on.  And that’s where everyone, including myself, believes that Ford has shot itself in the foot. I’m about to show you my take on this of why this decision is pretty terrible.

 Ford believes that passenger cars aren’t worth their time anymore, and that CUVs offer comparable fuel economy and better packaging of cargo volume than passenger car based platforms. They point out that cars are getting harder to sell, slower to sell, and are winding down in sales overall. This is their justification to ending their passenger car line up. Come to think of it, this wasn’t the first time Ford had ended production of all its cars in the past. However, the reason was Ford’s gearing up for war in 1942 in a shortened model year to produce war material for the combined Allied efforts in Second World War. They would pick back production with warmed over 1942 designs in 1946 and Ford had kept their cars since.

 Now I will show how the Ford car has been beneficial to the company’s growth in production numbers, genres, and importance. And how its absence will hurt Ford more than it denies it in the years to come.

 How far will I go back? Well, I might as well start in 1949, as it was a year in which automobile design in the states had changed so rapidly and dramatically that we haven’t seen before or since. And Ford had introduced its new post war design, in this amazing year of 1949. It sold really well, 1,118,308 units on just one body platform over couple levels of trim and body configurations. And Ford sedans normally sold around a million units each year throughout the 1950’s, and for many more decades with newer separate models.

 Ford in 1954 debuted the Crestline Skyliner with a novel cool feature that only found its way on the blue oval, the front half of the steel roof was replaced with a green tinted Plexiglas panel that let in the light on sunny days and the moonlight when it got dark. Though passenger in said models tend to get sweaty on hot summer days. X3 In 1955, the Thunderbird was introduced as an answer to the Chevrolet Corvette, and sold much better by its looks and its lift off hardtop. Later the Thunderbird adopted a back seat, and sold thousands more because of it. Models of the 50’s included the DeLuxe, Custom, Custom 300, Mainline, Customline, Crestline, Thunderbird, Fairlane, Fairlane 500, and at the top of the list the Galaxie. These models sold in the hundreds of thousands throughout their model lifespan, and if you were one of the big three, you slept well at night knowing that you couldn’t produce enough cars for the number of orders being put in for them. Which meant that business to produce and sell will always be there.

 Then came the swinging 1960’s, which began during the first economic recession to hit the country since the end of WWII, and people were tightening belts and literally pinching pennies. This was when the domestic big three decided to cash into the lucrative compact car segment that has been growing in popularity with imports from Europe and Japan. For the 1960 model year GM introduced the radical Corvair, Chrysler it’s odd ball Valiant, and Ford its very conventional Falcon. Because of its traditional styling, simplicity in mechanics and construction, and its affordability the Ford Falcon took gold in the compact segment producing and selling more than 436k units in its first year alone. What was surprising about the Falcon, for its debut it only relied on advertising provided by the Peanuts comic characters at car shows and only at car shows. Which is ridiculous, but worked out for Ford in the end. The Falcon would continue to sell well into the 60’s until its final half year finale in 1970, then replaced by the Maverick. Fords big cars sold very well, along with the Thunderbird series, and when the Mustang was launched in 1964 more than 600k made it to buyers by the end of 1965. The Mustang would continue to be a good seller throughout the 60’s. In 1962 Ford stretches the Falcon into an intermediate size between the compact and bigger car, what we know today as the midsize car. This took on the Fairlane name. Again, sold well. Nothing too startling there.

