(10-28-2026 12:05 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  Oh, so cheaper cars that could help millions is where we draw the line then?

Perhaps. What would be better is undoing all the government regulations placed on the auto industry. And yes, I’d love to have a somewhat older vehicle to replace my 2014 Frontier when it gets time to get another truck.

I just watched a video about BYD.

I drove a BYD in Costa Rico. It's fine.

What the American consumer is missing is something like this that fits a budget. How would a new $15,000 automobile benefit a family?

So many autos are priced too high, and they spy on the consumer.

(10-28-2026 09:10 AM)BartlettTigerFan Wrote:  Why would I ever want a Chinese car?

Why?

(10-28-2026 01:04 PM)GeminiCoog Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 12:05 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  Oh, so cheaper cars that could help millions is where we draw the line then?

Perhaps. What would be better is undoing all the government regulations placed on the auto industry. And yes, I’d love to have a somewhat older vehicle to replace my 2014 Frontier when it gets time to get another truck.

No one is forcing auto manufacturers to turn trucks into luxury vehicles though. I mean I get it, people are still buying them so why would they kill the golden goose and if someone made a barebones truck that sold for under 25k it would crater the truck market. My dad bought his 2010 F150 brand new for somewhere around 20k...

(10-28-2026 09:23 AM)VA49er Wrote:  The Chinese cars I've seen and ridden in in South America are junk.

Hertz execs got some to use when they weee thinking about them. I had a chance to get in one. It's as bad as you'd imagine.

Maybe if they priced them for people with a 500 credit score they might find a niche.

(10-28-2026 01:13 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 01:04 PM)GeminiCoog Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 12:05 PM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  Oh, so cheaper cars that could help millions is where we draw the line then?

Perhaps. What would be better is undoing all the government regulations placed on the auto industry. And yes, I’d love to have a somewhat older vehicle to replace my 2014 Frontier when it gets time to get another truck.

No one is forcing auto manufacturers to turn trucks into luxury vehicles though. I mean I get it, people are still buying them so why would they kill the golden goose and if someone made a barebones truck that sold for under 25k it would crater the truck market. My dad bought his 2010 F150 brand new for somewhere around 20k...

I get that, too, but some of us don’t want or need all the bells and whistles that come on the newer trucks. Some of the better trucks out there in the used car market are work trucks, even some of the newer models. Not exactly bare bones, but not exactly luxury trucks either. And yes, there’s a market for them, too, amongst the regular consumers of this country.

Chinese car makers will continue to do what the Japanese and Koreans have done- push American auto companies out of more and more categories. Small cars, medium cars, smaller SUV’s mostly all lost. The few American companies produce are imported or rebadged.

Auto makers spin this by saying large SUV’s and trucks are where all the profit is. Of course it’s where all THEIR profit is because they’ve ceded the rest of the categories.

The strategy to just make expensive vehicles is fine, but only for luxury brands. Not for pickups and kid carriers, and only then because you’ve loaded them up with so much junk they turned a $25K car based SUV into a $60K truck.

The US companies own and produce lots of factories in other countries that make many of the cheaper cars they don’t allow us to buy. Those companies are getting their lunch eaten by the Chinese and are going to force a lot of those subsidiaries out of business. It’s going to eventually leave US automaker as ONLY US automakers and no longer world wide companies.

https://www.rivieramayanews.mx/chinese-c...se-ground/

“With more than 70 brands competing, Mexico has solidified as one of the world’s most contested automotive markets, where Chinese cars are increasingly taking center stage and traditional brands are struggling to adapt.”

Mexico has been a big market for US vehicles. But we can’t keep the Chinese out of Mexico to protect our market share like we can here.

In just a few years of being on the continent, Chinese car makers are up to about 10% market share of the worlds most competitive car market- Europe.

https://www.autopunditz.com/post/chinese...026-mg-byd

Sounds like a loss for the globalists.

(10-28-2026 01:07 PM)chess Wrote:  



I just watched a video about BYD.

I drove a BYD in Costa Rico. It's fine.

What the American consumer is missing is something like this that fits a budget. How would a new $15,000 automobile benefit a family?

So many autos are priced too high, and they spy on the consumer.

