Yes, The media reacting to Tesla's disappointing Q3 results.
(TLDR: margin came in at 7.6% down from 17.2% Q3 '22, lower than expected production, earnings, and revenue - this is the first time Tesla has not performed to expectation since Q2 2019)
Tesla blames all of this on factory upgrades, and a high interest rate environment.
notably they also had quite low quarterly net-income, Tesla says it's due to going "full-tilt" on setting up their Mexican factory (... as if Tesla's quality wasn't bad enough already)
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Do the media have a point?
Yea - With the current interest rate and US import tax policy - EV adoption may slightly slow down during 2024, as these 2 factors make it price prohibitive for some car buyers.
In 2025 foreign companies are set to begin US EV production and as such avoid paying the 27.5% import tax on EVs and then we may begin seeing an interesting shift.
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Generally I expect some governments to push back against EVs as they will try to protect their industries from cheap Chinese manufacturing - which is a shame, EVs have gotten great.

good we shouldn't be importing chinese garbage

Honestly, they’re not worse than GM, Ford and other overpriced unreliable trash.
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MG used to also make a petrol car, the least reliable part was the GM (Chevy-Opel) engine.
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I really love my Chinese car - and I recently got to see a Daimler-Geely Smart #1 irl and it’s incredible.
(Toyota CH-R sized SUV)
https://youtu.be/6IVmqqC7Voo
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I’ll update how well the Geely will hold up, it’s a corporate car so we abuse it - a lot.

“GM, Ford, and other unreliable rubbish” is quite a low bar. Let’s talk if their reliability and durability ever match Toyota’s.

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I always hear the proponents of EVs saying maintenance is very low compared to ICE and far less moving parts, yet none of their reliability’s have approached that of Toyotas over time.   A good example is the poster child for EVs here in the US, Tesla.  I know Dan you like to cite Consumer Reports and there Tesla is consistently in the bottom half of the rankings.   Only one of their 4 vehicles is recommended by Consumer Reports and their reliability per Consumer Reports (based on owner feedback) has been average.   They only had 4 models to focus on and yet their reliability is not amongst the best or better than Toyota’s.

It is a low bar to set - but it's definitely a bar they have passed (by a long shot)
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The oldest EV on my market is the MG ZS EV - A friend of mine who has been my parents mechanic, and now is the person I trust whenever I need to get anything done on cars - services quite a few of these.
According to him they're surprisingly robust cars - the only common issue is refrigerant getting low every winter when it's not in use and that's the fault of the junky Japanese SANDEN brand compressors (the same ones as small Hondas used to come with)
He also says that parts tend to be somewhat more expensive than on the average car and that in some cases only OEM parts are available.
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I don't cite consumer reports too often, I used to before I got much deeper into engine models, transmission models, platforms and lineups and saw a lot of cases where I disagree with them - they're still much more reliable than the average person who just guesses by looking at the car's logo, but I do find cases where there's more to it than they make it look.
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Tesla reliability exceeds US and EU luxury/premium cars yet falls short of the Japanese.

(After all Teslas are technology and feature rich up-market premium cars)
But this is greatly compounded by Elon's approach to right to repair - other manufactures are much more reasonable about it.
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It's not uncommon to find those with north of 100k miles, but I'm waiting to see some exceed 150k miles. looking on used car websites:
https://imgur.com/a/hx5GDks
"MG ZS (...) electric (...) 118,680 miles (...) has served me reliably (...) no issues with it (...) battery health was checked and still has 97% capacity (...) 4 more years of battery warranty (...) only serviced by dealer"
(usually in the case of such new people don't lie about having / not having issues, as with dealer serviced cars everyone always goes and requests to see the service history from the dealer)
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So far no issues with my EV either.
I mean are there are non-GM, non-Ford, non-Chrysler, non-Tesla cars that have common serious non-powertrain issues?
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At this point, they have definitely exceeded US made cars, Korean GDi/DCT junk, Nissan and whatever jokes they make - that's for sure, but as far as how they compete with better built cars will take about 2/3 years more to see.

