When I watch old movies (or TV shows) I try to date and identify the cars. The easiest one is the VW Beetle. Stands out everywhere.
There’s something else going on here. Red CHina does not have cars that compete with Porsche, but it dropped twice as much as the other brands. That tells me that people are going downscale because they have less money.
I heard the safety panels in BYD EVs doors is so bad you can crush them with your hand
Also the Chinese cars are not cheaper they’re subsidized to the max by the Chinese government
By 1997 the same thing had happened to McDonnell Douglas. Citing that as evidence, I warned Clateo Castellini of Becton Dickinson when they proposed to move syringe production to China, thus killing syringe production in their plant in Sandy Utah. He said, "We can't ignore that big of a market." Shook my head and decided he was an idiot.
From Brave AI:
While BD maintains manufacturing facilities in China for other products and potentially for local regional markets, its leadership noted in mid-2025 that tariffs were influencing some production strategies. Specifically, BD CEO Tom Polen mentioned that while flush syringes for the U.S. historically came from Nebraska, the company was utilizing its China facility to source products specifically for the Chinese market to mitigate tariff impacts, rather than exporting them to the U.S.
Volkswagen AG, the big parent, has more brands than GM ever did, and has a ton of brands in Europe that don’t come here.
At the high end, there’s Bentley and Lamborghini, which obviously do come here. Along with VW, Audi, and Porsche.
But in Europe, you also have Skoda (Czech Republic), SEAT (Spanish), plus a bunch of other holdings like a piece of Rivian, some commercial vehicle companies, etc.
There’s a lot of room to slim things down by combining SEAT and Skoda with the VW line.
Can’t trust the Chinese or Muslims apparently.
About a decade ago, possibly a little longer, VW was the #2 auto manufacturer in the world, threatening Toyota’s #1 spot. VW is still #2, but if this article is right, it will fall. Toyota is still #1 by a large margin.
Ever since Germany blew up its 12 (flawlessly operating) nuclear power plants and ended its purchases of very cheap energy from Russia, their economy has been in a tailspin.
Totally self-inflicted.
I think Germany did it to themselves. Some years ago they cheated on the emissions tests for their diesel engines and got caught, and quality has gone down to the point where “German Engineering” is no longer a valid boast. I owned to mid-range Mercedes and both had “issues”. Both had times when the main screen would blank out - even when the backup camera was supposed to be on - they claimed it was my imagination. My new Toyota did the same and they came out with 2 recalls to fix it.
My CLA AMG (fast as heck and held the road like it was on rails - but the suspension was so hard that running over a ruler in the road would give you a “Bang!”, had the driver side blind spot warning stop working on the sideview mirror. I was told that the diagnostics showed a bad sensor - but my car didn’t have that sensor - so their programmers suck. Then My GLC 300 was on cruise control on a trip and going up a steep hill. traffic ahead was sow, but the left lane was clear so I pulled out and tried to accelerate - it didn’t drop a gear like it should have and the engine lugged, then started running real rough. Limped to a dealership and they said a cylinder “misfired” which automatically turned it off. Turning it off and then back on again was supposed to fix it, but it didn’t so they had to play with the computer.
The “Krauts’ did it to themsleves.
Chinese auto companies to reverse the engineering and begin to deliver the same quality vehicles at much lower prices.
Sticker on their cars THIS CAR MADE AT LABOR CAMP #32 ?.
I wanted one. The only car on the market made entirely of rust. 0-60 in only 23 seconds. From the AI:
Owners reported issues such as weak reverse gears, broken accelerator cables, rubber brake line failures, and improperly fitted constant velocity joints that could cause axle separation.
But no touch-screens, so there's that.