Like I said---there is a massive current opening in the US market for a budget minded automaker catering to the American masses. It may not be a foreign maker. Instead---it may be an opening for an innovative opportunistic American company. Keep an eye out for the coming Slate truck made by Slate Auto. Yeah, its electric---but its functionality and price point could fit the needs for a wide variety of small commuter truck uses in both the light commercial and consumer markets. Who knows---something like this could be the "Model T" of a new era.

https://www.slate.auto/en

(10-28-2026 01:07 PM)chess Wrote:  



I just watched a video about BYD.

I drove a BYD in Costa Rico. It's fine.

What the American consumer is missing is something like this that fits a budget. How would a new $15,000 automobile benefit a family?

So many autos are priced too high, and they spy on the consumer.

And you don't think that the ChiComs would be spying on us??

(10-28-2026 01:08 PM)chess Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 09:10 AM)BartlettTigerFan Wrote:  Why would I ever want a Chinese car?

Why?

Did you think you had some point?

(10-30-2026 06:45 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 01:07 PM)chess Wrote:  



I just watched a video about BYD.

I drove a BYD in Costa Rico. It's fine.

What the American consumer is missing is something like this that fits a budget. How would a new $15,000 automobile benefit a family?

So many autos are priced too high, and they spy on the consumer.

Like I said---there is a massive current opening in the US market for a budget minded automaker catering to the American masses. It may not be a foreign maker. Instead---it may be an opening for an innovative opportunistic American company. Keep an eye out for the coming Slate truck made by Slate Auto. Yeah, its electric---but its functionality and price point could fit the needs for a wide variety of small commuter truck uses in both the light commercial and consumer markets. Who knows---something like this could be the "Model T" of a new era.

https://www.slate.auto/en

I'm looking at a new Chevy Trax mini-SUV. It gets 28 mpg in the city and 30-something on the interstate. 25k for a base model, fully loaded for about 30k I think
but even the base model has bells and whistles that used to only show up in luxury cars. No idea how good of a product it is, though.

The wife currently drives a 2008 Jeep Patriot that has a lifetime powertrain warranty. We took it to the shop last week for a leak; they said it would be 3 weeks before they could get to it, and oh, by the way, we need to buy you out of your warranty. Parts are hard to find, and they can only be Jeep factory parts under the warranty.

Imagine an 18-year-old vehicle with a little over 150k miles on it still functioning. They don't make vehicles like that anymore. When we started dating, she lived 1 mile from her salon, so that Jeep had barely over 25k miles on it. Then she moved in with me to a small town outside of Memphis about seven years ago, so she drives about 50 miles a day round trip.

I put 275k miles on my 2014 Ram before it started acting up, so I went and bought a new Ram Bighorn 4X4 and gave Big Red to my youngest grandson. I wish I still had it. I loved that truck. The new one is confusing and runs weird.

(10-30-2026 07:03 PM)TigerBlue4Ever Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 06:45 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 01:07 PM)chess Wrote:  



I just watched a video about BYD.

I drove a BYD in Costa Rico. It's fine.

What the American consumer is missing is something like this that fits a budget. How would a new $15,000 automobile benefit a family?

So many autos are priced too high, and they spy on the consumer.

Like I said---there is a massive current opening in the US market for a budget minded automaker catering to the American masses. It may not be a foreign maker. Instead---it may be an opening for an innovative opportunistic American company. Keep an eye out for the coming Slate truck made by Slate Auto. Yeah, its electric---but its functionality and price point could fit the needs for a wide variety of small commuter truck uses in both the light commercial and consumer markets. Who knows---something like this could be the "Model T" of a new era.

https://www.slate.auto/en

I'm looking at a new Chevy Trax mini-SUV. It gets 28 mpg in the city and 30-something on the interstate. 25k for a base model, fully loaded for about 30k I think
but even the base model has bells and whistles that used to only show up in luxury cars. No idea how good of a product it is, though.

The wife currently drives a 2008 Jeep Patriot that has a lifetime powertrain warranty. We took it to the shop last week for a leak; they said it would be 3 weeks before they could get to it, and oh, by the way, we need to buy you out of your warranty. Parts are hard to find, and they can only be Jeep factory parts under the warranty.

