wilber1 wrote:
Oh come on how does adding 25% to the cost of any possible competitor's imported product not help them? I'm sure Nissan and Toyota enjoy having their US built trucks protected just as much as the others.
Nope, because any foreign competitor can simply build a factory here or any NAFTA country like Mexico if the thought their vehicles was in high enough demand to make a profit. Or they can simply continue to built in the current places that they already are like Thailand and Argentina where it is much cheaper to built vehicles due to less regulations and lower labor costs and just ship them here.
The reason that they don't is because there is not enough demand for their trucks here. Most Americans and Canadians like full size trucks, our fuel is cheap enough to power them, and they are within our buying power(for now). We also don't have displacement tax like other parts of the world that increases the tax on larger engine sizes.
So the disadvantage many foreign makes have is that they don't have another market like our's anywhere else in the world. Just ask Toyota. Their first full size truck was a bomb. They built a smaller "full size" truck with a smaller V8 because they thought the American truck buyer does not need or use more then that. Well sells tanks and it wasn't until they finally increased the trucks size and power output giving truck buyers what they wanted(not needed) that they finally started selling them in record numbers.
Same holds true for the Titan XD. Nissan made it smaller than a regular HD truck because they figure most buyers don't need more then that. Well, sells of the XD aren't going as they hoped because even though it will do well for the majority of HD truck owners needs, it is what they want that matters. If you don't give truck buyers what they want and keep on insisting that they don't need it, then they will not buy your product. That is why the other foreign makes wen the way of the dodo, not the chicken tax.