 The 1970’s saw the strangulation of muscle power and two fuel crises, and once again Ford was there to provide quality and dependable transportation, even if horsepower was a thing of the past. Starting out small, the Pinto was introduced in 1971 to compete with Chevy’s Vega, and sold a little more than a million until 1980. Yeah the tanks could get punctured when punted in the rear, but heck these issues of fires after a rear end collision didn’t happen all that often, and honestly was kinda over exaggerated in retrospect. The Pinto did its job by providing cheap transportation that got you from point A to B, and honestly lasted a little longer than the Vega. The Pinto nor Vega was never offered a sedan, as buyers trends in the 1960’s showed that Americans would rather buy compact cars in a sporty 2 door configuration, which also happened to make them best sellers for their lower asking price. A step up from there was the Maverick, which as before replaced the Falcon. The Marerick offered both a coupe and sedan, but the sales in coupes had largely drowned out the option for more doors. A four door Maverick does exist, I will assure you. But I wouldn’t hold your breath to see one at any car shows, they were rare brand new, they are myths in today’s reality. Much like a four door Nova. The Maverick offered more engine choices and more creature comforts than the Pinto, and one could say was a decently adequate car. Nothing to write home about, nor nothing to quite keep in long term memory. Or short term. The Mustang downsized in 1974 at the perfect time what was then the country’s first fuel crisis, and sales of the dumpy Mustang II still soared, or stampeded into people’s driveways. Let’s be honest, the King Cobra package looked pretty cool, I’ll give it that. And by the end of the decade the Mustang would turn into what we know as the Fox platform, or Fox body. For which it will see three decades in its production cycle, whether if that’s a good or a bad thing. Just when hair was getting long in the 70’s and it would be all cut by the early 90’s. Wait, that sounded pretty bad, and you read that. Nice. I would think Ford’s greatest accomplishment in the 1970’s would have to have been its Granada, a car that replaced the Maverick as a compact car (of which is funny because the Granada had midsize dimensions and didn’t act at all like a compact car, having been in a Granada before I can at least say that). This nameplate sold by the thousands for seven years strong, and mimicked styling trends that were in vogue at the time like big square chrome grills and made the interiors plush and comfortable like the Cadillacs or cheaper Mercedes Benz of the same period. If you owned a Granada back in the day, you were doing pretty good, and people didn’t look down at you so as long as you weren’t caught in an Omni or a Chevette. Ford would also transplant the Euro Fiesta for a short stint, so uh, yeah. You got plenty of good Ford products for all uses for good pricing, and could get a little more out of their value too. Even the Fiesta for the short time it was here wasn’t that bad of a seller, though they would be chucked for any car in the coming decade because things were getting pretty good.

 The 1980’s was a good decade for Ford, I mean maybe one of their best decades as far as offering great looks across its entire line up at the time and really made owning a Ford a very exciting thing. For once Ford wasn’t trailing GM at all in the sales race, they became top dog in nearly every segment as far as driver’s choice in style and comfort. Value couldn’t be beat either. Let’s start off small again, the Escort. To replace the Pinto in terms of a compact car, in 1981 the Escort came out as a 3dr, 5dr, and 4dr station wagon which also including the strange EXP model that was a 2dr coupe. This came a time when  not only Europe or Japan were in the hatchback craze, but America was getting its feet wet in hatchbacks as well and it was the most trendiest thing to buy on four wheels. Regardless of what badge graced the hood or trunk lid, and at Ford hatches were certainly taking off. The Escorts sold very well in their first generation until 1990, and a restyle in 1991 would also help keep sales high well into that decade. The FWD Tempo was introduced in 1984 to replace the RWD Fairmont (1977-1983) and was one of Ford’s new models with wind cheating designs and less boxy appearance sporting more rounded edges. The Mustang would also see its own rounding up as the decade bore on. No other Ford car would have a more radical reaction to the automotive market at the time than the first generation Taurus of 1986, which was a genuine show stopper. Smooth curvy lines that were simple and an interior that was better appointed than any American car before it, plus the first American passenger car to sport flush mounted halogen headlamps that set it apart from anything else being made or sold at the time. At a time when the US market tried to standardize on sealed headlamp beam units since 1940, cars couldn’t get away from a boxy looking front end because of this standard of conformity, and the Taurus being the first to deviate from the norm. Sales orders stacked high in dealerships and show room floors, enough to save Ford from declaring bankruptcy in the mid 80’s, and became America’s bestselling car until the Honda Accord took that title away in the early 90’s. The Taurus was credited in saving Ford from an uncertain future, and in a book from a GM designer told that GM had to never worry about Ford once since the 1930’s until the introduction of the Taurus. If one model could make an automotive giant like GM tremble for a while, you know you got yourself something amazing that no one else could beat.

