Donald Trump’s promise to make American Great Again could easily be delivered on by making cars – and trucks – affordable again. The word “easily” is italicized because it could be just that. Because affordable cars – and trucks – are already being made.
It is merely a matter of allowing them to be sold.
Here, that is. 
For instance, the 2024 Toyota HiLux Champ. It is a basic – a stripped down – version of the Tacoma pickup Toyota is allowed to sell here that stickers for $31,500 to start. The HiLux Champ stickers for about $13k to start. But Toyota is not allowed to sell it here.
There are several reasons why the HiLux only costs about a third as much as a Tacoma, including that it does not come standard with a turbocharged four cylinder engine augmented by a hybrid tandem drivetrain – or an automatic transmission. It comes standard with a manual transmission. And it’s available with a diesel engine. Neither of which are available in the 2024 Tacoma Americans are allowed to buy.
But there is only one reason why the Champ is not legal to sell here:
It is not compliant.
This does not mean it is not safe. Nor that it pollutes.
The distinction is very important. It is key to making America great again. Because America cannot be great again until this business of framing “non-compliant” as something bad and thus in need of not being allowed is utterly discredited. Of a piece with discrediting that recent business of not allowing “asymptomatic spreaders” into stores without a “mask” over their faces. 
This “compliant” equals “safe” – and “clean” – is the bait-and-switch the regulatory apparat has used for decades to make life more expensive for Americans and thus America less and less great. Before all of this regulating – and the need for all this complying – trucks cost less than most cars and most Americans could afford to buy full-size cars with V8 engines.
This was not as long ago as the ’70s, incidentally.
It was a recently as about 13 years ago.
Back in 2011, an American could still buy a full-sized, rear-wheel-drive sedan with a V8 engine – the Ford Crown Victoria – for about $30,000. Today, something that fits that description stickers for about $100,000 – and $30,000 will buy you a much smaller, mid-sized car with a four cylinder engine augmented by a hybrid-electric tandem drivetrain.
The only reason for this transition is the need to comply with the latest regulations emanating from the regulatory apparat. These have nothing to do with “safety,” by the way – and this is easy to prove.
A Mercedes S-Class sedan that was made the same year that the last Ford Crown Victoria was made would, if it were made today, not be compliant with the latest “safety” regulations.
Not because it isn’t safe to drive – or to be within in the event of a crash. It would in fact be among the very safest places to be within, in the event of a crash – because a 2011 Mercedes S-Class is built like a tank.
A 2011 model would also be equipped with air bags for everyone.
It also came standard with a V8. The 2024 version comes standard with a six. 
But the ’11 S550 would not be . . . compliant – per 2024 model year standards. And all that means is it does not exactly conform to every penny-ante regulation imposed on vehicles since 2011. It does not mean a 2011 Mercedes S-Class is an accident waiting to happen. It certainly does not mean a 2011 S-Class is less able to withstand impact forces in a crash than a compliant 2024 model year Honda Civic.
But that is precisely what the regulatory apparat wants you to believe. More finely, the apparatchiks want you to believe they are keeping you safe (and keeping pollution at bay) because that is how they justify the never-ending, always-increasing compliance regime.
And their jobs.
They cannot admit the job is done – as regards vehicle exhaust emissions, which ceased being a legitimate problem more than 30 years ago – and they cannot ever allow the public to understand the distinction between compliant and “safe,” because that is the tool of mental manipulation they have to have in order to get people to accept why they are not allowed to have the opportunity to buy a $13,000 brand-new truck like the 2024 Toyota Hilux Champ.
It is not a “safe” truck.
It “emits” too much “pollution.”
If you believe this, you may have also believed the drugs the government came just shy of forcing everyone to take were “safe” – and “effective.”
Hopefully, you no longer believe it.
Driving a new HiLux Champ – assuming you were allowed – would be no more dangerous than driving a 2011 model year Mercedes S-Class in that neither vehicle has a design defect that causes them to them handle erratically or unpredictably or some other such thing that could result in loss of control and an accident. The brakes work. The wheels are not prone to randomly coming off. They are simply – wait for it – not “compliant.” 
Well, so was I – during the “pandemic.”
It’s all bullshit. Say it as Arnold used to, before he became a sad old woman (or revealed that he was always one).