Tesla Model S has been sold since 2012 model year, that is 11 going on 12 years now. Model X has been sold since 2016 model year, which is 7 going on 8 years. Model 3 has been sold since 2017 model year, which is 6 going on 7 years. They still trail in terms of reliability.
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As you said before (recently) you would not own a Tesla outside of warranty. So much for “fewer moving parts” and “low maintenance”. And this is the top selling EV brand (by far) in the US. I am happy the transplant automakers will get a chance to build EVs inside of the US. Let’s give Tesla more (and far better) competition.

It's an American car - it will always fail on reliability.
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Tesla is moving production to Mexico while foreign companies are moving to the US.
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Hyundai expects to be able to produce 300,000 EVs a year, I do not like the fact they'll use LG batteries (LG Chem is just a truly evil company. also the 300,000 figure was originally schedules for 2025, I do not know if they have rescheduled it)
https://apnews.com/article/hyundai-georgia-electric-vehicle-ev-845e2729fd5220797e7984f424bc1d5c
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A lot of foreign companies are actually expanding production to Europe instead.
https://electrek.co/2023/10/26/volvo-ex30-suv-high-demand/
(The first European Geely factory to produce SEA platform cars will be in Belgium,
I hope that the Belgians have better quality then the last time I had a car made there...)

https://www.electrive.com/2023/08/04/saic-to-manufacture-the-mg4-in-europe/

https://www.electrive.com/2023/05/31/great-wall-motor-to-build-ev-plant-in-europe/

But Stellantis on the other hand doubles down on exporting cars from China, they purchased a stake in Leapmotor and think they can sell half a million leapmotor cars outside of China annually.

https://www.electrive.com/2023/11/01/joint-venture-between-stellantis-and-leapmotor-is-based-in-the-netherlands/

I would take a domestic over Chinese any day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8D1UqQdf4A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-2DtL-Wjkc

I could go on and on. Those people have no scruples.

As if a “domestic” car ain’t just a poor design assembled out of Chinese parts.

Social score +100 Dan.

I also do not like the politics there, I do not like how scammy a lot of the non-reputable and no-name companies there are, yet when it comes to manufacturing it's not like we have other real options.
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BTW the most shocking video out of China definitely was this:
https://youtube.com/shorts/8nQ8cvaUOOo
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I mean what care's aren't made out of Chinese built components, perhaps a Humvee or a Lada Granta?... Everything else, as far as I know, is made either in China or mostly from Chinese parts.

wrong. NA standards are light years ahead of the crap that's built in China.

What? What's GM standards?
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My sister's father in law works at the GM Tech Center, and he got a brand new Chevy Trax -
I have borrowed it a few times, and honestly, never seen a car that's that bad.
What ever's under the hood of the new Trax (some janky 3 cyl that has the fuel consumption of a performance car) feels like its misfiring and has 0 power, The gearbox can not pull the car it feels like it's right out of the year 2001, The body has the comfort of a Toyota Echo, I do not know how the made a compact car feel like it's a micro car, you can't even call that pile of garbage "a car".
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GM CARs aren't even built in the US.
Chevrolet Blazer: China, Mexico.
Chevrolet Captiva: China, Indonesia, India
Chevrolet Trailblazer: China, South Korea.
Chevrolet Equinox EV: Mexico.
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They do assemble overpriced unreliable trucks and SUVs in the US - out of Chinese parts - yet even then the standards are as low as they can get.
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On contrary, export market Geelys and BYDs are built well - the paint, finish, interior, suspension are high quality.
Today we were in a hurry, driving quickly, not slowing for speed bumps, and my S.O said "It drives better than all cars we ever had", and we thought the years had mainly Volvos but also a few Fords, 2 Renaults, considered buying a 1-series BMW and yet, this SUV-hatchback thing does feel best.

I think it needs to be cleared up that I am not offering anything.

In all, through TARP and other efforts, taxpayers injected $426.35 billion into banks and auto companies. The sale of stock and interest payments brought in $441.7 billion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11jLCcAdNmI

Reuters: U.S. government says it lost $11.2 billion on GM bailout
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-gm-treasury-idUSBREA3T0MR20140430

Yep. Interesting it didn't catch fire,

I used a club on my 2000 Acura Integra for 2 decades. Now I don’t use it anymore. If someone wants to steal my vehicle, have at it, lol.