 The 90’s was probably Ford’s last good decade in which it relied on more of its passenger car line up to do the heavy work of bringing profits, by 1996 Ford’s truck production had finally eclipsed car production much like at GM. But this certainly didn’t mean an end to cars in general. The Escort was still a model that sold well, maybe not as well as the Cavalier as its been chasing since 1982, but still did well in its own right. The Taurus was its breadwinner model, and even got a more “bubble butt” restyling that still looked great in 1996. The Tempo gave way in 1995 to its curvier replacement the Contour, which was a European Ford Mondeo and because of its international size didn’t do all that well, still made a good showing of it. The 2000’s came along with a restyled Taurus that wouldn’t change much for the next 7 years and a new compact would finally replace the Escort. The Focus came to our shores from Europe as well and has been a popular buy for those wanting something small and stylish, and came in many body styles. Restyled in 2012, the Focus was finally able to spread its wings out more to exercise its newer European styling and struck a chord here in the states. At this point, things should be a little more fresh in our minds. The Fiesta was also brought to shore here and provided something even smaller, and the Fusion model still was a Mondeo in US garb. Aside from the Mustang and Taurus, everything that was considered a passenger car provided by Ford came from the way of Ford Germany, making these Ford models in the states genuinely global platforms that people wanted to buy. Hot hatched versions of the Fiesta and Focus in ST trim brought buckets of fun and smiles who wanted a little more out of what can be considered a basic subcompact and compact family car. And only recently, the Focus RS finally made it too in the states, and MSRPs on those are quite through the ceiling of what they should really be going for, as many blue-balled Yanks would pay any amount to get their hands on something that is truly unique in the Focus range.

 So now we are somewhat caught up to date with historical and present models of Ford cars that have made huge impacts and sales for the blue oval, and now let’s find out why Ford thinks that the passenger car is dead in their hearts minds. And frankly, it’s not that hard to see. Since the introduction of the current Taurus (2010), Fiesta (2011), Focus (2012), and Fusion (2013) models into the states, Ford has revamped its whole car line up within 4 fours, four new generations of models in such a quick succession has really made its presence known on the market but could have spelled doom for its attention to let them grow from their parent company. During and after this period, Ford had constant revisions and redesigns of their SUV and truck line ups, and may have put the kibosh on any serious development for other models as those segments began to outpace the sale of ordinary car segments. Suddenly its 2018, and looking back we are seeing the same model of all four cars that haven’t radically changed at all over the course of time. Yeah, restyles did occur for these models, but when you stick to old pairs of socks and you give them a wash here and there, they are still deep down old fabric that can only do the job well enough before holes start to show. Yeah, these models still look fresh, but if you keep a model long enough without a radical restyle and more as a refresh, it’s understandable that sales will take a little tumble because of that. Plus Ford has been slacking off as far as build quality on some models, particularly their Focus that they rely quite a bit on for major sales. Having been in close proximity of these Focus’, I’m not so impressed with their overall quality and fit and finish is truly lacking for an American built car. Body panels that are poorly fitted or gapped, poor paint quality, poor dashboard fitment with huge gaps visible, squeaks and rattles in certain examples that weren’t there in other Focus’, and the overall cheapness of fabrics and plastics that can be out of place for how popular this model is to the buying public. Ford claims that these models aren’t selling well as they used to, and that their CUV, SUV, and truck lines are taking off with better sales than their dedicated car line up. There is truth to that, but I’m afraid to tell you that this was Ford’s doing this whole time. If there was a fault in this story, is that Ford has spent way too much time perfecting their trucks and SUVs more frequently with better emphasis on quality than they have put into their cars, in which they suffer because of it. A lack of emphasis to keep better quality control, development, and product research beyond trucks and SUVs is what is really killing the Ford car. Ford bean counters can say what they like as far as the sales numbers are considered, but I’m afraid Ford has long since turned its back on its car roots and is whiling to kill it off to focus on what many people can call a sales trend. A trend that is only growing because of plentiful and cheap fuel, and in turn many people feel the urge to need a bigger vehicle than their needs truly tend to be and go upmarket in the size segment.