There is no legitimate reason for barring affordable vehicles like the HiLux from entering the U.S.market. There is only . . . bullshit. Federal regulatory bullshit, for its own sake. For the sake of the make-work of the federal bureaucracy. And once he is formally the president, Trump could end it.
It would be literally as easy as signing an executive order.
He wants to make America great again? A great start – come January – would be to make new vehicles affordable again.
. . .
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Why not take a little time to learn the CAUSE of all this government lying and increasingly tightening the screws of the police state?
As Henry Ford and other great intelligent people said a HUNDRED years ago, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” exactly fit what is going on. “Zion” = jewry. The linked book, free as a pdf file, includes the origins of the “Protocols” and an English translation of them.
https://odysee.com/@louismarschalko:2/WatersFlowingEastward:c
Read and learn. You will KNOW, not believe, not imagine, but KNOW why the medical profession poisons us, why government constantly lies and constricts our rights, why the big media all lie together about history, CO2, so-called vaccines, etc.
And when enough of us KNOW, then we can fix it.
I’m hoping trump will “cut the balls off” the EPA as well as cutting the DOT. But we shall see. I also would love to see the DC Metro area have a severe recession like the rest of us had to endure. We will know how successful Trump is by how much the media howls and screams soon.
The EPA is an executive agency started by Nixon, of all people. Therefore it can be ended by the executive – Trump. Let’s see if he actually does.
Compared to most other forms of transportation, we’re told the safety record of cars is not all that good. Probably better on a per-mile basis than walking or horseback, but no where near the safety leaders: Elevators and commercial airplanes. I asked ChatGPT to supply a chart comparing walking, horseback riding, automobiles (1.11 deaths/100 million miles traveled), elevators, and commercial aircraft (0.0 deaths/100 million miles). It turns out that of that list, the DOT only tracks cars and airplanes. How convenient.
So is driving safer than cross country skiing? Before it was a way for bearded liberals to feel superior to everyone else, nordic skiing was a common way to travel in winter. How about riding a bus or subway? Here there is some data:
Automobiles Approximately 1.11
City Buses Approximately 0.04
Light Rail Approximately 0.24
Subways Approximately 0.24
So if safety is your prime concern, take the bus to the airport. If you actually want to get where you are going (on your schedule) though, you probably should become a better driver. If people actually learned how to drive (or were more willing to admit they’re lousy drivers and take alternative transportation) that number would come down drastically.
But there’s also the matter of the roads themselves. Most roads were built out from the 1920s to the 1970s. The population of the country was increasing drastically, as were the number of cars on the road. Highway architects were guesstimating the traffic patterns of the future. Much of the time they guess wrong. But by the time the pattern was established it was too late to do anything about it. Land became impossible to acquire, and the minority voice became dominant if only because they were the only ones complaining about the situation. So now we’re stuck with roads that were never designed for the amount of traffic and no possible way to improve them. However you can always make them worse by adding bike lanes, center islands and other “calming” solutions.
So the only thing that seems to be fungible is the car itself. Disposable by design, every few years you need a new one. The path of lease resistance. Plenty of opportunity to try new ideas. When they don’t work, ratchet up the regulation some more until it does. And it helps grow the economy too! If the price of cars goes down, then so does GDP. And economists all know that people will stick with what they have, knowing the price will be cheaper tomorrow, so it will become a Keynesian death spiral for the nation! The regulator has to step in to prop up prices!
“If the price of cars goes down, then so does GDP. And economists all know that people will stick with what they have, knowing the price will be cheaper tomorrow, so it will become a Keynesian death spiral for the nation! The regulator has to step in to prop up prices!”
Forgot the #sarcasm tag ?
Executive orders are tyranny by another name.
If one tyrant can issue an Executive Order to allow the purchase of a vehicle, the next tyrant can issue an Executive Order to take away that vehicle . . . Or that puts us in camps for wrong think or owning that vehicle.
Executive orders are unconstitutional. Not that it really matters to anyone in the country since no one really abides by the constitution.
America is now a lawless empire that well along the path toward its demise.
Prepare and act according.
Big Gubmint fools can’t see the forest or the trees. Probably because they tore the forest down to build a solar farm like they did in the little town north of me.
If the Hilux Champ was able to imported sans chicken tax and regulatory BS, there would be an unprecedented boom in small businesses. People would be able to start hustles and businesses out of a cheap, highly configurable work truck. The cream would rise to the top, as nature commands and we would, as a society, reap the benefits.
