QOTD: What to Do About China?

by Tim Healey

Published: September 23rd, 2024

It seems to be a bipartisan effort to keep Chinese automakers from coming in to the States and beating the brakes off of the American, European, and non-Chinese Asian automakers.

We have tariffs in place that might even prevent American automakers from building cars in China and selling them here. We have a prominent senator trying to prevent Chinese automakers from getting around tariffs by building cars in countries like Mexico and then selling them here.

The question to me is, how do the other automakers deal with Chinese cars? Personally, I think tariffs are a bad idea, economically speaking, and the best solution would be for the other automakers to simply built cars that are good enough -- and affordable enough -- to be competitive with Chinese-built autos.

That said, I am no expert in economics or geopolitics. I know a bit about cars and the automotive industry, of course, but perhaps not enough for a high-paying executive gig at an OEM.

I also know a lot of our audience is quite knowledgeable, so I am throwing this out to you in the B and B.

As usual with anything political, please nice or face the banhammer.

Thanks in advance, now sound off below.

[Image: Scharfsinn/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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THX1136 4 days ago
I would prefer not to buy anything 'made in China', but that is a difficult proposition at best what with Wally World stocking (conservatively) 75% of the stores with China made products with other retailers doing much the same. "What kind of hateful grudge do you have against China?" you may well ask. I don't like the 'human rights' violations the government there is fine with for the main thing. .....................................................................................................................................................I am reminded of a line from 3 Days of the Condor where deputy director Higgins says something to this effect: "When we run out of oil or other goods, they (meaning the American citizens) aren't going to want to know the how, they're just going to want us to get it for them." I can see this as being a reality for some folks right now with the China question. "I want what I want cheap and I don't care what the Chinese government is doing to their citizens." Such is the world we live in.

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- THX1136 4 days ago
  Also don't like the idea of China buying land in the US - specifically farmland. Whole 'nother topic.
  
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Wolfwagen 2 days ago
NUKE EM! Lets get this car over the cliff already!

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