 Fuel isn’t going to be around long enough to be as cheap and plentiful as it is now, and honestly Ford shot itself in the foot royally once the truck/SUV bubble collapses on itself. What Ford has done is opening up a HUGE void in which other brands like Chevy, Toyota, Honda, Kia/Hyundai, Nissan, and VW to capitalize on by putting more emphasis on their car production to fill in that void. In honesty, the car segment isn’t shrinking by much, it is in fact an incredibly important segment in the auto market, and has been told could be growing once again in the coming years. And this is thanks to Ford, who believes the car is dead. I think they are sorely mistaken, because getting back into the segment where they used to stand is going to be tough to get back in, and the other manufacturers will fight tooth and nail to keep it out of reach for Ford’s re-entry in the near future. The passenger car market isn’t going anywhere.

 Now the clock is ticking for the Mustang, because the Mustang doesn’t make enough sales to touch what its passenger car siblings have been able to accomplish on their own. The heyday sales of the Mustang are long gone, and now that the manual Stang is now dead, how long will Ford keep this old horse around? We’ll just have to keep tuning in to find out in time. Ford owners, if you own a car from them, maybe give your car a hug. As they will likely for the time being, be the very last of their kind.

[dustindahusky-blog]

Would Americans buy a Chinese car?

From my view, yes. Here’s why a Chinese car might stick around long enough to catch on with American buyers.

 Cars are pillars of status, privilege, and pride in the USA. The car has truly made its home in our country and to many we often see them as members of the family or a faithful friend. Some like to show off with luxury or sport models or brands to denote their position in their company, neighborhood, or for the thrill of driving something fun or special. Most of us own what I would refer to as a daily driver, a car that gets you to A and B without fuss with creature comforts that make the everyday drive possible and while adding buckets of practically for any adventure. Some own minivans or CUVs/SUVs for hauling stuff around easier or to move large families around with oodles of space. Trucks are great for even bigger hauling and towing things around like boats or trailers of beer or stolen copper wire. However there is a price to pay with all this, depending on brand or model, new or used. Buying a vehicle is quite the important purchase for many. And they aren’t cheap depending on entirely what you’re looking for.  And this is where the Chinese auto manufacturers might have a leg on nearly all brands currently selling in the US. This even includes the value leaders of Kia and Hyundai, who have been known to sell cars at more reasonable prices than their competitors and offer more for what you’re buying.

 Installing a brand into a new market isn’t easy, however we have seen a template in which new guests into the US auto arena have done very well to get anchored in and to weather to storm ahead. At first European brands immediately after WWII have established themselves and have secured a foothold in the US, so did the Japanese in the mid 1960’s and early 1970’s, the Koreans in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and even late newcomers back on American soil like Tesla in the 2010’s have found their way to be taken seriously on the big stage. That successful template is offer something special or affordable in value, or do both. The original Volkswagen Beetle offered affordability, simplicity, and economy that was hard to pass up in the car starved post war era of the late 40’s. So was the Toyota Corona and Corolla of the late 60’s. The Koreans offered the Hyundai Excel that also provided much the same qualities. At the time when they were new, they were “the” disposable car of their time. They did a job well and adequately without many frills, and they were good value for the money for their respected time periods. Even the little Yugo from Socialist Yugoslavia offered the cheapest car in the US that only did the job to get you around town that didn’t get you wet when it rained.  They offered both young people and adults who didn’t have a lot of money to spend or who wanted to buy a new car at second hand car prices, cheap affordable wheels they can take home with.

