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Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

economist.com

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Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#401

Post by 12345hn6789 »

nostromo wrote: post #82
nyx wrote: post #29

The 25-year import rule here, which bans Americans from importing vehicles from other countries unless they're 25+ years old, is just awful for those of us who would be interested in driving small, efficient foreign cars. It would be great to live completely car-free, but absent major changes to how we plan our cities, it's just a sad reality that cars are a necessary ingredient to life in the vast majority of Americ…

What would be the point of safety and emissions regulations if we let everyone bypass them by importing vehicles from abroad? The vehicles meeting the requirements wouldn't be competitive on price because they'd be playing by a different set of rules.

Why not allow imported cars that meet the requirements?

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#402

Post by oyashirochama »

worthless-trash wrote: post #368
nostromo wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't necessarily regulatory capture or protectionism. Half of all cars sold in the US are imported. Toyota, a Japanese company, is the most popular brand of car sold in the US. So, yes, you can import cars all you want, they just need to follow US safety and emissions standards. These cars do not meet those requirements, so you can't import them. If you didn't block them as imports, we'd have lots of people jus…

> If you didn't block them as imports, we'd have > lots of people just go to Mexico and buy > highly-polluting vehicles to save money, and our > problem with smog in the border states would be > much worse. In Australia there are a set of guidelines required for vehicle imports, they even outline pollution and safety requirements that must be met before it can be registered or driven on public roads. On-road non impo…

US states control registration. Also older vehicles especially kei cars aren't nearly as polluting as one would think especially if only used for work rather than daily use, with mpg in the upper 50 to low 70s though fairly crap nox by comparison to modern 2020s cars.

They also encourage lower speeds which could be a plus in every way.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#403

Post by zamnos »

vlovich123 wrote: post #372
fooker wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? The vast majority of japanese brand cars are manufacturered in Japan and imported in the US.

I don’t know either way but DDG led me here [1] > The largest automobile manufacturing facility in the world for Toyota, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK) is able to produce 550,000 vehicles and more than 600,000 engines per year. Two years after breaking ground in Georgetown, Kentucky, > Where are the majority of Toyotas produced? > The majority of Toyota vehicles you see on the road are made in your…

Same for Honda. What's fascinating is the fact that Ford's manufacturing is less American than Honda, thanks to NAFTA but far be it to think a good ole fashioned American company like Ford would ever act like a corporation that's in it for the money, and move manufacturing out of the US.

The chickens came home to roost though, when the SEC declared a $196 million penalty in 2020 in import fines for the Ford Transit Connect, which was imported with a back seat, so it was considered a passenger vehicle for import tax reasons. Upon recieving the vans in the US, Ford removed the seats, turning it into a work van, and avoiding the import tax on work vans, something like 22%. Regardless of if it was clever of Ford or dishonest, the real point of my bringing up this story is those vans were made in Turkey.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2021/06/03/ford-...

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#404

Post by steve76 »

iambateman wrote: post #357
IIAOPSW wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's electric bikes in China that are more like a Vespa than anything. Commuting this way was pretty great when I owned one. The range is perfect for urban commuters, charging it at night is basically negligible in your power bill, it slips right past the cars so there's no such thing as traffic (whatever cars pass you, you pass them right back by the next red light), likewise parking is a non-issue as it takes a…

This is all true…and also American drivers are legitimately aggressive toward these kind of vehicles. They have a terrible reputation, primarily because they get used a lot by people who can’t afford a car. I wish it were different, but driving a moped/Vespa on American roads is a pretty big risk.

[dead]

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#405

Post by harambae »

ajcp wrote: post #296
jdmichal wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The MY2022 Maverick is what the new Ranger should have been. And the Hyundai Santa Cruz also was introduced in MY2022. Finally some steps in the right direction, at least.

I really like the cut of those new Santa Cruz. Every time I see one I'm like "yeah, that's the stuff"

I wish they would roll out a two (or two and a half) door version of the Santa Cruz like the original prototype [0].

My 2001 Ford Ranger hit this sweet spot beautifully but it was a DOHC and when the timing chain came apart it wasn't worth doing an engine swap. I can't find a replacement currently but am holding out hope for the Toyota Tacoma electric in a year or two.

[0] https://www.motorbiscuit.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hyun...

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#406

Post by oyashirochama »

TingPing wrote: post #394
WillPostForFood wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Efficiency is pretty closely aligned Not in the battery power era.

Of course it still is… smaller cars, smaller batteries, better all around.

Versus distance and that is an issue of just the geography of the US, we are insurmountable large, even a high end bullet train would take 8-12 hours crossing the country. Stopping absorbs a lot of time for charging compared to ICE or hybrids.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#408

Post by oyashirochama »

12345hn6789 wrote: post #401
nostromo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the point of safety and emissions regulations if we let everyone bypass them by importing vehicles from abroad? The vehicles meeting the requirements wouldn't be competitive on price because they'd be playing by a different set of rules.

Why not allow imported cars that meet the requirements?

Easy, DOT headlights, literally stopped innovation for 30-40 years from the 1950s to the mid 1970s. It is still an issue and is one reason why motorcycles have a very different stateside vs rest of the world design (till recently). Just one of several regulations that...can't be fixed if the car doesn't have parts shared.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#409

Post by dragonwriter »

oyashirochama wrote: post #408
12345hn6789 wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not allow imported cars that meet the requirements?

Easy, DOT headlights, literally stopped innovation for 30-40 years from the 1950s to the mid 1970s. It is still an issue and is one reason why motorcycles have a very different stateside vs rest of the world design (till recently). Just one of several regulations that...can't be fixed if the car doesn't have parts shared.

> stopped innovation for 30-40 years from the 1950s to the mid 1970s.

The 1950s to mid-1970s isn’t, even at the widest extreme that fits that description, 30-40 years.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#410

Post by numpad0 »

derefr wrote: post #333
nostromo wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That exemption exists for car collectors, who generally have a different set of safety expectations of their cars than you would buying a used car at a corner lot.

Kind of weird that car collectors in the US can't collect modern foreign cars, though. Why not instead just have "accredited collectors" like there are "accredited investors"? Wouldn't that be simpler? "Get the piece of paper waiving your right to car safety, and then you can buy whatever stupid cars you like, as long as you don't drive them very often."

One common beliefs too this is that it’s actually a response to gray market/parallel imports of Mercedes cars from Germany.
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