Trump Told American Cars Need To Be Better If Germans Are Actually Going To Buy Them
Donald Trump isn’t even in the White House yet, but already he seems to be having a profound effect on the car industry. We’ve already seen Ford can its plans to build a new plant in Mexico following criticism from the President Elect, and he’s talked of slapping massive import taxes on cars built outside of the USA more than once.
His latest target is BMW, via an interview with The Times and Bild. While blasting German chancellor Angela Merkel for her handling of the refugee crisis, Trump also proposed the idea of a 35 per cent import tariff on German-built BMWs. The mere talk of such a tax dropped BMW’s shares by 0.85 per cent, Daimler’s by 1.54 per cent and VW’s by 1.07 per cent, The Guardian reports.
Trump also criticised what he called the “one-way street” of German cars in the US vs American cars in Germany. “If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of his house, isn’t that the case? How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all,” he said.
This morning though, German deputy chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (above) hit back at Trump’s Merkel criticisms. Most amusing was what he had to say about that “one-way street”. When asked what Trump should do to get more Germans buying American cars, his answer was: “Build better cars”. If that doesn’t qualify as a mic drop, I’m not sure what does.
Responding to the tariff threats, Gabriel pointed out that BMW’s largest factory is actually in South Carolina. He added:
“The US car industry would have a bad awakening if all the supply parts that aren’t being built in the US were to suddenly come with a 35 per cent tariff. I believe it would make the US car industry weaker, worse and above all more expensive. I would wait and see what the Congress has to say about that, which is mostly full of people who want the opposite of Trump.”
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Ford didn’t cancel their plans because of Trump. We should stop spreading this information.
Exactly, they stopped the plant because ford focus sales dropped and they dont need the plant anymore
ROFL, pretty sure there are plenty of Chevys in Germany - they just call them Opel. Also he completely doesn’t understand that in the US all of these are premium brands, on the other side of the pond you can easily get a poverty spec 3 series with like a 1.6 engine that would cost as much as like a Focus here.
Nailed it, especially on the Opel part. Opel is part of GM, which is an American company.
Pretty certain Opel is Vauxhall and Holden not Chevrolet
I guess you dont know a lot about Opel. Opel is a german Company founded in 1862 and is producing cars since 1898. The right hand drive versions of Opel are sold as vauxhalls These cars are exactly the Same (instand of the steering). In fact the only conection to the American car Industry is that Opel belongs to the GM-group and as far as I know the only car which is sold as a chevy in america and as an Opel in germany is the Chevrolet Volt / Opel Ampera.
Even if american V8 cars are going to be really really good the taxes are CRAZY here in holland we pay 60.000€+ for taxes!!!. So let trump do a good thing and lower the taxes in Europe
This is true indeed. In the netherlands you’ll have too pay CO2 tax on cars which got their license plates after 2018 feb 01. Since the american cars have fancy V8 and after downsizing V6 engines, you’ll pay a lot of CO2 taxes in the Netherlands.
A Chevy Camaro costed, when I checked a year ago, €80K in the Netherlands and €35K in Belgium, due to CO2 taxes. Since we don’t have mountains or long/endless roads in our tiny country, a V8/V6 is only a pleasure for our ears or trackdays.
I’m I sad to say goodbye to big engines, of course. Do i think we need to find better ways for propelling cars, yess. Is electricity the answer, not completely at this moment but has a lot more potential than fossil fuels have. We have to start somewhere.
But, we already successfully did so with the debut of the 2015 ford mustang, out selling both audi and bmw combined at 104000 units compared to their combined 89000 units…
Ok, Americans buy a lot German cars, but Germans watch/listen a lot of American music and films. Lets make a trade, german people start to buy chevs and american start to listen german films and music :p
I think it’s good the way it is right now x) There are only four or five German films that are actually enjoyable to watch.
Germany - Making Better Cars Since 1893
I live in Germany and I have a Mercedes. Can Donald Trump give me one good reason why my next car should be American, instead of another Mercedes, or a BMW…
Trump can’t give a good reason for anything period.
Tesla model S p90-d?
1st Time “fat siggy” hit it
easier said than done, the Germans are infamous for their excellent build quality and brilliant performance cars. When the rest of the world wanted the Muscle Car, we had to face import fees, now that they’ve given us the Muscle Car (2015 Mustang), we’ve already got something much better, an AMG Merc and a BMW M-car.
That being said the mustang is selling well in Germay I hear