 Now it’s 2018, and the brands that introduced themselves humbly during their times are now well established with the American buying public. No longer do we look at brands like Toyota, Honda, or Nissan with skeptical views of cheapness or being unpatriotic of not buying domestic, even today the scrutiny of buying Kia and Hyundai products is nearly nonexistent in our day and age because they have continued to up their quality and value game. Much like the many imports before them, we see them no differently than how we see GM, FoCoMo, and Chrysler-Fiat products. Just another quality brand. However now, there is a catch that we now see today, the import brands that came into our country that once touted affordability have now slowly over the passage of time become a tad out of reach for younger buyers. Yes cars are expensive, but most cars you see on dealer lots tend to be more expensive mid and upper trim option levels for most models, and you have to do some digging around to find a new car that is cheap enough to fit within budget needs. And here’s why this affordability is important with the feasibility of seeing Chinese cars in the US market. The average age of a car in the US is 11 years old, which honestly doesn’t sound that bad, though that feels kinda low. I’d feel it’s more like 15 years old, there are still a ton of older cars still rolling about the hills and the back roads. But whatever it is, people are holding on to them for many reasons. Can’t afford a newer car, maybe with plenty of work done a car could be driven for a lot longer, or maybe life priorities don’t call for the purchase of a newer car.

 Now let’s take a look at the Chinese auto industry. The Chinese economy is very much a living example of the Yugoslavian hybrid model of “market socialism”, centralized planning with capitalist competitiveness coexisting well together that promotes more frequent updates or advancements with the goal to sell to the consumer without having industrial or economic waste. Other socialist states didn’t work like this, and how they had vehicle development, marketing, and production was a much more different animal than what is seen in China today. And because of this, China’s automotive industry is has blossomed into many companies producing many models of vehicles for its vast “captive” and export markets. Some companies have properly obtained licensing agreements and their technical packages to produce vehicles, while some others have reverse engineered vehicles to blatantly copy. Their quality ranges from comparable to Western cars we come to expect to just low quality junk that we haven’t seen in cars since the 80’s or 90’s.

 If China makes most of our consumer products, cameras, phones, selfie sticks, appliances, industrial equipment and car parts, why not whole cars. Well China did try to extend into our auto market by selling us the Coda electric sedan on the West coast for only a model year from 2012 to 2013, and selling a dismal 117 units. Quality wasn’t where it should have been for the cost of $40k, and initially scheduled to be launched back in 2010 was held back two years due to lack of developmental time for durability. For the first US market launch of a Chinese made car that designed in 2004 on an older Mitsubishi platform, and an electric car right off the bat, no bite and little positive impression.

 Now for real, let’s say China markets a car brand for the US that passes Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and fuel economy/emissions standards, they should start with basic affordable cars that people want to buy. It’s a no brainer that the US market for car sales is a huge market on its own, and even other European companies are envisioning a return back to grab a small slice of the market pie. For one, Americans might draw some skepticism to a Chinese car but the idea of buying a compact or even midsized sedan with loads of options for less than $15-20k is a tantalizing prospect and would buy them up like they did the Yugo. The Yugo did alright for staying in the market from 1985 to 1992, selling 142k units. If you can sell ten thousand cars like how Scion began in 2003, you’ll make a good enough foothold in the market, unless you’re Daihatsu. Sorry Daihatsu, maybe a subject for another day.

 What are you going to expect with your Chinese car when you get it. I would expect body panels that don’t align well as they should have, “orange peel” paint finish, interior plastics that look like they won’t last long, sheet metal that might go rusty in a couple years, seat fabric that might rip in not much time, fit and finish overall is generally an afterthought. Again, you’re paying to get pissed off like buying a $3990 Yugo sold new in 1986 (if you could ever find one that sold for that low back then), but remember that you’re buying a set of wheels that’ll get you by for the time being. Much like how people expected Hyundai Excels to be just garbage piles, still preformed the duty of a basic if not agricultural car.  But that would be a worst expectation of what a Chinese car could be. Who knows, maybe if the Chinese are that serious about the US market, they’ll build a separate assembly line like the Zastava factory who built the Yugo for the USDM. Here’s a scary thought, we all know how much of a mixed bag the Yugo was in the US, and to think the ones that made it here were built better on another assembly line meant for our market, I can’t imagine what the Yugoslavian market Yugos were like.