That would make me steaming mad if it happened to me. I hate dealing with companies over the phone. And they got away with a gentle tap on the wrist. The consumer protection bureau is really toothless. The penalties should be proportional to the income gained through illegitimate means.

That website for anybody wondering is:
http://cancelmyextendedwarranty.com/
That's if you need to get out of a Toyota payment plan for warranty or product bundles.

Ford's amazing.. this feature and others like that 'remote rev'.. what could possibly go wrong?

that's really unfortunate. Imagine you use the bridge every day for your commute and now you have to detour through the busy city for the next two years.

It will probably affect jobs at harbour and also automobilism there
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68681086

@imperator Thanks for sharing. It's now all over the news. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tesla-cybertruck-appears-burst-flames-trump-hotel-las-vegas-rcna185932

That is crazy how often these trucks are on fire.

@imperator so a Cyber truck can be turned into a IED? Sheesh..

Turns out it was a suicide. Special forces vet. The truck was "packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters".

also interesting:
Detectives were able to track his movements through Tesla charging stations.

@chucktobias Everything always seems to boil down to short term profits and exponential growth.

@imperator Not surprising. My favorite video shows how many 5 gallon buckets of hydrogen you'd need to fit inside a car to travel 300 miles on hydrogen. https://youtu.be/vJjKwSF9gT8

@justin-shepherd poor guy . He's only making $24.M now. 😢

@justin-shepherd Soon he’ll be homeless! He better get his act together- or else- he’ll be out of a job! If he’s out of a job then he’ll really be broke!

When basically all Ford components are all hecho en Mexico to appease the bean counters, what did other Ford executives expect to happen? Paying cheap wages equals subquality parts.

@justin-shepherd Ford can’t make anything right these days it seems. I thought Ford previously had a recall for Back up cameras?

They did. My 2017 Mustang is part of the first recall. I never took it in because I use my mirrors, not the camera.

@justin-shepherd Of course, not surprised! Ford=Found On Road Dead

Ford used to be decent quality until the bean counters took over around 10 years ago. My '14 F-150 is fine. I didn't get all that fancy backup camera stuff. Haha. The only "improvements" from my Ranger are my F-150 has cruise control, and it has satellite radio. I bought the XLT. Most 3.7L V6s were geared toward fleet sales, not private party. Ford pushed the EcoBoost instead.

@chucktobias very illuminating. Thank you Chuck.

@chucktobias Related video: heavy duty transmissions and Allison branding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2GwZ0JPAMM

I'm not sure I like the idea of fixed pricing. I like being able to negotiate my own deal.

However, I think we need to get rid of franchise legislation that protects dealerships, and gives them a monopoly on selling new cars. I want to see "car stores" where you can look at all of the brands together and compare them.

Agreed, like stores who sell computers or smartphones from all the different OEMs. This sort of reminds me of Apple, controlling the price of the product, with zero scope for negotiations.

I assume this is in Australia not the US? I honestly find it dissapointing that I wouldn't be able to negotiate and shop accordingly.

There is no such thing as "fixed pricing" in reality. The market will determine the price of everything.

they expect to lose sales, strange things happening with Honda

What a terrible joke BMW has become - a tax on a stupid.
Even a $16K MSRP Kia Rio has HBA and lane centering with adaptive cruise...

"Among the other World Car winners, there was British success with Land Rover’s new Defender named World Car Design of the Year for 2021. Accepting the award, JLR Chief Creative Officer Gerry McGovern, said, ““New Defender is influenced by its past but is not constrained by it and we are delighted it has been honoured with this award."

what a stupid name

I made a huge mistake in 2012 by reading and listening to all the hype about the best mini-van of the year; I bought it and it gave me so much grief and the dealership where I bought it was lousy. I mention it here because of the Land Rover hype. Nothing could be as bad as a Chrysler Town and Country. I'm driving a Japanese 4 banger now hope it lasts another 300K miles.