US Dealers Despair as Canada Courts Chinese Cars

Above: This Week’s VIDEO Review –2025 Chery Tiggo 4 Hybrid

CheryTiggo4, #HybridSUV, #GayCarBoys, #CarReview, #ToyotaKiller, #AffordableCars, #HybridReview

ABOVE: US auto dealers are panicking as Canada moves to allow Chinese EVs into the market

Back to the ailing USA. The National Automobile Dealers Association views this policy shift as a direct threat to their existence, and they are right. Just as Uber kicked the taxi industry in the cobblers, these value-driven cars will inevitably find a way south once they land in Canada. This fear has sparked a firestorm of dreary rhetoric from industry leaders desperate to protect their turf. It is a delicious irony that a socially progressive neighbour can simply ignore the chaotic administration next door.

Mike Stanton, CEO of NADA, is leading a rather amusing charge against these imports. He claims allowing Chinese cars is bad for the industry, bad for the country, and even bad for consumers. That last point is a hard sell given current prices in the US. Stanton claims support from lawmakers like Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, who texted that Chinese vehicles would only enter the US “over his dead body”, a condition many might find more of an incentive than a deterrent.

The real issue is the product. Chinese manufacturers like BYD and Geely are building cars people actually want. They offer EVs with competitive range and impressive features for a fraction of the cost of domestic models. US brands have been protected in a bubble of artificial isolation. Analysts at AutoPacific note that 51% of Americans are now open to buying a Chinese car. That number is rising fast and could drive the final nail into models that should never have been built.

Legacy automakers are fighting back with their usual sluggishness. Ford CEO Jim Farley admitted Chinese firms could put them out of business. Ford is scrambling to retool assembly lines for a cheaper electric truck by 2027, and GM is telling suppliers to cut Chinese ties. It is likely too little, too late. The average new car price in the US hovers near fifty thousand dollars, unsustainable for the average family.

NADA is focusing its defence on franchise laws, hoping to force everyone to sell through traditional dealerships. But Chinese giants might just play by those rules, setting up their own networks to beat domestic dealers at their own game. If they do, the high markups and slow inventory turnover sustaining current dealers will evaporate.

Canada’s relationship with its downstairs neighbour has deteriorated further as it signals readiness to embrace competition. The US is trying to build a wall of tariffs and regulations, but it is like trying to bail out the Titanic with a used condom. The auto market is integrated across the continent, and trade policy differences between neighbours create ripples that turn into tsunamis. The floodgates are straining against the rising tide.