 Much like every cheap and affordable car that introduces itself to our market, expect it to have little to no resale value to speak of, however you’re not really expecting to sell this car if you were looking at buying one. In your situation, you’re buying your first car for the first time or needing a second car, something to get you rolling for the time being. Whether if you’re in college or in highschool, or down on your luck with an older car that kept falling apart. The idea that you could buy a Chinese car for peanuts is something that’ll get the job done, and not care much about what you’re driving. You’re not expecting mind bending performance or luxury, you know what you’re getting into if you do, and the more you accept this the better. I mean no Toyota Corolla was ever sporty in the 70’s, it was the car you bought after the Ford Falcon finally rusted away and you needed to buy something fast so you can still go to night class. And if there were Chinese cars in the market here to buy, I’d buy one to drive it into the ground to either save up for a better car or just to buy another if one wasn’t enough. In the world of millennials sometimes having no credit or shit credit could transpire into a hairy situation of sticking with a rusty 90’s Nissan Sentra affectionately named “Liam Nissan” that eats too much oil or asking your aunt to buy her equally rusty Plymouth Breeze with empty cigarette packs scattered around. You’d rather buy a Chevy Cruze however you’re afraid that one for $10k and 83K miles might end up needing routine maintenance that you couldn’t afford to pull off on the spot and any new Kia Rio found on a dealer lot is still thousands over the mythical minimum sticker price. Hell, if a Chinese car was too expensive brand new, wait a year and you could even get one for sub $6-8k prices, maybe even less.

 Honestly I’m really surprised that the Chinese haven’t entered our market yet, they have entered the European zone and been a huge mainstay in Russia (I guess Ladas aren’t cheap enough for them) for years now. They can range from cheap to really adequate modes of transportation, even something to own for more than you really require of it. The Chinese have been making Audi’s, BMW’s, and Buick’s with huge demands because they have been grand sellers in terms of luxury, and they tend to be of quality similar to their genuine originals. Whatever the Chinese do throw out us someday, we’ll gladly be in open arms for cheaper alternatives to newer, or really used cars. Plus, we Americans love to rip on unknown shitboxes, then in 15 years’ time we are buying them by the thousands. Who would guess in 1966 that Toyota would be producing quality luxury sporty cars under the Lexus brand. In 1995 when Kia would one day be producing a car like the Stinger that is chasing around other RWD sport sedans. In 1992 the Yugo going on to better things….oh wait we ran out of Yugoslavia by then. Mhmmmm we never really did get the Tata Nano here in the states (who remembered when that came out, $3000 car that had a fire problem), even though that there was an interest for a short while. In 1970 Americans wouldn’t expect Datsuns to be called “Datsun by Nissan” in 1984 and just Nissan by 1985. Import brands change and morph in the fluid of time, and many are still here. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Chinese brand turns out to be a good seller in 5-10 years time much like how the other imports started out.

 And apparently on a quick google search, it seems that the Chinese auto company GAC has an interest in joining the US market in late 2019. Under the local Chinese brand name….Trumpchi. They are serious, and honestly their vehicles don’t look that bad either. In fact they would fit right in with this country. They are figuring out a newer name to use in North America. No one is certain how reliable a new Chinese car will be in the states, but if it’s cheap don’t expect it to last forever.

 If you made it this far, hurray! If you like my rambling, you’d like what I’d have in store in the future. If you don’t, well, I’m still going to write it down anyways. :D

 Keep zooming!