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.”
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I’m German and I love american cars, my dad owns a 59 Cadillac two Mustangs and some other stuff from there. But one thing is safe to say: German cars have a damn good image, while american cars today often have to cope with the image of their crisis from a few years ago. Well it’s also a fact that the cars we don’t get are grey imports and we have to pay high taxes and there are still too much cars from USA that Germans don’t like the looks or the size or even both of. I personally like a lot of american cars from today, but I’m not an average person. Chevrolet has sold us a Kalos and Matiz from Daewoo and Chrysler cars are sold as Lancia’s!!! And you wonder why Chevrolet doesn’t officially sell normal cars to us anymore? And do you think that a guy who wants to drive A Chrysler will buy a Lancia? Does an Italia-lover want to drive a Lancia that looks basically like a Voyager?? But USA was till now on a better way IMO. I mean look at Ford, and Chevrolet wants to sell Camaros as well when Ford can do that!
Amercian cars are rare everywhere except America. They don’t appeal to anyone else. Too big and cheap
It’s going to be a long 4 years everybody buckle up
LOL, he himself owns 3 Mercs 😂 SLR, Maybach and an s600 pullman….
He wasn’t saying that German cars are bad he was just saying that Americans are all buying German brand cars while Germans aren’t really buying American brands if cars.
Trump is clueless. :D BTW, Ford is making a fortune in europe so you could say that American car manufacturers are present in Europe. Of course, they are making cars specifically for this market but it’s still a Ford. The Fusion/Mondeo is basically the same car(different body style-4door/5door) which debuted in USA years before in Europe so you could say Ford pulled off the impossible because the current gen Mondeo is a hit!
Many american cars are made outside of u.s., even the very ‘murican challenger is made in canada, and cadillacs are made in mexico. If they do so to save money why is it such a bad thing? GM got bailed put by the gvmt yet they shouldnt save money by building outside of u.s. sou youll have to bail them out again? Such a stupid way of thinking. If amerian manufacturers dont sell much to the rest of the world its simply because their cars arent good enough for them.
American euro car guys be like
Tariffs on imported parts will not make the US auto industry weaker. Lame scare tactics. We’re not dependant on Germany for parts. It will make us stronger and them weaker and they know it.
You need German made parts for the American made BMWs dummy 😂
Darn Trump. HE IS A FOOL Donald Trump
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