Imagine an 18-year-old vehicle with a little over 150k miles on it still functioning. They don't make vehicles like that anymore. When we started dating, she lived 1 mile from her salon, so that Jeep had barely over 25k miles on it. Then she moved in with me to a small town outside of Memphis about seven years ago, so she drives about 50 miles a day round trip.

I put 275k miles on my 2014 Ram before it started acting up, so I went and bought a new Ram Bighorn 4X4 and gave Big Red to my youngest grandson. I wish I still had it. I loved that truck. The new one is confusing and runs weird.

One of the few normal sized passenger vehicles GM offers. Thank goodness they are bringing them in from Mexico and South Korea, because it was not originally planned to be offered to US customers.

(10-30-2026 06:50 PM)BartlettTigerFan Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 01:08 PM)chess Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 09:10 AM)BartlettTigerFan Wrote:  Why would I ever want a Chinese car?

Why?

Did you think you had some point?

Buy a new remake of an old car? I'd do it if someone came up with a 67 Fire Red Firebird with a 400CI motor, a 400 Turbo Hydromatic transmission with a shift kit, and a 390 positrack rear end. Oh, and it has to have a tach and hood scoops on the hood. It was low slung, hugged the road, and drove like it was driving itself. I could wind it up to about 60 in low and spin the tires going into 2nd and chirp them going into drive. It didn't have a passing gear, so when I was hotrodding, I shifted manually. I used to beat Corvettes, Ford Cobra-Jets and Camaro SSs in that thing. I sure wish I had it back.

I've told my successful son that he owes me a 67 Firebird because the only reason I sold it was because his mom went and got herself pregnant with him at 18 years old and we needed a family car. So I bought a pickup truck.

I stopped buying new cars decades ago

(10-30-2026 07:03 PM)TigerBlue4Ever Wrote:  

(10-30-2026 06:45 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(10-28-2026 01:07 PM)chess Wrote:  



I just watched a video about BYD.

I drove a BYD in Costa Rico. It's fine.

What the American consumer is missing is something like this that fits a budget. How would a new $15,000 automobile benefit a family?

So many autos are priced too high, and they spy on the consumer.

Like I said---there is a massive current opening in the US market for a budget minded automaker catering to the American masses. It may not be a foreign maker. Instead---it may be an opening for an innovative opportunistic American company. Keep an eye out for the coming Slate truck made by Slate Auto. Yeah, its electric---but its functionality and price point could fit the needs for a wide variety of small commuter truck uses in both the light commercial and consumer markets. Who knows---something like this could be the "Model T" of a new era.

https://www.slate.auto/en

I'm looking at a new Chevy Trax mini-SUV. It gets 28 mpg in the city and 30-something on the interstate. 25k for a base model, fully loaded for about 30k I think
but even the base model has bells and whistles that used to only show up in luxury cars. No idea how good of a product it is, though.

The wife currently drives a 2008 Jeep Patriot that has a lifetime powertrain warranty. We took it to the shop last week for a leak; they said it would be 3 weeks before they could get to it, and oh, by the way, we need to buy you out of your warranty. Parts are hard to find, and they can only be Jeep factory parts under the warranty.

Imagine an 18-year-old vehicle with a little over 150k miles on it still functioning. They don't make vehicles like that anymore. When we started dating, she lived 1 mile from her salon, so that Jeep had barely over 25k miles on it. Then she moved in with me to a small town outside of Memphis about seven years ago, so she drives about 50 miles a day round trip.

I put 275k miles on my 2014 Ram before it started acting up, so I went and bought a new Ram Bighorn 4X4 and gave Big Red to my youngest grandson. I wish I still had it. I loved that truck. The new one is confusing and runs weird.

Look at the Honda HRV LX as well in that size. Bought a 2027 for one of the kids. Normally aspirated 2.0L, it has a CVT but Honda CVTs have been very reliable compared to other brands. It has all the Honda sensing safety tech but is otherwise basic.

Meanwhile, GM shelling out a quarter billion for lawsuits regarding them spying on drivers, selling people’s data to their insurers, and anyone else who wanted to know everywhere we go, how fast we drive, how hard we brake, which routes we take etc.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/auto-tech/...r-program/