But instead they want us working for the corporations that will fire us the minute we don’t take their big pharma approved shot in the arm.
Deep State: “It’s not complainant.”
Us: “Why?”
Deep State: “Because I said so”.
Physical Controls Are Back Because Drivers Are Sick Of Endless Touchscreen Menus
https://www.carscoops.com/2024/11/button-expert-explains-why-touchscreens-didnt-actually-kill-physical-controls/
Thanks, Mike.
While I doubt that this subject deserves a 420-page book [Rachel Plotnick, Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic, and the Politics of Pushing], it certainly is time for an anti-screen counterrevolution.
In this excerpt from Plotnick’s book, her analysis is mostly cultural and historical, rather than technical:
https://medium.com/@mitpress/pleasure-panic-and-the-politics-of-pushing-123b534eaee7
The ergonomic benefit of direct controls (vs screen menus) is supported by plenty of research. Here’s a dirty little secret: auto makers were so envious of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, that they thought copying iPhone interfaces and electric motor drives would make them into billionaires too.
It’s really that simple, and that stupid. We’re the victims of their mindless, copycat conformism. And now their companies must die.
New leftist agitprop from the EPA, dutifully parroted by the mockingbird Lügenpresse: your water pipes are too big. Yes, seriously:
‘Many high-performing, water-saving fixtures and appliances are designed like straws, supplying only enough water to satisfy one’s thirst. But the pipes that bring that water into Americans’ homes are sized more like fire hoses.
‘Oversize plumbing pipes move water inefficiently, wasting money and increasing the risk of waterborne diseases.
‘Through the end of 2023, WaterSense [rated plumbing products] helped Americans save a cumulative 8.7 trillion gallons of water and $207 billion in water and energy bills, according to an EPA annual report.
‘While most plumbers acknowledge they’re installing oversize pipes right now, they’re not inclined to make changes, especially when what they’re doing has been working.’
https://archive.ph/ivIo3#selection-947.0-947.167
My experience has been quite the opposite: 1/2-inch supply pipes are barely adequate for kitchen and bathroom fixtures, and external faucets.
Probably leftist cadres are envious of the gigantic, multiple rainflow shower heads favored by plutocrats in their palatial bathrooms.
As always, ink-stained stenographers can’t conceal their real-world ignorance: the lede photo shows PVC drain pipe, irrelevant to their claim that supply pipes are too large.
WTF does pipe size have to do with how much water you actually USE!? You can get more water faster but so what, I’m not going to suddenly max out my water usage just because I can. Besides that the water/sewer charges up here will bankrupt you. These effing nanny freaks just can’t find enough things annoy you with. Death to busybodies!
The world is awash in propaganda disguised as information.
The articles premise that we are in a time of increasing drought is false and just climate change nonsense propaganda in disguise
And there is this whopper: “Over the years, more homeowners have chosen water-saving devices, including those bearing the Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense label, which debuted in 2006. ”
So now using government regulation to force low volume water fixtures (faucets, toilets, washing machines, etc.) that don’t work is actually a customer “choice”
And of course, the photo of the PVC drain lines stands mocks in mockery to the articles premise about supply line sizing as was pointed out above by Jim.
Ugh! The fact that these articles are written by people that don’t know a supply line from a drain line is insufferable. And yet they have the gall to preach about what we “need”.
Is it too early to hit the bottle?
‘There is only … bullshit. Federal regulatory bullshit,’ — eric
Eric has stumbled upon an eternal truth: fedgov regulatory bullshit as the third certainty in life, along with death and taxes. Move over, Ben Franklin.
Meanwhile, this chart shows that in 2023, passenger cars were the No. 1 import into the US, while the related category of auto parts was No. 4. Together they totaled $345 billion in value.
https://ibb.co/Bn6SQQ5
Thus, any serious hike in general tariffs by the Tariff King — say 25% — is going to drastically hike imported vehicle prices. This is turn gives protected US manufacturers room to boost their own prices more aggressively.
Result: any regulatory relief on greenhouse gas regulations will be offset by tariff-driven general price hikes. Prices will only … GO UP.
Which circles us back to Eric’s eternal maxim. The only certainties in life are death, taxes and federal regulatory bullshit.